Smith&Wollensky has come up with the ideal recipe for those bankers and investors who are still smarting, and who are feeling slightly less flush in the wallet department. Despite sounding like a boutique financial firm, Smith&Wollensky is in fact one of New York’s premier steakhouses, oft frequented for lunch and dinner by all echelons of Wall Street.
Starting last month the restaurant introduced its Nasdaq special. Until the end of August, on Friday lunchtimes only, diners will be offered not just the usual menu of rib-eyes, T-bones and other filling fayre, but also the chance to have a three-course meal whose price is pegged to the closing price of the Nasdaq Composite index the day before.
It wouldn’t have caught on this time last year, when the Nasdaq was just coming down off its high of 5100. But as it’s now hovering nearer 2000 points, it’s a bargain.
When Euromoney, purely in the interests of research of course, visited in mid-April with some curious bankers from a couple of European firms, the Nasdaq had finished at 2160 points on Thursday, making the meal a round $22 each.
That’s a pretty good deal, considering that a steak alone costs $27. The Nasdaq special gets you more than a filet mignon. There’s also a starter (New England clam chowder or a mixed salad) and a dessert – a good chunk of chocolate cake.
Strangely, the waiters seemed determined to push the regular menu. “Now if we offered the Nasdaq special for dinner, that’d be a real bargain,” said one waiter, who serves steaks for an increased $32 in the evenings. “But you’d be better off with the regular menu, honestly.” He wasn’t convincing, although with drinks and side dishes included, such as the restaurant’s famous creamed spinach and hash browns, the cost did pick up a bit.
Not that it would have been a problem for one particular banker. Earlier last month a vice-president at a British-based stock broking firm turned up with a friend at one of his favourite New York haunts, Nello’s, an Italian restaurant on Madison Avenue and 62nd Street.
To add to their relatively modest food bill of $180 they racked up $8,000 in alcohol, including a $1,200-round of drinks for the rest of the restaurant, four bottles of Dom Perignon, and among an assortment of wines a $1,200 bottle of Chateau Margaux and a $750 bottle of Lafite Rothschild.
That wasn’t all. The broker decided to top his $8,899.78 bill with a nice little tip for the staff of $16,101.
The maitre d’, Lenny Lorando, is keeping $10,000 and dividing the rest up among the other 10 staff, but isn’t revealing the banker’s identity.
Unfortunately, that was one research trip Euromoney wasn’t allowed to make.
