August 11, 2014 | Short Order

 

 

       I must confess that all the talk these days about the sustainable planet and eating more veggies makes me hungry for great meat. I do try to be virtuous, but when I crave a little denial, here’s where I go.

 

Michael Jordan’s The Steakhouse
23 Vanderbilt Avenue at Grand Central Terminal
        This is as dramatic as a restaurant can be: tucked into a corner of Grand Central Station, gazing out at the thrilling constellation of stars on the terminal ceiling in a space designed as a homage to the days of great train travel by architect David Rockwell. And it’s mostly about meat. Warm garlic bread with gorgonzola fondue is a must to share. Then for me, a chopped Caesar and the New York strip.  We fight over which sides for the table. Lyonnaise potatoes or thick steak fries? Black truffle creamed spinach only sounds healthy. When I had a pride of great French chefs in tow, I brought them here.

 

American Cut
363 Greenwich Street, Tribeca
        Chef-owner Marc Forgione knows American Cut (a clone of his Atlantic City steakhouse) is ridiculously brassy and over-the-top for the neighborhood, so he tells the staff to relax, and make it fun. Which it is, starting with huge “everything” seeded biscuits. The original 1924 Tijuana Caesar comes with parmesan crisps the server smashes tableside. If my friends want to share the 42 oz. Tomahawk for two or three, I’m game, but I do love the Pastrami-spiced bone-in rib eye. The crackerjack sundae is sticky and good.

 

Porter House
10 Columbus Circle, 4th floor, Time Warner Center
        With new steakhouses muscling into NYC every week, it’s easy to forget chef-owner Michel Lomonoco’s Porter House, calm and dignified on the 4th floor of the Time-Warner center overlooking Columbus Circle. It’s everything you want a steakhouse to be, offering all the classic starters and sides, options for carnivorians and abstainers, smartly executed. I like the chili-rubbed natural rib eye but I’ll share in the namesake Porterhouse if my friends vote that way. Musts among the sides: impeccable onion rings and hashed browns the way they ought to be. Wayne Harley Brachman’s classic American desserts are worth loosening your belt.  

 

Fairway Café and Steakhouse
2127 Broadway between 74th and 75th Street. Upstairs.
        I probably wouldn’t splurge on a big taxi fare to come to Fairway Cafe for steak. But it’s a block from my house. That’s where I do breakfast meetings. At dinner lights lower, tablecloths appear and irascible Mitchel London – he can be charming or aloof – may offer you onion rings on the house or sit at his corfner table barking into the phone. The prime dry-aged 12 oz. NY Strip is $36, the prime hanger, just $21. Both come with fries that can be first-rate.  My guy and I came often just for the almost- always superlative burger. I liked mine with gruyere and bacon. I say almost-always because every-once-in-a-while the kitchen dozes. About the proletarian bun on that burger – Mitch thinks that’s the way a burger bun should be.

 

Peter Luger Steak House
178 Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
        I once worshipped the fatted cattle at Peter Lugers but long ago I crossed it off my steakhouse list. I don’t like the glaring lights, the growly waiters and definitely not the fatty steaks carved in the kitchen and then delivered to your table where they are receive a benediction of melted butter mixing into puddles of fat. Need I mention, no credit cards?  But I thought I’d include it here anyway because many New Yorkers seem to think this is the ultimate communion with a cow.


Ducks Eatery
351 East 12th Street, East Village
        Chef Will Horowitz does a lot of are-you-kidding inventions in this small bare-brick storefront with its uneven floor while reggae plays. I loved most of what I tasted that first night. But this rave is for his devotion to smoky, rich brisket. The chef sleeps at the place overnight because the meat for his celebrated Brisket Tuesday needs 18 hours in the smoker. Reserve ahead because the line forms early and there are only 20 seats.

 

BLT Steak
106 East  57th Street between Park and Lexington Avenue.
        Gourmands blissed out with the arrival of BLT Steak where the house giveaways began with outsize popovers bigger than a newborn’s head, silken chicken liver mousse and slivers of salumi on a wooden board (although maybe that was a plus for regulars and VIPs). I might share the Caesar with my mate if he didn’t insist on tuna tartare and then the bone-in sirloin for two. How you like your steak is sacred here. The menu provides a key. The truffled gnocchi side is always a must. I’m a fool for potato skins too. Economizing one evening we shared the $29 prime hanger steak and felt supremely virtuous.

 

Hill Country Barbecue Market
30 West 26th Street near Broadway
        I don’t mind standing in line to “shop” for Texas style meats here while someone guards out table. Friends want to try everything: dry-rubbed ribs, moist brisket and imported Kreuz sausage. One huge juicy cow rib with a bite of this or that is enough for me. Usually two of us go off to collect sides: cole slaw, potato salad, cheddar mac’n’cheese, undistinguished fries, sweet corn bread. At the end we sit, too paralyzed for dessert.

Arlington Club
1032 Lexington Avenue , Upper East Side
        It didn’t matter that I wasn’t thrilled with chef Laurent Tourondel’s Arlington Club steak until the third try, because the short ribs under a thatch of greens was sensational, the chicken made me happy and I was ecstatic about the stand up macaroni. Crowds stormed the place but returning to our favorite booth, my friend and I decided we could make a meal of the Lexington salad and four or five sides. I finally even had a great sirloin. If you want medium rare, order rare. For rare, best say “blue.” Buzz says the bar draws mating flocks 40 and up.

 

Minetta Tavern
113 Macdougal Street, The Village
        Keith McNally’s brilliant rehab of this 1937 tavern where tables crowd close like a jigsaw puzzle is always packed. There was a 40 minute wait just to sit at the bar as we left a few nights ago. Worshippers of the cow come for the $145 dry aged Cote de Beouf with roasted marrow bones for two. Personally I crave the everyday $19 Minetta burger – rare, please -- with cheddar and caramelized onions to the $28 Black Label burger because it’s rich enough and less fatty. Both come with a stack of top notch fries. Order ahead if you want a soufflé.


Strip House 12th Street
13 East 12th, The Village
Strip House Midtown
15 West 44th Street
        Steak worship begins at a red tufted leather booth in a room that glows red with photographs of strippers and opera stars hanging everywhere. Bring friends and start with a tall seafood plateau. I’ll take the bibb lettuce toss with bacon and stilton myself, maybe share the bone-in-strip with a pal, or join friends in a 34 oz dry-aged Cote de Boeuf. Everyone orders a side crowding the table .The sour-cream-bacon-cheddar stuffed baked potato could be dinner all by itself. Goose fat potatoes try to mimic l’Ami Louis’s pommes in Paris. One tall wedge of the house’s mythic chocolate layered cake is enough for the table.

 

Il Buco Alimentari
53 Great Jones Street, Noho
        I don’t let my friends fill up on too many vegetable starters, salads, the excellent house-baked bread or even the fabulous pasta here (bucatini cacio e pepe or Busiate with a Roman pesto are my choices). My hunger is relentlessly focused on the slow-roasted short rib to feed 5 or 6 – a mammoth crusty slab decked out like no one else does it -- with bright green castelvetrano olives, celery, walnuts and horseradish.

 





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