Best place to score a billionaire

Every town has its legends. This year, Boston acquired one known as the Gwen Butler Story. To recap: a well-known bartender (Butler) working the lunch shift at XV Beacon's clubby-tony restaurant the Federalist serves an unassuming Swiss venture capitalist named Erich Sager. He orders a $500 bottle of wine because "the price is good." He loves lunch, and no doubt he also eats up the Brahmin-by-way-of-Calvin-Klein decor. But that's not all. The man is so charmed by Butler's beaming smile, red locks, and swift wit that he suggests she open her own restaurant.

"That'd take millions to do it right," she replies.

Several days and one business meeting later (read: the guy is married and the relationship is all business), he wires her $50,000 in seed money, with $2 million more to come.

Butler will be using the money to open Zita, a contemporary American restaurant and bar on Stanhope Street. So could this happen to you? Well, the Fed is the right place to start. The restaurant is so exclusive that it has a doorman. The wine list has bottles of Champagne dating back to 1906 that've been dug up from the Baltic Sea floor. Fifty bucks for a glass of Scotch or Bordeaux is standard. Eric Brennan's food is swank and worldly. And moneyed types -- the kind Boston hasn't known since the last turn of the century -- flock here for sustenance and sips and maybe even something else. Who's to say someone else couldn't get lucky here?

The Federalist, 15 Beacon Street, Boston, (617) 670-2515.