Peter Luger?
 

i've never been. i will one day.

but i was wondering. their steaks. they are served family style? you are sharing that thing? is that why they kinda pre-slice it into smaller portions for you?

(the menu has no pricing..just curious how much is it?)

my wife and i always share a small steak. i like how PL cuts up the steak and rearranges it back into the original general shape. then they are pouring a AuJus over it? what is that clear broth looking stuff on the plate?

i want to mimic them on my next steak..for fun. :)

Have you been to The Sage Room at Harvey's Lake Tahoe? they have a good Caeser salad made tableside and a Chateaubriand for two. Been there since 1947, pricey but good!

https://www.yelp.com/biz/sage-room-steak-house-lake-tahoe

I knew this was a Vash thread as soon as my cursor hovered over the title......:)

Go to Sparks Steak House instead, famous mobster Paul Castellano was murdered on the front steps. And the steaks are better.

Lugers is pretty friggin good, have been a number of times..One of the few bargains there is the Burger..hmmmhmm good..

The steaks are "Steak for two,three, four.." etc... A steak for two, etc is a thick dry aged Porterhouse.. I think the single steak is a NY strip..since I always go with a date I opt for the steak for two...

Then get the tomato and onion,creamed spinach, home fries, and for dessert apple strudel and schlag,

Price will be north of $200 for that depending on the amount of alcohol you order.

The waiters are notoriously gruff... i.e. when they set the table for you, they put the Lugers bottle of steak sauce down and quip "You wont be using that on the steak will you?" The steak sauce goes on the tomato. Also people that look at the menu are chuckled at.. In Brooklyn, they ask if you'd like to see the menu, just say no, you'll have the steak for 2,3,4 and the sides, the waiter will clarify, that you want the correct sides.. So yes it is family style.

And further its cash only, unless you have a Lugers credit card..

I worked on the Williamsburg Bridge for six years, and have enjoyed many a Burger at lunch there


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I don't remember ever going to a steak house that doesn't offer the cut of meat you might want, on any given day. No 16oz strip? No 22oz ribeye? Do you even get to tell them how you want it cooked at PL?

PL doesn't sound all that great to me. Bob's Chophouse would be my first pick.

Been there a few times. Hugely overrated in my opinion.


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Haven't been to PL but have had their steaks delivered. A friend works in NYC has picked them up. We grill them ourselves.

If you make it to Manhattan, and want to splurge on a big steak, there are probably several places I wouldn't steer you to before Peter Luger's. Not that you can't get a good steak there, but I think there are better steakhouses.

The steaks are good but the bacon makes it imo...

We have a Peters Steak house here in town, the owners claim to fame is he was a chef at Peter Lugers and brought his business model to his little place.

I am not a fan of the group steaks.

If you ever are in Tampa Florida look up Berns Steakhouse. Berns takes it to another level that will not be forgotten if you get to experience the place. It takes a few hours to get out of there.

After dinner you tour the kitchen, then the wine cellar then you go upstairs for desert in your own private room.

I cannot say enough about the experience. I took my parents there for their 50th and they were blown away.

Can anyone verify the clear broth? Or is it just meat leakage?

It's clarified butter that is ladled into the plate. Obviously there is a little bit of juice from the steak that mixes in with it.

You will generally find one of two things at a high-end steakhouse. Either butter, or beef fat, added to the steak for flavoring.

At Luger's, they broil dry aged beef that they age and trim themselves, at about 800°. The only seasoning they use is salt.

I had a crap experience at Sparks. Same for Delmonicos.
Peter Lugers is very good but the hype about Peter Lugers is a little much.

I hate to admit it but I've had better at Wolfgangs and STK in manhattan.

And if you're arguing steak in manhattan you're missing the point about food in manhattan.

Sorry, I realize that's not what the thread is about.

My shop is a few blocks away from Lugers. I have had the steak, burgers for lunch many many times. But, I think the best thing on the menu is their butterflied lamb chop, other than the schlag of course ;)

The best steak I have had was at BLT Steakhouse on 57th and Park. I have been to all the others including Sparks which I thought was OK.

