Atdtda29: You really must come to Trieste, 808-812

[Michael Bailey]

Elefant Hotel (808)

there was or is one on Coney Island, which apparently
used to be what my grandmother called a "hot pillow joint"

wikipedia.de has this about that:
Ecke Surf Avenue und 5. Straße West stand die wohl
bekannteste derartige Institution, das Hotel Elephant
von James V. Lafferty aus dem Jahre 1885. Dieser 100
Fuß lange und 72 Fuß hohe Bau in Form eines Elefanten
wurde schnell zu einem Sinnbild für das „horizontale Gewerbe",
was sich in dem Spruch „Seeing the Elephant" („Den Elefanten sehen")
niederschlug.

roughly, "at the corner of Surf Av & 5th St West stood the
best-known of that type of institution, the Hotel Elephant,
built by James V. Lafferty in 1885.
This 100' long, 72' high building in the shape of an elephant
soon became known as such an embodiment of
"the horizontal profession", that the slang phrase,
"Seeing the elephant" came into common use.