Elite N.Y. Club Sold To Orient Express Owner

The “21” Club, where the elite meet to eat, and also to drink, dally or deal, was sold Thursday to the London-based owner of the Orient Express.

New owner James Sherwood promised to keep the joint the way the regulars like it, with some improvements, like a den for cigar-smoking patrons.

Born as a speakeasy in 1920 to flout national laws against booze, “21” plans an end run around city law banning smoking in restaurants by carving out a separate room with independent ventilation.

Every president since Prohibition has broken bread there and the club’s celebrity roster has boasted such names as Ernest Hemingway, Groucho Marx, Edward R. Murrow, Howard Hughes, Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Cole Porter and Noel Coward.

Published speculation since “21” went on the market in the spring put the price at $40 million.

Sherwood is president of Sea Containers Ltd. and chairman of Orient-Express Hotels Inc., which operates 10 hotels, including The Lodge in Vail, Colo., and the Windsor Court Hotel in New Orleans, and two tourist trains, including the fabled Venice Simplon Orient-Express.