Getting All Aboard the Orient-Express

For a dinner to celebrate the closing of a major real estate deal, it's a humble affair: Steve Schwartzman and Barry Sternlicht are sitting down for burgers at '21.' Eating shepherd's pie with them is Andrew Davis, the founder and chairman of privately held Von Essen Hotels, a London company that owns luxury properties in the U.K.

This is a table of giants. Sternlicht is the founder of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide (HOT Quote) and now the head of a private-equity firm, Starwood Capital Management. Schwartzman is the founder and chairman of the Blackstone Group, the private-equity firm that recently announced its $4 billion initial public offering.

The waiter, an employee of Orient-Express Hotels (OEH Quote) -- the Bermuda-based public company that owns '21' and the company that Sternlicht, Schwartzman and Davis just bought -- brings the check. No mogul makes a move.

Not to worry. Other patrons -- almost the entire congregation -- step into the breach, reaching for their wallets and calling for margin (and more fries). The rush to pick up the tab is so huge that the bill is oversubscribed. Within moments, not only are the burgers (with all the trimmings) paid for, but Blackstone's IPO is secured, and all the rooms have been booked at Sternlicht's Crillon in Paris for the next decade at rates that guarantee steady growth in revenue per available room, or revPAR, a key hotel industry benchmark.

The only question: Where to go for dessert?