Thursday, December 12, 2013

#25 Smith & Wollensky

After a semi nice dinner in Rittenhouse we decided to stop by Smith & Wollensky for a night cap. I know, all of you out there, scoffing at me for going to Smith & Wollensky to just sit at the bar for drinks and dessert and not a steak. But, I'm poor. And, if you take a look at all of the other steak houses on my list, you'll notice I will have just a few more chances to enjoy an expensive steak dinner in the city.

Smith & Wollensky was basically empty on a Friday night at 9:30pm. Immediately when I walked in I loved the atmosphere. They were decked out with Christmas lights and it had warm and intimate feel. Perfect for a rainy night. The bar was a decent size and there were a few other people sitting around it. The crowd at the bar that night was.... diverse, you could say. One couple eating dinner, one man sitting by himself, and then 3 drunk young attorneys attempting to drink martinis. Needless to say they provided our entertainment for the night.



We ordered 2 drinks and a dessert. The dessert menu was pretty extensive, but I decided to go with the New York Style Cheesecake since I am obsessed with cheesecake and it is pretty much my go to when I can't decide. However, the bartender quickly talked me out of that one. He said it was too small and that we would finish it in 2 minutes. He gave me a few other suggestions and we decided to go with the Apple Crisp. It was amazing. Not only did it taste amazing but the presentation was amazing as well. Am I saying amazing too much?



I have to say that I felt pretty classy sitting at the bar at Smith & Wollenksy for a drink. But then the bill came out to $42 and I realized why we don't do this often. We gave him our gift certificate, which was basically a letter written on Smith & Wollensky letter head. He wasn't able to give us change and made no indication if we could use the left over $8 for a tip or not. Probably because he doesn't typically come across people who are as cheap as we are. Since we were too embarrassed to ask if the left over money could be used for tip, we decided to just leave cash. Par for the course, I only had $4 in cash and Brendan had none. Not enough to leave a decent tip. Stressing about what to do (order another drink, leave the $4 and run?), Brendan went inside the Rittenhouse Hotel, which is connected to the restaurant, and tracked down at ATM. Problem solved! Lesson learned: take out cash before you use a GC at a bar.

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