Where Deals Are Regularly Dished

A favorite of both Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Tyson Foods founder Don Tyson, this unprepossessing cafe is a power center in the booming northwest corner of Arkansas.

Plain and simple like its signature T-bone steaks, its a favorite haunt of Warren Buffett, who often brings by friends like Bill Gates, Susan Decker, Michael Eisner and Martha Stewart.

Red-blooded oil men come to Otto's for their fix of red meat. So do some former oil men who went on to second careers in politics, including George H.W. Bush and his son, George W.

If Silicon Valley is the capital of tech innovation, this humble chain restaurant is the capital of Silicon Valley. Some megadeals have been hashed out here—Google executives sealed their deal to buy YouTube in a booth—but the buzz is watching all the innovations being hatched on laptops and napkins.

For all the Web 2.0 entrepreneurs who never quite graduated from the college lifestyle, there is this gyro stand. The long lunchtime line gives plenty of time for competing company-builders to cross-pollinate ideas.

Sure, there's the Four Seasons and 21 for Midtown Manhattan dealmakers in tailored suits, but for people starting their own companies—in media, music, or anything else incubating in Silicon Alley, the East Village, or further downtown—there is this South Asian cafeteria.

The City of Big Shoulders still loves to settle matters over a plate of barbecue or a thick steak, but sometimes a cup of coffee and a cookie or sumptuous chocolate can be more conducive to business. When that's the case, this is the place.