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A New York classic is taking the "ladies who lunch" stereotype and turning it on its head. The recently revived downtown steakhouse Delmonico's—which Time Out recently gave a cool four stars—is debuting a new Power Lunch prix fixe aimed at women and has enlisted the help of another local icon to launch the series: Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell.
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To kick off the new power lunch, the famed SATC scribe—whose column for The New York Observer served as inspiration for the hit HBO series of the same name—will be hosting a private reception "celebrating female friendship, success, and NYC women’s history." (Alas, that gathering is not open to the public, though you can see the NYC icon in her one-woman show True Tales of Sex, Success and Sex and the City, which returns to the Café Carlyle from April 23 to 27.)
You can make like Bushnell with your own women-forward power lunch at Delmonico's, a groundbreaking venue that made international news all the way back in April 1868 by hosting the inaugural "Ladies' Luncheon," the first time that women were publicly able to dine without men. "Available to all who are looking for a midday break, meeting, or celebration," the new Power Lunch prix fixe features both two-course (for $35) and three-course ($45) options, with steakhouse favorites like wedge salads, tender crabcakes, steak frites, Wagyu burgers, mushroom risotto and more.
The restaurant’s infamous Baked Alaska is also included on the Power Lunch menu, though it will be given a fitting femme makeover: the original dessert (a walnut cake topped with banana gelato, apricot jam and caramelized meringue) will be tinged pink. And from Saturday, April 20 through Friday, May 31, a percentage of proceeds from the pink sweet—as well as that classically rosy Carrie Bradshaw favorite, the Cosmo cocktail—will be donated to The Retreat, a women's domestic violence shelter in East Hampton, NY, chosen by Bushnell.
Each spring, in acknowledgment of that first "Ladies' Luncheon" held more than 150 years ago, Delmonico's plans to host an annual Power Lunch menu with special guests to raise awareness and support for non-profit organizations that support women.