The Untold Truth Of Smith & Wollensky

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