News and Feedback

Sorry I haven't posted much this week but I do have a reason... I accepted and started a new job this week. 

I do plan on keeping the blog active, although I've been mulling some changes to it for a while. I enjoy writing about red meat related issues since I know more about them and enjoy them more than most other foods. However, I've found it difficult to simply write about them - without emptying my bank account and sending my cholesterol through the roof. Thus, if you look back at old posts there really hasn't been much of a focus or direction, it's been largely based on my preferences for the week etc. 

So I'm thinking about changing the direction of the blog and would like people's feedback. I'm considering moving more to a blog about how to cook and eat your way through your 20's. It would likely delve into how to self-teach cooking (as I have), how to master easy recipes (and maybe some daunting ones too), shortcuts for how to make dishes that are versatile and last for a while etc etc, and then also how to eat out on a budget. I'm not an expert here but I have been living this for a while now and I've learned some pretty useful ways (plus I'm continuing to learn every day). I'd likely still try to keep focused on red meat foods (because, well, they're my favorite) although meat isn't necessarily the cheapest items in the food store.

Please let me know your thoughts and suggestions on this and any other potential avenues you think that would be good to explore. 

Satisfaction thanks to Ray's the Steaks

I eat at a lot of restaurants. 

Friday was no exception, stopping by one of my favorites for dinner, Ray's the Steaks. There were just three of us and we really kept it pretty in check: one appetizer for the table, one bottle of wine and three different steaks. Yet we each left incredibly satisfied, full, and not too much poorer for it.

The meal was so satisfying that when Saturday rolled around it was still on my mind. I spoke to both people I ate with, they couldn't get it off their minds either. So I thought of the last ten or so trips I've made to steakhouses (excluding recent previous trips to Ray's), how my meal was, how my diners meals were and whether they were especially memorable. Not once in the last ten trips was every person happy, let alone ecstatic, with their meal. Not once did I spend three days thinking about just how good it was.

When was the last time you went to dinner and everyone left in awe? How about for under $50 a person?

For all the hoopla around new celebrity steakhouses and innovative restaurant concepts, there's not nearly enough made of simple excellent quality food at reasonable prices. And you know what, that's real innovation. Ray's does something as good, or better, than all their top-of-the-line competitors, but for half the price. 

Just wanted to share my post Ray's glow, considering it's still here 3 days later. 

Another celebrity chef's steakhouse is coming to DC

After literally just reviewing the last celebrity steakhouse to hit DC, there’s news of the next one on its way. Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a legitimately world-renowned chef, has chosen DC for his next restaurant: J&G Steakhouse, the second of this kind. Like Bourbon Steak, it will be stationed in a re-modeled swanky hotel, the W Hotel, in the former Hotel Washington space. Hopefully it’ll be more memorable than the last chef of his stature to open shop in DC, Alain Ducaisse with Adour.

Here are a few reasons I’m optimistic and excited about J&G. First, Jean-Georges can masterfully cook just about any cuisine, but he’s really known for bringing Asian influences and spices into other forms of cooking. His flagship restaurant, the eponymous Jean Georges, ties Asian and French flavors together and it’s supposed to be one hell of a restaurant - recently ranked the 19th best restaurant in the world. I have no idea what direction he’ll take J&G, but an Asian-influenced American steakhouse would be a really different and exciting addition.

If his other J&G Steakhouse is any indication, there won’t be much Asian influence but the concept of less is more is likely to prevail. His other J&G, in the Phoenician Hotel in Scottsdale, features a number of quality steaks at surprisingly normal prices: filet mignon for $28, NY strip for $30 and hanger steak frites for only $18 (Maybe my single favorite dish on earth). Prices like that would clearly differentiate them from rivals and would put J&G in contention with Ray's the Steaks for ownership of the mid-priced steakhouse market that Ray’s currently dominates.

And finally, if my one experience at a Jean-Georges restaurant is any indication, we’re in for a show. My meal at his Vegas steakhouse, Prime, was one of the more memorable of my life, in possibly the most luxurious room I’ve ever eaten in.

Vongerichten's Prime Steakhouse in the Bellagio Hotel

Now I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention a few hesitations as well. On the one hand, I’m thrilled that a number of refined steakhouses have come to DC, providing a very welcome change in food and scene from the mega chains like Mortons, Ruths Chris et al (although I do love the dry-aged strip at cap grille). But the problem with these new celeb-steakhouses is they aren’t actually manned by the chef’s whose names adorn them, so they are hardly local restaurants. In fact, the locally-owned-and-run steakhouse scene is pretty small: Ray's the Steaks, Sam and Harry’s, the Caucus Room, and then ?. Given how badly local restaurants have it in these economic times coupled with the influx of new steakhouses, it’s really important to remember and support the local spots.

Then again, maybe I should just shut up and be happy more steak is on the way.