Daily Archives: February 3, 2010

Smith and Wollensky is Back.

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Back with a flourish.

Back in the day, so the story goes, Smith and Wollensky’s Steak House was about to close its doors for lack of business.  Poppe Tyson and creative director Fergus O’Daly created an ad for them – a full page in The New York Times – with a life-size picture of a Smith and Wollensky’s matchbook in the lower right corner atop a small headline: “Finally a match for the Palm and Christ Cella.” The rest, as they say, is history.

Steak for Stock

Today in that same New York Times Smith and Wollensky continues its great run of print advertising with “Steak for Stock.”  Not sure if Alan Stillman (CEO) is still behind the advertising but it certainly feels like him. The “Steak for Stock” ad invites you to bring in valid stock certificates in exchange it for a juicy, aged and perfectly charred sirloin.  Can’t you just smell the certificate paper?

Smith and Wollensky has made a living with its wit, its wine, its relevance and its meat and spinach. I’m probably borrowing this from Ben Benson’s, another brilliant NY steak house, but Smith and Wollensky’s is, indeed, the quintessential NY steak house.  Great to see them mixing it up again.  Peace!