{"id":518851,"date":"2026-01-15T21:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518851\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T21:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T21:44:13","slug":"a-peek-inside-giants-john-harbaugh-dinner-ill-be-back","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/518851\/","title":{"rendered":"A peek inside Giants’ John Harbaugh dinner: ‘I’ll be back’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The red-wine cellar where John Harbaugh was wined and dined<\/a> Wednesday night with off-the-menu items by co-owner Chris Mara, general manager Joe Schoen and confidantes is steeped in Giants tradition.<\/p>\n

Decades earlier, long before Elia took over the location and refurbished the downstairs space, it was the dungeon at Park and Orchard where Bill Parcells used to host pre-draft meetings for the Giants.<\/p>\n

Opened in 2017, Elia\u2019s Mediterranean-flavored menu has become the Giants\u2019 go-to spot for high-profile courtships, but the one that led to Harbaugh agreeing to become head coach of the Giants<\/a> was different before the door opened at 5 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Joe walked in, you knew the deal was going to go down,\u201d owner Tim Salouros told The Post. \u201cIt was the first time that they called me to tell me the timing. They told me he had to be on a flight at 7:30. Before coach left, he said, \u2018I loved it. I\u2019ll be back.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Seated at a custom-designed wooden table for up to 18 guests, Harbaugh was presented with three exclusive options \u2014 one steak, one fish and one chicken \u2014 prepared just for the occasion.<\/p>\n

John Harbaugh smiles beside Joe Schoen at Elia Mediterranean Restaurant. Elia Mediterranean Restaurant\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach veered to Chris Mara to order first and Chris goes, \u2018You are the honorary guy here. You order first,\u2019\u201d Salouros said. \u201cWe had pan-roasted Alaskan halibut filet over spinach, asparagus, mushrooms, crab meat and yellow romesco sauce. Once he ordered that, Chris said, \u2018I\u2019ll have what coach is having.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they had all the traditional apps \u2014 the grilled octopus, the eggplant and zucchini chips, the Horiatiki salad, the tuna tartare, the Saganaki and the fried calamari that we are known for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Throw a couple of 16-ounce ribeye steaks onto the bill for Schoen and former Giants great Jessie Armstead.<\/p>\n

The table in the wine cellar where the Giants wined and dined John Harbaugh inside Elia Mediterranean Restaurant, as seen on Jan. 15, 2026. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Another view of the table in the wine cellar where the Giants wined and dined John Harbaugh inside Elia Mediterranean Restaurant, as seen on Jan. 15, 2026. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n

To wash it all down? Despite being surrounded by about 2,500 bottles of red wine lining the wall and higher-end options behind a divider, the Giants\u2019 brass doesn\u2019t usually drink at these interviews.<\/p>\n

So, Salouros sensed that something was up when the waiter came upstairs with a special request to open up a rare bottle of Silver Oak \u2014 perhaps the first private indication that Harbaugh was ready to cancel his upcoming interviews with the Titans and Falcons.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018The Coach wants a glass of wine to celebrate,\u2019\u201d Salouros said. \u201cI joked with them, \u2018As a fan, I want to know \u2014 and I\u2019m sure everybody in this room wants to know \u2014 are you ready to sign?\u2019 I winked at him and he looked at me. I told him and Mr. Mara, \u2018If you are not ready, we can go in the back and discuss it. Until you make the right decision, you can\u2019t leave.\u2019 They all laughed about it, so you knew it was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

A view of Elia Mediterranean Restaurant on Jan. 15, 2026. Bill Kostroun\/New York Post<\/p>\n

Mara, Schoen and Harbaugh were joined by Giants director of player personnel Tim McDonnell, assistant general manager Brandon Brown and special assistant to the general manager Armstead, Salouros said. One night earlier, the Giants interviewed former Cowboys and Packers head coach Mike McCarthy in the same setting.<\/p>\n

Elia was a favorite spot for former Giants assistants Wink Martindale \u2014 the kind of regular who drew a reaction like Norm in \u201cCheers\u201d \u2014 and Jerome Henderson, and hosted the closing dinners that led to agreements with Pat Shurmur, Joe Judge, Brian Daboll and Schoen, Salouros said.<\/p>\n

Martindale, who previously worked under Harbaugh with the Ravens, even gave his former boss the heads-up to call Elia\u2019s owner \u201cTim.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGo behind the scenes with Big Blue\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Giants by Paul Schwartz, a weekly Sports+ exclusive.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018We have a mutual friend,\u2019\u201d Salouros said.<\/p>\n

Elia\u2019s clean white interior pops and draws attention away from the bar and its flat-screen televisions to the back-center fish box display, where customers can walk up and pick their fish from ice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve dealt with some other owners here when they come and play here, but the Maras, they run the Giants like we run our mom-and-pop restaurant,\u201d Salouros said. \u201cWe cater to what they want. But when they are interviewing people, it\u2019s always in the Parcells Era (room) downstairs. I\u2019ve seen the pictures when Parcells is so young from the previous owners.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

It was a small lunch crowd Thursday, but Salouros\u2019 phone was ringing off the hook to the point where he had to cancel plans for his 50th\u00a0birthday in New York City to come back and tend his place in Giants\u2019 lore. It will only grow if Harbaugh \u2014 the No. 14-winningest coach in NFL history \u2014 restores the downtrodden Giants to winning ways of the Parcells days. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy for them, because I knew the fans wanted this and I knew that they had to come out with Harbaugh,\u201d Salouros said. \u201cWe wanted to impress him.\u201d<\/p>\n

As they say in Greece, \u201ct\u00e9leios.\u201d<\/p>\n

Done deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The red-wine cellar where John Harbaugh was wined and dined Wednesday night with off-the-menu items by co-owner Chris…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":518852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[145208,4716,1232,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-518851","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-john-harbaugh","9":"tag-new-york-giants","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115901304935703827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}