The Luncheon Society has always aimed for a modest and quiet existence, but in a time when we grapple with so many of life’s smaller decisions (who picks up the kids, who pays the bills), it’s often nice to sit back and ponder some of life’s larger overarching questions. If you’re going to do that, you may as well do it at a great restaurant and that’s what we’re all about.
Over the years, The Luncheon Society has quietly convened over 200 times for movable feasts at over 40 restaurants like One Market, nestled at the foot of San Francisco’s Financial District, or Michael’s, which caters to the entertainment industry in Santa Monica. The kindness of a gracious friend allowed us to use The Lotos Club, one of the oldest literary clubs in the United States, frequented by the likes of Mark Twain and today residing in a Manhattan mansion once owned by the Vanderbilt family.
Then there’s The Napa Valley Grille in Westwood, right around the corner from UCLA, which welcomes us like an old friend of the family who offers a drink the moment you come in from the cold.
It was there where we gathered with Richard Wolffe, best-selling author of Renegade, the Making of a President (Crown, June 2009), which details the personality behind Barack Obama’s improbable rise, for our 29th Luncheon Society gathering this year. We met thanks to the kindness of an old friend, Wendy Wanderman, who suggested—actually insisted—that we should put something together. As usual, she was right.
We are now in the season where books that detail the 2008 President campaign are emerging in print and like all of the past races, the winner earns the spoils. There won’t be many books on the McCain campaign, perhaps only emerging as cautionary tales in Republican memos for potential candidates for 2012. Continue reading
The Luncheon Society 