Speaking of restaurant sales, Kirsten Henri at Foobooz.com yesterday put two and two together and cleverly surmised that the Melrose Diner was four sale -- not even a year after it was sold out of the Kubach family.
So they're not just flipping pancakes, eh?
Hanh Vo, who posted the real estate listing on his website, would not address speculation that the restaurant is the Melrose.
If the place is the Melrose and it sells for anywhere close to the $4.5 million asking price, it would be a windfall for diner king Michael Petrogiannis.
Real estate records show that a partnership controlled by Petrogiannis bought the Melrose's building at 1501-11 Snyder Ave. last June for $715,000. The price of the business was not made public because it was a private transaction, but my source says the whole shebang -- lox, stock and coffee urn -- sold for far less than $3 million. D&B last year estimated annual sales at $2.4 million.
Petrogiannis is vacationing in Greece and won't be back till April, says an aide, who laughed when I ran the for-sale scenario by her. "Everything is for sale for the right price," she said.
Photo: Eric Mencher / The Philadelphia Inquirer