What Happened at the Paddock?

Commercial Real Estate Broker John Wilks can't reveal the name of the winning bidder for retaurant location. The sale is not yet final and the broker says the buyer won't be revealed until the deal is closed.

Offering some insight into what happened at the restaurant is a different story.

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Wilks tells Patch it was a matter of two partners, former golfing buddies, who went into business but found themselves at odds. "There can only captiain of the ship," Wilks explains, and the owners had "two management styles."

As he supervised the removal of some of the contents of the building and the distribution of food to a local food pantry, Wilks lamented Saturday's closing of the eatery he sold to his long time friend Joe Carney and Philadelphia caterer Steve Finley in 2008.

Carney, whose family has been in the restaurant business at the Jersey shore for decades, and Finley, whose Finley Catering was known for the Crystal Tea Room and Ballroom at the Ben, seemed like a match made in restaurant heaven.

In December 2008, Around MainLine.com reported that the pair stripped the former John Harvard's location to the walls and put three million dollars into building their new restaurant.

According to the AroundMainLine.com article, Carney had to act quickly to secure the property before it was sold to someone else. He reached out to his golfing buddy and two weeks later Carney and Finley settled on the property.

Wilks handled that sale and is handling the sale to the new owner. "It's the best restaurant location on the Main Line," Wilks says. It's on a great corner with lots of parking, "but there can only be one captain of a ship."