If you only know Smith & Wollensky steakhouse from "The Devil Wears Prada," you've got a
lot to learn about this upscale eatery. We've got all the info about its name, its founders,
the steak, and more.
When Smith & Wollensky first opened in 1977, steakhouses were known for being decidedly
male-centric, with traditionally "masculine" decorations like dark leather, plenty of brown
liquor on the menu, and big, manly steaks. Furthermore, when Alan Stillman acquired the
building that would become his world-famous restaurant, he had to do a complete remodel
due to some pretty serious previous fire damage.
The atmosphere of Smith & Wollensky beca me sophisticated and warm, without losing the
masculine edge most steakhouses at the time needed to succeed — the target demographic
at the time was, after all, the most masculine of carnivorous men. Stillman told Edible Geography,
"It had more comfort to it. But that wasn't because we intended it to be woman-friendly.
It was a steakhouse, and at the time, steakhouses were male-oriented. Our target customer was
people who ate at The Palm [...] — men my age."
It would be reasonable to assume that the founders of Smith & Wollensky were, well,
a pair of guys named Smith and Wollensky. Right? But that's not quite accurate. The
owner and founder of the famous steakhouse is actually Alan Stillman and, try as you
might, there's no actual Smith or Wollensky to be found.
"No Smith. No Wollensky."
According to CBS News, Stillman waited until the last minute to name his restaurant. He
already had many wealthy investors who had contributed to his vision, but just two or
three weeks before the grand opening, he still didn't have a name. It finally came to him
and his associates in the wee hours of the morning.
"And we finally said at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning, 'Get a phonebook,'"
Stillman told CBS. He randomly flipped to a page and chose the name "Smith" from the
list. His friends encouraged him not to call his restaurant something as terribly basic
as "Smith," so Stillman flipped to another page and got "Wollensky." The cadence of the
two names together caught his ear, and, surprisingly enough, the name stuck.
In 1965, Alan Stillman borrowed $5,000 from his mother to open one of the first singles
bars in the United States. This would be a bar that would ultimately grow into an international
franchise known as TGI Fridays. Stillman told Chron of the original TGI Fridays location
in New York City:
"The neighborhood was full of singles, lots of stewardesses, pilots, actors and actresses,
and I was single at the time."
As he explained further in an interview in Edible Geography, this group of unattached
young people represented, to his mind, a thoroughly untapped market. Stillman told the outlet:
"Before T.G.I. Friday's, four single twenty-five-year-old girls were not going out on Friday nights,
in public and with each other, to have a good time."
There simply weren't all that many venues for this kind of fraternizing, at least not
outside of house parties or upscale restaurants where you'd be more likely to impress a date
one-on-one. Stillman's successful experience with TGI Fridays after its first 1965 opening,
and the singles bar concept in general, encouraged him to continue his business ventures. And
so, 12 years after his first grand opening, the inaugural Smith & Wollensky opened in
Midtown Manhattan.
When Smith & Wollensky opened in 1977, the reception was chilly, to say the least. The
New York Times was particularly rough, calling the restaurant's appetizers "disappointing,"
its bread "especially poor," and the overall atmosphere of the space downright "dreary."
The negative New York Times review nearly sank the restaurant, but it was Stillman's
savvy marketing skills that saved it from utter culinary doom. Shortly after the review
was released and business plummeted, Stillman bought two full-page ads in the New York Times
to garner more visibility and support for the fledgling steakhouse. He told CBS News,
"And the following week we started doing business in double and more than double every day."
The meat you'll find at Smith & Wollensky isn't exactly that of your average steakhouse
quality stuff. Indeed, this restaurant prides itself on the quality of its meat, which is
carefully prepared by butchers who work specifically for the company. As part of that effort, the
steak is dry-aged, a process that entails locking the meat in a sealed refrigerator
kept at about 36 degrees Fahrenheit. The meat gets cured in this way over the course of
about four weeks, resulting in the delicious flavor and tender texture of a classic Smith
& Wollensky steak.
Because of the massive size of the restaurant and its constant revolving door of customers,
the fridge stays reliably full, too. A single Smith & Wollensky location may be curing anywhere
from seven to 12 tons of meat at a time. According to the restaurant's website, their dry-aging
process is pretty darn time-consuming and expensive, but it yields a product so delicious
that the owners, butchers, and customers all agree that it's well worth the wait.
