“They Finalized The $1 Trillion Deal Over A Modest Breakfast At Le Pain Quotidien On The Upper East Side” Just Doesn’t Have The Same Ring To It

If you ever wondered how low-rent businesses like diners survive in high-rent Madison Avenue locations, the answer is they don’t*:

Powerbrokers who make big deals at a little diner on the upper East Side may soon have to go elsewhere — if rising rents strike down the Three Guys Restaurant.

The modest-looking, three-decade-old Madison Ave. eatery — where Gov. Spitzer is a regular and $1 trillion business deals have been hashed out over eggs — is facing an upcoming lease renewal that could send the high-end clientele packing.

“Everything must come to an end,” co-owner Spiros Argiros said yesterday. “Nobody hopes for that. We’re on good terms with our [building’s] ownership. We hope that when the time comes, we’ll have a good understanding.”

Argiros wouldn’t say when the lease expires or how much it could rise. But with rents skyrocketing along his posh stretch of Madison Ave. between 75th and 76th Sts., the next hike could be a death blow.

“They’re hurting the little guys,” Argiros said. “It’s unfortunate not only for the owners but for the public. Not everything can be high-end.”

Calls to the owners, Friedland Properties, were not returned.

The restaurant — which has two other locations on the upper East Side — was the site of a trillion-dollar merger between Merrill Lynch’s asset-management business and one-time rival BlackRock. The list of regulars reads like a who’s who of New York.

*Unless you leak the story to the Daily News in advance of negotiations and let public opinion take over.