Restaurant Daniel Staying on Park Ave After Sale

Daniel Boulud has sold his restaurant space on East 65th Street, but the chef’s eponymous restaurant appears to be staying put.

Restaurant Daniel has signed a 20-year lease with the new owners, landlord SL Green, according to a spokesperson for Boulud’s Dinex Group. The developer purchased the commercial condo at 610 Park Avenue, also known as the Mayfair, for $18.5 million.

It’s unclear why Boulud and Dinex were motivated to sell; the spokesperson declined to comment. But it’s possible that the restaurant group needed cash to expand.

“Daniel Boulud and The Dinex Group are pleased to have secured the future of Restaurant Daniel through this transaction, which allows us to increase our focus on our core restaurant business,” Sebastien Silvestri, CEO of the Dinex Group, said in a statement.

Boulud’s group purchased the unit in 1998, although the purchase price is unclear in public records. He had opened the restaurant originally on East 76th Street before moving to its current space later in the decade after Dinex Group had purchased it.

In 2013, the chef told Eater that purchasing the unit was an investment in the restaurant’s longevity.

“Maybe what drew me here the most was that I could buy the real estate,” he said. “It was a big investment, but owning it and being successful here would be my retirement plan. At some point, I thought, I could always sell it.”

Boulud continued to say that all his other restaurants are tenants in leases, and ownership ensures that he won’t lose the space.

Despite his comments in 2013, 70-year-old Boulud does not appear to be retiring. His restaurant group is reportedly opening a location in Hong Kong this month. Boulud announced a new opening in London last year in partnership with the Waldorf Astoria. He closed a trio of eateries on the Upper West Side last year, but Eater reported he planned to open a brasserie in the same location.

It’s not Boulud’s first time working with SL Green. Boulud’s seafood restaurant Le Pavillon opened in SL Green’s One Vanderbilt in 2021. The two announced a pair of Boulud-led food and beverage concepts as part of SL Green’s One Madison Avenue in 2022.

“Building on our successful restaurant ventures with Daniel, we are proud to now own the real estate that is home to the world-renowned Restaurant Daniel, which has a long-term lease,” Brett Herschenfeld, executive vice president of retail at SL Green, said in a statement.