Smith & Wollensky has been serving world-famous steaks and cocktails in New York City and
beyond for over 40 years now. The concept is altogether fairly simple, straightforward,
and a little bit old school. Given the continued succescs of that model, it looks as if the
restaurant's owners don't have plans to change that anytime soon. Suggesting anything to
the contrary could be met with resistance. In a 2017 interview with Haute Living, Stillman
rejected the idea that Smith & Wollensky had "transformed" over the years, telling the
outlet,
"There have been more decorative placards added over the years, more awards on the wall,
and some menu items have been updated a bit, but we're still pretty much the same."
Consider that, just like when it originally opened in 1977, Smith & Wollensky still has
an in-house butcher who manages the estimated three tons of beef that each restaurant receives
each month. The servers, a traditionally itinerant bunch that are likely to peruse other restaurant's
job boards, often stick around at Smith & Wollensky for years. In fact, many of them average about
20 years at Smith & Wollensky.
Warren Buffett, the incredibly rich American business mogul and investor, is reportedly
a regular at Smith & Wollensky when he's not chowing down on fast food. According to Insider,
when Buffet is in New York City, Smith & Wollensky is oftentimes his first — and most essential
— stop. He's such a fan that one of Buffet's philanthropic efforts includes an auction
where winners will enjoy a dinner with Buffet at Smith & Wollensky. Bidders pay upwards
of $2.7 million to dine one-on-one with the famous businessman at his favorite Manhattan
steakhouse, while the money goes to various charitable organizations.
According to former winners, Buffet's regular order at Smith & Wollensky is actually pretty
simple. It consists only of a medium-rare steak with hash browns and a cherry coke,
reported the 2007 auction winner. Allegedly, his preferred cut of meat is a sirloin. And
in matters of dessert, if nothing else, Buffet is a bit of a socialist. That is, reports
indicate that he's willing to share — in everyone else's treat. Apparently, he asks
the waiter for extra spoons so as to have a bite of everyone else's dessert.
2007 brought quite a few big changes for this renowned New York-based steakhouse, including
a major handover. For $79.5 million, a Los Angeles restaurant group called Patina bought
Smith & Wollensky from its original founder, Alan Stillman, according to the Los Angeles
Times. The Patina group, run by Chef Joachim Splichal, owns several of Los Angeles' most
famous restaurants, as well as a few restaurants in New York, New Jersey, Las Vegas, and Northern
California.
Stillman, who agreed to the sale after his restaurant experienced a drop in sales after
it went public, received some assets from the sale. Most notably, he was able to retain
the New York Smith & Wollensky locations.
Initially, Smith & Wollensky was a local New York City restaurant only. To that end, some
of Stillman's partners were hesitant to expand to other cities, but after Stillman bought
out the other owners, he was free to grow the company beyond the Big Apple. The second
Smith & Wollensky location opened 20 years after the first, all the south in Miami, Florida.
Stillman told Edible Geography that he looked at other cities but ultimately chose Miami
because the property was the best option and the right piece of real estate had opened
up.
But, despite his expansionist drive, Stillman isn't interested in opening locations in smaller
cities that can't support a fancy steakhouse. Stillman told Edible Geography:
"Smith & Wollensky is definitely an urban restaurant. These are big restaurants doing
big dollars, and we have to be in big cities."
The restaurants themselves are also big, considering that most of them can seat up to 700 people.
Currently, Smith & Wollensky has locations in nine different cities, from Columbus, Ohio
to Taipei, Taiwan.
Most of the Smith & Wollensky locations were acquired by the Danu Partners restaurant group
in 2016, according to Nation's Restaurant News. This Irish-based investment group founded
Setanta Sports Group, a sports television operator, and has acquired several other restaurant
groups since their beginnings in 1992. Leonard Ryan, a principal of Danu, said in a statement
published in Nation's Restaurant News,
"[Danu's partners have] been huge admirers of this iconic brand for decades, having hosted
a great number of business dinners cutting into S&W steak."
The restaurant group hopes to continue to expand Smith & Wollensky beyond the US. For
now, though, Alan Stillman remains at the helm of the original Smith & Wollensky in
New York. While Danu may own the rest of the locations, it is Stillman's hand that steers
what may be arguably the most important one.
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