Stuart Carleton Davidson

Founder (1963-2001)

Stuart Carleton Davidson led an extraordinary life that prepared him well to launch and preside over what has become one of the nation's most successful and popular restaurant companies. On August 12, 1963, Davidson opened Clyde's of Georgetown because, as he said, Washington "lacked a good saloon." Davidson opened the first Clyde's as "An American Bar" (not a pub or bistro). Davidson summed up his philosophy succinctly by saying "It's more fun to eat in a bar than drink in a restaurant." Before embarking on a career as a restaurateur, he was an investment banker with Kidder Peabody and Wertheim & Co. A man of distinguished education, he was a cultivated patron of literature and arts who spoke several languages, and was a walking treasury of quotations, poems, and songs perfectly memorized and delivered with gusto. Educated at St. Albans School, Harvard College, and Harvard Business School, Davidson was a polished scholar and enthusiastic outdoorsman.