Page 139 - Classics Issue

My epicurean education was in full swing and all things fne became part of everyday life. The fnest produce from Scotland’s larder, wines from the great Chateaus, Whisky from long gone distilleries and I learned to appreciate the pleasure derived from a hand-rolled Havana cigar. Things were good, a board director with equity in the business in my thirties. But my wanderlust returned when a mysterious caller who began ‘you don’t know me but........’ called, while watching cricket at Lords.‘You really should meet these two Irish guys’ he went on...A week later I was sat in the Soho Hotel with Leonard Ryan, Mark O’Meara and Tommy Hart. While Mark & Leonard had been the principals of global sports broadcaster Setanta, Tommy had been the General Manager and later Managing Partner of New York’s most famous Steakhouse ‘Smith & Wollensky’ for 37 years. Now this is where it gets strange. In the interim between my Davy days and Boisdale I had written to Alan Stillman, owner of S&W. The spiel was London needed an S&W and I was the guy to do it etc....Stillman wrote back expressing a desire to open in London one day but it wasn’t part of the growth strategy. Fast forward to the Soho Hotel. So Tommy says “you ever heard of Smith & Wollensky” with his New York Irish lilt.I start smiling and almost like a scene from the Sopranos he says ‘Something f#*king funny?’ I tell my story about my letter to Stillman, I protest we should have done it years ago - there was no Hawkmoor and no Goodman at that time. All we had was Aberdeen Steakhouses... In short it was meant to be. I’d been a fan of S&W for years, Setanta had thrown more parties in Smith & Wollensky restaurants across America than anyone and loved the brand. There was the will and the fnance to open the frst S&W outside the USA and what better city than London. The rigmarole of fnding a suitable site ensued. I went to America to work in each of the Smith & Wollensky businesses so I knew exactly how they ticked. Married in NYC on Boxing Day to my long term partner of 20 years, Catherine and 8 weeks later I returned and with a site acquired in the stunning Adelphi building just off the Strand and go-to restaurant guru Martin Brudnizki hired for the design. We were off…100 staff hired, dressed in S&W livery, 15,000 square feet beautifully ftted out at a cost of £6m, 2 metric tonnes of beef dry ageing on site ready to butcher. On the 17th June 2015 Smith & Wollensky London opened its doors. Starting with a license for Smith & Wollensky for the UK and Europe, we later acquired all of the American Restaurants, with the exception of the NYC original, which is still owned and operated by Alan Stillman, and his Fourth Wall Group. With the Adelphi Building shortly to be fully occupied with some 4,500 high profle tenants and a second site on the cards in London, the business is in strong shape for the future and the journey continues…..”