The Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group, Inc., a collection of iconic American steakhouses headquartered in Boston, has opened its first suburban setting in the town of Wellesley. Widely known as “America’s Steakhouse,” the opening of this highly anticipated new location makes it easily accessible for families and locals to enjoy Smith & Wollensky’s dry-aged and hand-butchered USDA Prime steaks, premium seafood and award-winning wines on a regular basis.
“We are excited to introduce our first suburban restaurant and bring a taste of ‘America’s Steakhouse’ to the town of Wellesley and surrounding areas,” says Michael Feighery, CEO & President of Smith & Wollensky Restaurant Group. “As a Boston-based brand, our local community is near and dear to us. The team has been passionately working on this special location to deliver a suburban adaptation of our brand to loyal guests who live in and around Wellesley and serving new patrons as well.”
The Wellesley team is led by General Manager Peter Baker, coming from the Smith & Wollensky Boston Atlantic Wharf location. Baker has worked in the restaurant leadership scene in Boston for over 15 years. The culinary team is headed by National Corporate Executive Chef Matt King, a Metro-West native who has overseen the Smith & Wollensky Group culinary operation since 2010, along with newly appointed Wellesley Executive Chef Andrew Beer. Christian Gianaris leads the wine and cocktail program as Wine Manager, and Private Events and Sales Manager Joseph Bittner oversees private events and sales operations, both joining the Wellesley team from the Smith & Wollensky Boston Atlantic Wharf location as well.
The menu features USDA Prime steaks and signature filets sustainably produced by Double R Ranch, hand-butchered and further enriched through in-house dry aging for 28 days, including a bone-in ribeye and New York cut. Luxurious steak enhancements include lobster tail, Alaskan king crab and foie gras truffle butter. The steaks for two section features a newly added Snake River Farms Swinging American Wagyu Tomahawk Ribeye. At 44 ounces, this dry-aged steak was created by Chef Matt King as a nod to the old school tradition of butchery and hanging beef. Swinging on a custom designed rack, this decadent steak for two is charred and sliced tableside for an interactive experience and served with beef fat potatoes.
The team is excited to introduce a rotisserie menu exclusive to the Wellesley location, offering slow roasted prime rib, organic chickens flavored with black truffle, whole branzino stuffed with fresh herbs and lemon, and Colorado lamb with romesco. The rotisserie was custom built in Chelles, France by French manufacturer Rotisol, leading innovators of advanced rotisserie design for nearly 65 years.
Seafood items include signature shellfish towers brimming with lobster, Alaskan king crab, jumbo shrimp, oysters and clams paired with classic cocktail sauce, cognac mustard sauce, ginger sauce and sherry mignonette, with sharing options for two, four, and six guests; and raw bar selections and seasonal seafood entrees such as barbecue yellowfin tuna. An array of salad options offer add-on proteins such as steak tips, grilled garlic shrimp, pan-seared scallops and tuna. Bar fare choices feature chilled shellfish and casual selections such as the Wollensky’s butcher burger, French dip and an assortment of sliders, including Wollensky’s sliders, filet and crab cake. Full menus available HERE.
The restaurant offers craft cocktails including a Paloma Rosa, Aviation, Pear Ginger Martini, and a highlighted signature barrel-aged Negroni, as well as classic steakhouse Martinis and Manhattans. A robust wine list has been designed by Wine Manager Christian Gianaris, including a wide breadth of domestic and international selections offered both by the bottle and the glass. A Coravin wine system allows the offering of a few select premium wines to be poured by the glass, such as Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon and Opus One “Overture” – wines traditionally only offered in bottle format. The restaurant features a custom glass-enclosed Sub-Zero wine refrigeration system, engineered to maintain the perfect temperature and humidity for whites, reds and sparkling wines. While the glass doors allow guests to see every beautiful bottle, no light reaches the wine, ensuring supreme quality in every bottle and glass served.
Designed by renowned Boston-based restaurant architect designer, Peter Niemitz of Niemitz Design Group, the steakhouse spreads across one floor for an open concept plan, with an interactive expo kitchen. Drawing from the inspiration of the classic American fine dining steakhouse, The restaurant features a rich design scheme of dark mahogany woods, green, saddle and black leathers and custom lighting. The 225-seat main dining room is surrounded by a 24-seat bar, with bar dining, a unique dining bar facing the extraordinary Exhibition Kitchen, and three private dining rooms that combined can accommodate up to 100 guests. The design is the evolution of the original Smith & Wollensky concept, now more open and communal with a more relaxed attitude. Seasonal outdoor seating is situated along Washington Street.
In addition to Peter Niemitz, the restaurant group partnered with an esteemed lineup of Greater Boston area collaborators to create the new restaurant space: TriMark, a local company based in Attleboro, designed the kitchen; Clarke Kitchen, the exclusive brand caretakers for Sub-Zero appliances in New England, produced the custom Sub-Zero wine refrigeration system; Construction Management & Builders, Inc. (CM&B) constructed the restaurant; and Hospitality experts Stys Hospitality Initiative (SHI), led the project management.
Celebrating 40 years as America’s classic steakhouse, the original Smith & Wollensky location opened in 1977 in New York City, and has since become an institution known for its American hospitality and New-York style swagger. The time-honored steakhouse brand has expanded to seven locations across the top cities in America, including Boston, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, and Miami Beach, as well as their first international location in London.
The restaurant hosted a grand opening preview party last night (May 23), with a portion of cash bar proceeds supporting the Wellesley Softball Improvement Committee “Field of Dreams” Campaign.
Smith & Wollensky Wellesley is located at 583 Washington Street near the popular shopping and dining destination, Wellesley Square, and just off of Route 9.
