The beloved Doves will be taking flight all over Manhattan.
Famed restaurateurs Santo Family Group are opening, not one, but three incarnations of their former Upper East Side restaurant, The Sign of the Dove, around the city, The Post has learned.
The original Sign of the Dove – located at 65th Street and Third Avenue for 35 years – closed in January 1998, when the family sold the real estate to the Related Properties Ltd., to make way for the construction of a residential and retail high-rise.
The Dove Room will be the first to open in August and replace Italian-themed Contrapunto on the second floor of the Santo family building – already housing Bolivar and Cibi Cibi – at 60th Street and Third Avenue.
The menu will be a combination of the Santo family restaurants’.
The 60-seat Dove Room will have an atmosphere similar to its predecessor with artifacts from the former eatery – from the bronze Weimeraners that guarded its entrance to the large candelabras supplying the eatery’s warm glow.
The restaurant will have one seating during prime dining hours. A late night menu will then be available until 4 a.m.
In related developments, the long-awaited opening of Domus by The Sign of the Dove has been delayed.
The reported future space at 24th Street and Park Avenue South is now just one of several locations under consideration.
“We’re presently looking at three serious proposals.” said Paul West, a family spokesman. Added famed interior designer, Adam Tihany: “Right now, we’re in a holding pattern until a decision is made.”
That decision rests with Dr. Joseph Santo, who is out of the country until after the July 4 holiday, family members said.
The family is now searching for a third rendition, which will be called the Little Dove.
“Right now, we’re looking for a situation with a property that’s already built-out,” says partner Berge Santo. “If we find something to our liking we could be ready to go by the fall.”
They are looking in all areas of town but are inclined to first consider a location in the Downtown area.