Everybody Who Knows Goes…
Posted by Kirsten Henri on March 17th, 2008
…somewhere other than Melrose? See if you can put the pieces of this puzzle together:
A very popular South Philadelphia restaurant is listed for sale on craigslist by the prolific realtor Dr, Hanh, who also had the Broad Street Diner listing that we restaurant yenta’d not too long ago.
Dr. Hanh has this listing on his incredible website drhanh.net [sic]:
A welknown eatery of Philly has a history of over seven decate of excellent service. 110 customer seats covenient for relaxing in the city and a team of delivery plus a bakery in the premise that bring warm food to customers 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Customers of this restaurant could be the most of popular people in the city, in the nation and even in the world. Available for sale is the turn key operation business and the property the business on it. This is an opportunity of a lifetime for anyone who loves the city and want to own a profit restaurant business. Own it and proud to be an owner of one of the nicest of historic Philadelphia. Please sign BFI and Confidential letter before appoitment to show. listing Broker must present.
The photo in Dr. Hanh’s listing matches this photo from the citysearch listing. Now, it’s entirely possible that some other historic diner with a bakery is for sale for 4.5 mil in South Philly, but we can’t think of another one that fits the bill. Remember that the Melrose, a long-running family business, changed hands less than a year ago. It was taken over by diner mogul Michael Petrogiannis, who has a habit of buying historic diners (Mayfair, Country Club) and, depending on which little old lady you’re talking to, ruining them.
Also, the Melrose’s website isn’t looking so hot either.
Related Tags: Closing, restaurant-yenta
March 17th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
I’m guessing Doc Hanh didn’t get his degree in grammar or spelling.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:53 am
I’m 99% certain that the diner in question is the Melrose. AS someone tapped into the grapevine myself, I knew that Michael Petrogiannis had bought the Melrose only to “flip” it later on. Petrogiannis also owns the Mayfair, the Country Club, the Tiffany, the Warminster West, and the string of Michael’s diners across the region. The Melrose and the Mayfair were the two last, truly great German-American-owned diners in the Delaware Valley. Their sale marked the end of an era.