1960s Officially Over in Soho: Phil Lesh Pays $1.7 M. Cash for Chef's Kitchen, Marble Bath

Years of appreciating the Grateful Dead’s music leaves one with the impression that the band’s surviving members all maintain a certain kind of house. Surely, rhythm guitarist Bob Weir lives in a moss-covered mansion where little pixie servants tend to his benevolent whims, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann resides below the oceanic photic zone with kindly umbrella mouth gulper eels, or, at the very least, bassist Phil Lesh makes his home with dancing bears in a rainbow-colored cave.

But that isn’t the case. According to city records, Mr. Lesh and his wife, Jillspeth, paid $1,775,000 earlier this month for a condo on Prince Street near Broadway, where there are Russian models and Bluetooth-bearing bankers and lots of Saturday afternoon Soho tourists, but probably few Deadheads.

According to a listing, the 1,500-square-foot apartment has 12-foot ceilings, a triangle-shaped office off the bedroom, a marble bathroom, north and west exposures and an open, windowed chef’s kitchen. In case that kitchen isn’t perfect, Mr. Lesh’s new apartment is above a restaurant that serves a $26 gulf grouper (with oyster mushrooms and a sweet onion sauce) and a slow-roasted Long Island duck leg (with honey poached rhubarb) for $24.75.

To be fair, the apartment is modest compared to the building’s massive triplex, which Donna Karan, Sean Combs, Calvin Klein and Mike Tyson all reportedly visited when it was on the market a few years ago.

Still, there are no mortgage records along with Mr. Lesh’s deed, which suggests he paid in cash.

His sellers are Deborah and Michael Tansey, apparently an executive connected to the pharmaceutical industry.

mabelson@observer.com