(Photo: Courtesy of Corcoran)

The name “Hell’s Kitchen” doesn’t nearly have the bite it once did. But as late as the early nineties, it was still a “transitional” area, with a healthy share of drugs and prostitution, and despite—or perhaps because of—its grit, Hell’s Kitchen attracted scores of creative types, including many musicians. (It didn’t hurt that there were lots of recording studios nearby, like the Hit Factory, now turning condo.) Among them was rock-and-roll giant (and Rocky Horror Picture Show star) Marvin Lee Aday, a.k.a. Meatloaf, who spent the eighties bunking in this studio with his then-girlfriend. Back then, says listing broker Amanda Cernitz of the Corcoran Group, the entire space was pretty much taken up by “a king-size bed and a piano.” (And presumably the very large singer himself.) Meatloaf blew out of here more than a decade ago; the girlfriend stayed until three years ago, when she sold to the current owner, who’s a drummer himself. As for the apartment itself, though it’s modestly sized—especially for an artist who, when he lived here, had already sold several million copies of Bat Out of Hell—it has a bright southern exposure and a separate kitchen.

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• Archive: “Real Estate”
• Articles by S.Jhoanna Robledo
• Table of Contents: Dec 25, 2006 issue of New York | Subscribe!