Oh, don't use the Lugers steak sauce on the steak, big no-no. It's meant for the raw Bermuda onions!

+1

thanks for the responses. i'm gonna do my next steak similar for fun. i think i now have a game plan.

as an engineer, i wonder how that dude cuts each section fairly similar in width. i would eff it up and have a wafer thin one at the end. :)

Not to put too fine a point on it but Sparks doesn't have front steps. Big Paulie got his while stepping out of his Town Car at the curb and died in the gutter.

Local news crews were interviewing passers-by in the hours afterwards and one guy walking his dog asked the reporter, "what happened here?"

"Paul Castellano got murdered outside of Sparks."

"Did he get it coming out or going in?"

"I think it was going in."

"Too bad--he missed a great meal."

Only in NY, kids. Only in NY. :D:D

Listen, Luger is the ORIGINAL. They buy their own primal cuts and stamp them with their own stamp, butcher and age in-house.

There are other fine steak houses in the Luger style-- Mark Joseph down at Peck Slip and Water street, which has the advantage of serving Bassett's ice cream from Philadelphia (it's worth going just for the Bassett's.) Wolfgang's, which I have always found a bit noisy, not just due to the crowd, but to the acoustics of the Gustavino vault that you sit in.

Sparks is different, it's a steak fromage, totally different presentation than Luger's, not really comparable.

Anyway Cliff to answer your question it's butter, that is about 500 degrees when it hits your table. The waiter will flip over a small bread plate and use that to angle the serving plate up on one end, so all the juice runs to one end, where it's then scooped up and drizzled on the steak.

Fifteen years ago I went to Luger's with some summer interns. The waiter sidles up and says, "what are you having?" Without prompting, one of the interns says, "Steak." At which point the waiter says, "Of COURSE you're having Steak, this is Peter Lugers!" Waiter looks at me, I say, without hesitation, "Steak for four medium rare eight pieces bacon tomato and onion." He nods, approvingly. Should have ordered a salmon for that kid.

thanks!!
at least i'll have the salty waiter part down pat.

Once when we finished of phase of a project on the Willy Br.. a group of use went to Lugers to celebrate.. We had one particularly salty waiter...

One of the guys mentioned he wanted a steak well done!, The waiter quipped " we dont cook steaks like that" then "just eat the small end!" funny, I still work with the guym and we never hold back from ribbing him about well done steak.

BTW, allegedly the waiters there make six figures between salary and tips.

When I drop the coin for an expensive steak dinner, I want a very luxurious evening. It's generally a given that the steak will be good, but I also want to comfortable seating, good service, and a host of other things. One of the problems I have with a place like Luger's is that it's not a very luxurious room, the chairs don't even have padding, and the attitude is maybe less than differential to the customer.

It may be how they did it 100 years ago, but those were different times. I want something a whole lot nicer than that.

i will try it one day. i'm curious how they did it "old school". i'm okay with it. i have zero idea how they did it. only one way to find out.

we have some great steakhouses here in the bay area as well. in general, i dont go very often. they just have never been my thing.

You can cook a steak at home just as tasty as anything you get in a steakhouse. That's the main reason I seldom go to high-end steak houses. It's not like other types of food, that require a huge amount of knowledge and ability on the part of the chef.

When I do choose to go, though, the entire experience must make it worthwhile, which implies a great deal more than just a good steak. That's why I go for ultra luxurious settings, a really talented bartender, a good wine list, etc.

Well....I'm gonna look at the menu and ask for ketchup....if I ever go ;). I've never been in one of these high falutin' joints....does Morton's (in Philly) even compare? I don't get out much...obviously :).

By the way, you can catch a number of shows in television reruns that will show you everything that goes on behind the scenes at the better steakhouses in New York City. Whether it's Luger's, Keen's, Quality Meats, or so many of the others, I have been able to catch programs on them all. Maybe some of that programming is archived on the Internet.

