Smith&Wollensky has come up with the ideal recipe for those bankers and investors who are still smarting, and who are feeling slightly less flush in the wallet department. Despite sounding like a boutique financial firm, Smith&Wollensky is in fact one of New York's premier steakhouses, oft frequented for lunch and dinner by all echelons of Wall Street.
Starting last month the restaurant introduced its Nasdaq special. Until the end of August, on Friday lunchtimes only, diners will be offered not just the usual menu of rib-eyes, T-bones and other filling fayre, but also the chance to have a three-course meal whose price is pegged to the closing price of the Nasdaq Composite index the day before.
It wouldn't have caught on this time last year, when the Nasdaq was just coming down off its high of 5100. But as it's now hovering nearer 2000 points, it's a bargain.
When Euromoney, purely in the interests of research of course, visited in mid-April with some curious bankers from a couple of European firms, the Nasdaq had finished at 2160 points on Thursday, making the meal a round $22 each.
That's a pretty good deal, considering that a steak alone costs $27.