Tag Archives: steak
Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecote
“It’s like the Ray’s Pizza of Paris,” I said to Marie Fromage, trying to describe the complicated history of L’Entrecôte. “There are several of them, and each one claims to be ‘the original.’”
Unlike New York’s various “original” Ray’s Pizza shops, however, all of the L’Entrecôtes of Paris dish out steak frites with a delicious mystery sauce from the same grandfather’s recipe—they are just owned by different branches of the same Gineste de Saurs family. They all have a rabid following in Paris, though there is some debate as to which one is “the best.” Now L’Entrecôte is finally in New York.
The one off note that kept us from going until now was the location. The Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte, with locations in Paris and Barcelona, landed on the bottom floor of a brutish Midtown office building, a far cry from its charming centuries-old building in the 17th arrondissement. Inside, New York’s L’Entrecôte is cheerful, with bright lighting, as in Paris, a mural of Venice on the wall, as in Paris, banquettes, glass partitions, and no bar, also as in Paris. Once you’re inside, the most jarring difference is the absence of a thick haze of cigarette smoke floating above the tables – that and the fact that there are no lines or hour-long waits. We walked right in with a party of five and were seated immediately. (more…)
Posted in food, French, Midtown East, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged beef, New York, steak
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NYC Wine & Food Festival: Tour de Beef
You can taste the difference between an aged cut of beef and a supermarket steak, but what exactly goes into the aging process? DeBragga and Spitler, one of the few remaining butchers in the Meatpacking District with a facility that ages millions of dollars of beef, let a few of the curious in to witness the process, and Marie Fromage was one of them.
photo via Marie Fromage
Turns out that aging beef is a lot like aging cheese, with elements like temperature, humidity, and bacteria working over a specific period of time to yield the desired results. As you might have guessed, the main difference between wet aged beef, the sort you find in supermarkets, and dry aged beef, the sort you find in a steakhouse, is the expense: Up to 50 percent of the dry aged beef product can be lost due to water loss and trimming of the less attractive aged bits. Mary Connolly a.k.a. Marie Fromage gives some details on the aging process, after the jump. (more…)
Summer Entertaining: Grilled Pepper Steak With Salad
Everybody needs a few go-to recipes for summer entertaining. We adapted this one for Pepper Steak with Salad from Bon Appetit to make it super simple for a casual dinner with friends.
Perfect for summer house guests wanting to repay their hosts, it’s low impact on the kitchen, requires little equipment other than a grill, and calls for ingredients available nearly everywhere. Most importantly, the recipe has been tweaked so that all the prep work can be done well in advance – allowing plenty of time for cocktail hour.
Posted in food, recipes
Tagged entree recipes, grilling recipes, salad recipes, steak, the copycat chef
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Gotham Bar and Grill
A friend and I were discussing the Strip House the other day when he said, “If I wanted to have a nice steak in the neighborhood, I would much rather go across the street to Gotham Bar and Grill.”
I’m a fan of the Strip House, but I could see his point. Gotham Bar and Grill, once famous as the instigator of the towering-food trend, has once again become a favorite in the Village, 
thanks to Alfred Portale’s critical acclaim and the efforts of sociable sommelier Michael Greenly, who has recruited a wealthy young clientele to the place. The still-chic restaurant has a pedigree on par with Union Square Cafe and Gramercy Tavern, but because it is less well known in the hinterlands, it’s still a neighborhood place.
On a packed Sunday night a couple of weeks ago, I gave Gotham Bar and Grill another try after nearly ten years. (I once met Greenly, and he reprimanded me for not going there earlier. He has since left Gotham for a job in Napa, but the standout wine list remains.) The grand Tihany lamp shades are still there. At the bar, we ordered this 2000 Grands Echezeaux Mongeard Mugneret. The bartendress was ecstatic.
My dining companions, let’s call them “Mom and Dad,” since they are, talked about the wine list. Dad pointed out an excellent 1998 Domaine Leroy Rochebourg for $1,100. (We didn’t get that one.) He put a buy on 2005 burgundies, which he called the best in 25 years.
“I hope you’re not buying them,” Mom said.
“I am.” Dad’s wine cellar is slowly taking over the entire basement.
Not very many places in the neighborhood could qualify as purveyors of haute cuisine, but Gotham can. Alfred Portale won the James Beard award for Most Outstanding Chef in the Nation in 2006. A winning combination of delicate white asparagus, fresh morels, and a perfectly poached egg was a fabulous seasonal appetizer – get it while it lasts. 
The citrusy black bass ceviche was also startlingly good. Jicama, pineapple, and red pepper created a sort of firecracker effect of many bright flavors going off simultaneously.
Local Pine Island oysters, a traditional New York offering, mixed East Coast size with West Coast sweetness. Subtle and light, they were best eaten plain.
“That’s some serious cholesterol,” Dad said, as a server put a rack of lamb in front of him. He meant it as a compliment.
On that night, I noticed something I’ve been noticing a lot recently – the appetizers were a lot more dazzling than the entrees. It’s as if, with the first impression over with, someone in the kitchen is saying, “Phew – now I can relax.” Granted, that person might not have been Alfred Portale himself, particularly since it was a Sunday night, usually a chef’s night off, so it might not be fair to judge everything on this.
In the entrees, the quality of the ingredients was still there, but not as much attention had been paid to them. The lamb, though it looks elaborate and towering, couldn’t have been cooked more plainly. It was crying out for garlic, salt, pepper – anything. The lobster was covered in a butter foam, but this and the squab might have been a little overcooked – they lacked the tenderness I was expecting.
There were still plenty of haute cuisine touches. The black beer sauce in the squab dish gave it a nice contrasting bitterness to the sweetness of the choucroute and rich foie gras sausage. It was creative and original, and it made perfect sense.
We lingered over some after dinner drinks – the Madeira Boal D’Oliveros was my favorite – and surveyed the scene. Why had it taken me so long to get back here? I don’t know, but I’m not going to wait another ten years to return to Gotham Bar and Grill.
Besides, I still haven’t tried the steak.
Gotham Bar and Grill
12 East 12th Street, between University Place and Fifth Avenue
212-620-4020
Click here for the menu and wine list. To their credit, the staff at Gotham Bar and Grill is so attentive that I was unable to steal either.
Posted in American, food, Greenwich Village, New York restaurants, restaurants
Tagged New York, steak
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