I've been to Lugers twice; it was good...really good. On another trip, we did Keens; also really good. And I think on our last trip to NYC, we gave Old Homestead a spin and enjoyed our meal very much. Like many of the guys posting in this thread, I've spent a lot time on the "steakhouse steak at home" technique. And I know mine is good. Locally, I never bother going out for a steak dinner, we just enjoy mine. However, it's a nice treat when we travel to NYC! I expect the steak to be good and my martini to be dry!

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This thread is making me hungry, it’s a good thing I’m sitting in a great restaurant waiting for my lunch. Best Asian Chicken salad in town, (IMO), but can’t stop thinking about steak.

My dad was a steak eating guy and lived during the time when people ate more steak. He was a very particular eater, (passed down to me), and frequented places like Charlie’s and Murray’s in Minneapolis or The Lexington Room in St. Paul. He was fairly well traveled and had been to many of the famous places in other cities, including NY; he claimed that the best places in the Midwest were as good or better than anything in NY. He also liked to emphasize that the streaks at the famous NY places all likely came from the St. Paul stockyards or Kansas City.

Anyhow, he liked to buy the best ribeye from Lund’s, (awesome high end grocery store in Mpls.), and cook them on his Weber grill. He used to say that the best steak house in town was the 1400 Club, his street address. ;)

problem with matching the quality of a PL or Sparks steak at home is getting a grill that will hold 800 degrees at the surface.........

PL is VERY good.

You don't need 800 degrees. 300 will brown meat, you're better off with low and slow, if you want the middle to stay rare or medium rare and don't want to turn the outside to shoe leather. Most flavor comes from fat, juices and salt.

not in my book.

I used to love watching when they got a delivery of meat.. sheets of cardboard went down on the sidewalk on Driggs... and the sides were offloaded from the truck and laid on the sidewalk... Then either the chef or buyer (forgot her name) would inspect the preciously selected meat... and often send a few sides back... When they picked what they wanted.. down into the aging room it went.

When I prepare incredibly expense beef for a home steak house experience... I get the meat from either a really good supermarket near me... that dry ages prime in house...

Or one of a few purveyors of ultra prime to the industry here in NY..

Some of the prices make your eyes bleed... so it needs to be prepared with laboratory like precision..

Pat LaFrieda

Lobels

https://www.debragga.com/


The I get the steak to its temp for medium rare, via a few hours in sous vide.. and finish it and give it the Maillard reaction by either searing it in cast iron, doming it in my 900F pizza oven, or on my chimney charcoal starter...

Meat just out of the hot tub, This was a dry aged steak From Fairway

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With some chimichuri and slaw.. epic

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I remember a hunting/fishing bar and grill up in the Sierras that only had a flat top grill. They weren't that far from the cattle grazing areas of the nearby foothills NE of Bakersfield CA. So the meat was prime. They put a steak on the griddle in butter and placed a 3 inch maple block on top to hold the steak to the griddle. 3 minutes and flip it over for another 3. Perfectly seared to a glass like surface and when you cut it the juices practically squirted out. This was usually just less than 2" thick and it was always the right color inside.

That being subjective.

Same idea here Tim.

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Hot tub for 90 minutes at 128 then 90 seconds a side on the crazy infra red outdoor thing.



As I get better I feel like JR is right about the steak, but I spent $82 on 4 lbs of aged strip and I was deathly afraid to get it wrong. So I went for the hot tub.

Next time, try a ribeye and limit your temperature to 115 to 120 before searing.

Haha. Java; sometimes an internet friend you’ve never met in person just wants you to listen. :)

I’m sure we all do a bunch of crap differently from each other.

Hey man, I'm just trying to lead all the horses to the pond. Once you have eaten a rare-plus ribeye cooked properly, everything else tastes like cat food.

I have to admit, this thread made me go out and cook a steak, dammit.

'Twas good.

Yeah, a few years ago, NY strip was my go to. After switching to ribeye, I never looked back. Occasionally, I'll dabble with a porterhouse (strip on one side with a full cut of tenderloin on the other), but that's only if I don't like the ribeyes I'm presented with.