Elena’s L’Etoile, the famed Charlotte Street restaurant which has served a celebrity clientele since 1896, is being put up for sale by specialist property adviser Christie + Co.
The restaurant is named after the renowned eponymous maitre d’ Elena Salvoni, affectionately known as the Queen of Soho, who managed the restaurant up to her 90s.
The walls of the restaurant are adorned with artefacts demonstrating its status as the go-to restaurant for everyone from royals to gangsters – and all types between. Among those whose signed photographs fill the restaurant are Sean Connery, Peter O’Toole, Rod Stewart and Ella Fitzgerald. Elena, who managed the upstairs room at sister restaurant the Gay Hussar in Greek Street, retired from L’Etoile in 2010.
The leasehold to Elena’s L’Etoile is available for offers in the region of £1 million.
Simon Chaplin, Director and Head of Restaurants for Christie + Co says: “Like its sister restaurant, the Gay Hussar, whose leasehold Christie + Co also took to market last week, Elena’s L’Etoile enjoys an enviable reputation amongst the London dining set. New owners, even without Elena Salvoni’s inimitable input, can look forward to more of the same.”
The sister restaurant of Elena’s L’Etoile, the Gay Hussar in Greek Street, was launched to the market by Christie + Co last week for offers around £500,000 for the leasehold interest.