La Grenouille Building Sold to Beijing-Based Restaurant Franchise For $14.3 Million

The building that housed La Grenouille, the recently-closed haute cuisine staple on E. 52nd St., has been sold to the Beijing-based restaurant franchise Quanjude for $14.3 million. It was originally put on the market for $15 million. Founded in 1864, Quanjude is renowned for its Peking duck. Its Vancouver location earned a Michelin star in 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Philippe Masson, La Grenouille’s owner, made the transaction with Duo Zhang of Quanjude. The purchase of the 6,800 sq. ft. building–which was first used a carriage house–was made with the help of a $7.6 million loan from the Bank of Montreal. The deal was made on Oct. 4, a few weeks after Phillippe formally closed La Grenouille’s doors, although the deal only became public on Nov. 4.

Family feuds and mismanagement appeared to have undermined the once-popular French restaurant in recent years. Masson owes $3.6 million to the IRS, which means that the sale seemingly allows for the repayment of this accumulated debt. A New Jersey lender also sued him over an alleged $4 million mortgage default in March, seeking to foreclose on the property.

Masson also feuded with his brother Charles, himself a former general manager of La Grenouille. Charles Masson had taken out another mortgage on the restaurant, in order to seek restitution related to his deceased mother’s estate, and joined the foreclosure lawsuit with a crossclaim of his own.

Often referred to by its English moniker of “The Frog,” La Grenouille entertained the famous and powerful for decades after its opening in 1962. It also briefly closed in 2023, which was either caused by a gas leak or a Department of Buildings order. Some of La Grenouille’s most prominent patrons included Salvador Dali, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, and Henry Kissinger.

Quanjude has also hosted the extremely powerful. According to the Michelin Guide, its Beijing location has been visited by a series of U.S. presidents, including Richard Nixon. Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama during visits to China. It’s technically a public company owned by Beijing Tourism Group, a state-run umbrella company and is listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

La Grenouille was opened by Charles and Gisèle Masson, Philipe’s parents, during a blizzard. It was an entrant into Manhattan’s haute cuisine wars, and competed for customers with nearby restaurants such as La Caravelle and Le Cygne. It impressed food critics as recently as 2009, when Sam Sifton of the New York Times described it as “the last survivor of an elegant corps of French restaurants that arrived in New York in the 1960s and helped secure the city’s reputation for sophisticated dining.”

Charles Masson passed away in 1974, leaving stewardship of La Grenouille to Charles Jr. He oversaw operations until 1993, when Philippe took the reins for seven years. Charles Jr. resumed control in 2000, although his second tenure would eventually draw the ire of his influential mother Gisèle, who had long-since retired to France. Shortly before her death in 2014, she asked Philippe to replace Charles Jr. as general manager. This event strongly offended Charles Jr., leading to the aforementioned legal drama.

Charles Jr. went on to help open La Chevalier, a haute cuisine competitor to La Grenouille that was based out of the the Baccarat Hotel on W. 53rd St. It survived a year. Charles Jr. has now discovered a passion for painting and illustrating, his website clarifies.