The Elephant Room, a longtime Roslyn establishment located at 8 Tower Place, is under new ownership. The board of trustees approved the ownership change at its most recent village meeting. Vincent Napolitano is the new proprietor. For a number of years, The Elephant Room was owned by Frederic Carlton, current president of the Roslyn Chamber of Commerce.

At the November public meeting, Mr. Napolitano told the BOT that he planned no wholesale changes to the restaurant. He added that he would probably change the name and maybe, he joked, prices for food and drinks would be going down. Mr. Napolitano was told he would need approval from the Historic District Board to put a new coating of paint on the building.

Roslyn's newest businessman has spent the past several years working in Manhattan. For a while, he managed the Roosevelt Hotel on Madison Avenue and 45th St. More recently, he has worked on Wall Street. But after losing friends in the World Trade Center disaster, he decided to get out of the city and get back into the restaurant business.

The BOT approved the new ownership even though Mr. Napolitano has yet to receive a New York State liquor license. The village has written to state authorities asking that the ownership transfer be approved while Mr. Napolitano waits for the liquor license to come through. Despite the fact that the building has some boiler room violations that are still unresolved, BOT members said that the restaurant is not in violation of village zoning and building codes.

-by Joe Scotchie