Smith & Wollensky Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary In NYC

The impressive green and white building on the corner of 49th Street and Third Avenue is 20,000 square feet and features four private event spaces on the second floor in addition to its main dining room. Between the two levels of the restaurant, there are more than 480 seats.

Alan Stillman is the founding force behind Smith & Wollensky and no amateur when it comes to the restaurant business. He began his career by founding and opening T.G.I. Friday’s in 1965 with a $5,000 loan from his mother. Stillman grew and expanded the Friday’s concept to the first twelve units in various cities before selling the rights to Friday’s outside of New York City in the mid-seventies, maintaining ownership of the Upper East Side flagship, which he sold by the end of the decade.

As Friday’s business grew and expanded, Stillman created sister concepts around the city: Tuesday’s, Wednesday, and Thursday’s, each with their own unique concept. Soon after these endeavors, he opened the famous Smith & Wollensky at 49th Street and Third Avenue in 1977 which grew to nine locations around the country.

During this time, Stillman continued to develop a series of unique standalone restaurant concepts in Manhattan that he referred to as “one-of-a’s,” such as Manhattan Ocean Club, Maloney & Porcelli, and The Post House. In 2001, he took the group public with partner Tom Lee, a venture capitalist, naming it Smith & Wollenksy Restaurant Group.

As they continued to grow, Stillman and his son Michael partnered with some of the brightest young chefs in the business and award-winning design firm AvroKO to transform Manhattan Ocean Club into the Quality Meats, and Park Avenue Café into Park Avenue Summer (Autumn, Winter, Spring), which was awarded two stars from New York Times food critic Frank Bruni. In 2007, the The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group was sold for approximately $100 million.

After the impressive sale, along with his son Michael, Stillman founded Fourth Wall Restaurants, now called Quality Branded. The group is made up of the flagship Smith & Wollensky, Maloney & Porcelli, Park Avenue, Quality Meats (NYC and Miami Beach), Quality Italian (NYC and Denver) and Quality Eats.

We were fortunate to speak with Alan about the history of Smith & Wollensky, his advice to aspiring restaurateurs, and most important, the future.