Patou is offered for sale

Real estate insiders have received a fairly detailed solicitation about Patou, chef Patrice Rames' French-Mediterranean restaurant-lounge in Old City. (See details here or here.)

No price is attached, but I've seen listings in which the asking was $3.4 million for the whole shebang, including a four-story building.

Patou, which opened in December 2003, is very much still in business. Manager Mark Hoyt told me that the property has been sale for a year now. "It's not a fire sale. Patrice will sell if someone meets his price," he said. "So far, no one has. Given the climate, I don't think anything will happen anytime soon."