I have often considered becoming a vegetarian especially in the summer months when the bountiful and wonderful harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables are raining down upon us. There is nothing like eating a simple salad made of local tomatoes or biting into a juicy peach to start my inner food clock ticking about how being a vegetarian could be a wonderful thing.
And then it happens, I smell a sirloin bar-b-que-ing somewhere, and this omnivore is snapped back to reality.
Not that I eat all that much red meat. I really don't. I eat quite a lot of poultry and fish. As a child growing up an Irish Catholic household, I actually looked forward to Fridays when meat was eschewed, and we would feast on flounder, cod, clams, shellfish, smelts (I recently discovered that one of my siblings detests smelts, I on the other hand, thoroughly enjoy them) and the occasional freshly caught bluefish. My mother and aunts made cod fish cakes long before you could buy them frozen from Groton's Fisherman. But when I go out to a nice restaurant, I often order a steak.
I have had steaks in Chicago at Gibson's and Eli's, and they were great. You really can't have a bad steak in Chicago. It is definitely a "beef-eaters" town. Also, I've had steak in Minneapolis, I can't remember the name of the place, but it was also a good steak. I think you really can't go wrong in the Midwest eating beef. Its grazing country after all.
New York, my hometown, also has some really great steak joints. I am not talking about Out Back
Steakhouse or Charlie Brown's. They are chains and the steaks are okay, but not top notch. For that you'll have to go to other more specialized joints.
In Manhattan you have your choice of many different places Gallagher's, Landmark, Ruth Chris (a chain, but pretty good) or my Manhattan go-to steak place, the Old Homestead Steakhouse in Chelsea. I have been there for lunch, and their steaks and Kobi burgers are wonderful. It is a real old-time New York Steakhouse, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to have a uniquely New York "beef experience".
If you are more adventurous, mosey on out to Brooklyn crossing the Williamsburg Bridge to Peter Luger's Steakhouse. The décor is Spartan; the seating communal, but the steaks are the best! They serve their steaks with a "salad" of sliced tomatoes and onions slathered in their own steak sauce...tangy and sweet at the same time.
On Staten Island near the ferry in St. George is Ruddy and Dean's Steakhouse. Its interior is classic "steakhouse" with dark leather banquettes and bar stools. The menu is decidedly designed for the carnivores among us, but it also serves a good Caesar Salad. It is across the street from the SI Yankee stadium, a short walk from the Ferry Terminal, and if they ever build the Observation Wheel, this restaurant will have a good view of it, as well as the harbor.
My last recommendation is not on land. It is a floating restaurant on NCL cruise ships. Each one has specialty restaurants, and my favorite one is Cagney's Steakhouse. I always budget into my cruising schedule one evening at Cagney's to have a filet mingon and creamed spinach with a good bottle of Merlot and crème brule.
Do you have any recommendations?
No comments:
Post a Comment