THE SENIOR MEN'S CLUB OF NEW CANAAN
Minutes of the Regular Meeting of November 30, 2001
President Lee Hindenach opened the meeting with 147 members present. Membership
is 500 with 37 on the waiting list. Oldest application was taken nine months ago.
Ken Degroot introduced new member George Webb. Lee Hindenach referred to a letter
written to the SMCNC by Governor Rowland thanking us for inviting him to speak to us.
Pete Luke gave an update on the YMCA building fund which has collected $4.2 million
out of $6.0 million budgeted. The Senior Men have reached their goal of $500,000
but individual donations have been quite poor, so we are now going to fund the new
elevator to the tune of $150,000. So far we are half way toward that objective.
Activities: Racquetball had three this morning, bridge and bowling continue, paddle
flourishes on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and 4Fs have recruited Pete Luke and Eric
Petschek to replace Phil Toll. Trailblazers are in hibernation but that didn't stop
hiking master Jack Murray from becoming Professor Murray pitching his computer classes
at Lapham Center starting January 4th. Old Hikers never die, and in this case they
don't fade away.
Couth: Scheduled trips are 1/17 to Mohegan Sun, 2/22 the Bridgeport Cabaret Theater,
and 3/5 is the Philadelphia flower show. The April trip to Washington D.C. now has
room for four couples at $800 per couple.
Jester: John Berg told us that putting a "wife wanted" ad in the paper gets more
responses from husbands than females, and then gave us some helpful hints on what
it takes to become a "Redneck."
Speaker: Vice President Bert Liebelt introduced Joel Smilow, former CEO of Playtex,
Inc., and now in his "semi-retirement" a financier for master chef Daniel Boulud.
Mr. Smilow hooked up with chef Boulud through the wife of his nephew in 1992. At
the time, Daniel was the chef supreme at Le Cirque but wanted to open his own
restaurant so Joel became his one and only partner. The restaurant "Daniel" opened
in May of 1993 and was an instant success. It could produce 200-250 dinners per night
and the average person spent $200 for the privilege of fine dining. In March of 1999,
"Daniel" moved to east 65th Street but kept the old location to
become "Café Boulud."
The new restaurant has also been a huge success, spawning a third entity called D. B.
Bistro a more moderately priced establishment on east 44th St. The signature dish here
is a $28.00 hamburger which uses foie gras for filler. The events of 9/11 had a huge
effect on Daniel's business causing a temporary $350,000 shortage in sales. This
is because the restaurant is a "tourist" mecca, and with the travel and hotel business
way off, so were the diners. Mr. Smilow himself put up the money, and business has come
back so strongly that he has already been paid back. To put these restaurants in
perspective, Daniel gets approximately $195 per diner,
Café Boulud $142, and
D.B.Bistro $83. The wines play a big part in these prices since the average bottle
purchased at Daniel is $125. This is actually classified as low price in the overall
Daniel category. Medium priced wines start at $300, and wine isn't considered high
priced until it breaks the $300 barrier. At those prices, that old bottle of "Gallo"
is starting to taste pretty good.
Eric Musa, Secretary