Every year, donors bid millions for the opportunity to share a meal with Warren Buffett at Smith & Wollensky in New York City. The steakhouse's founder Alan Stillman tells the story behind the annual charity lunches. Following is a transcript of the video.
Alan Stillman: Warren Buffett is a very unique and very special guy and he is a charitable person. One of the charities that he donates money to is Glide, and it is in San Francisco. He offered, going back about 10 years, to have lunch with anyone that would pay for it, so he auctioned himself off and he raised, I believe, 25 thousand dollars to have lunch with Warren Buffett.
I heard about it. Got his phone number. By the way, that took at least a year to get his phone number, because I didn't wanna just call up the company, but I did get his phone number and when I called him, he actually answered the phone himself. He said, "Hi, this is Warren," and I was, sort of, stumped for words. I couldn't quite believe that I had Warren Buffett on the telephone, and I said, "Warren, this is Alan Stillman. I own some restaurants called, Smith," and I never got to say the last word. He said, "and Wollensky." I said, "that's correct, how do you know?" He says, "Oh, I come in to a couple of your restaurants." I said, "really? I have an idea." He said, "what's that?" I said," I wanna donate an additional,"- and I don't remember exactly the number, but I think it was 25 thousand dollars, - "for you to come to New York and have lunch at Smith & Wollensky and I'm going to give to your favorite charity, Glide, 25 thousand dollars." It took him about, maybe five seconds, to say, "You, Mr. Stillman, have a deal. You put it together and I'll be there."
Well, the first time that he did that, it went for a million dollars and since that time, it's gone for two and a half and three million dollars. So that, currently he does it once a year, he comes to Smith & Wollensky, has lunch and I suspect that this year won't be any different. It's going to go for two and a half or three million dollars.
You can bring six or seven friends and Warren, himself, will absolutely have lunch with you and you can ask him anything you want, unless it pertains to the stock market. He's not interested on giving you hints on the stock market. But, anything else that you'd like to know, come to Smith & Wollensky, have lunch with Warren, and lay your check on the table for two and a half or three million bucks and he's there.
He gets out of a Yellow Cab, and what you see with Warren Buffett is what you get. Warren, when he comes to lunch, orders a steak, but always with Diet Coke. Diet Coke is his drink of choice, and he drinks lots of them. I think he drinks, three, four, five Diet Cokes a day. He can finish a good steak and he likes a good steak. He is one of the most phenomenal people you'd ever meet and whatever he is saying is what he honestly believes. He is not anybody that will tell any stories out of line and he has been one of Smith & Wollensky's great supporters.