Famed restaurateur Elaine Kaufman of Elaine's dies at age 81

Elaine Kaufman, the brassy, legendary Upper East Side saloon-keeper whose eponymous watering hole became an eclectic meeting place for top New York authors, journalists, cops and celebrities, died today. She was 81.

The proprietress of Elaine's, who had been in failing health, died at 12:20 p.m. at Lenox Hill Hospital, said Cindy Carway, a spokeswoman for the Second Avenue restaurant.

"Writers have never come to my place to talk about literature," Elaine told Vanity Fair magazine last year in an article about her and her bar, which became memorialized in print and in Billy Joel's hit "Big Shot."



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