The triumphant rise of the steakbar
The other night, I was standing at the bar at Alphaville in Bushwick, listening to someone botch my favorite karaoke song, when out came a perfect-looking steak: bright red in the middle and drowned in a caramel-colored pan sauce. It wasn’t a mirage. It was Lori Jayne, a restaurant operating out of the bar’s kitchen, turning Alphaville into some kind of a dive bar steakhouse hybrid. I’ll always have a soft spot for the porterhouse at Gallaghers. But some of my favorite steaks right now are found in strange places: natural wine bars, Mexican restaurants and, yes, graffiti-covered Bushwick booths. The steaks at these venues aren’t just more affordable — most of the time they’re more interesting. They trade creamed spinach for piquillo peppers and make béarnaise sauces with Korean hot mustard. (Heck, that night in Bushwick, my steak came with chopsticks.)
A Cote for the rest of usWhen the chef Sam Yoo took over his parents’ Midtown restaurant, New York Kimchi, last year, he had an identity problem. The downstairs operated as a Korean steakhouse, but most people got stuck drinking kimchi martinis at Golden Hof, the ground floor bar. (Hof refers to casual bars popularized in Korea in the 1970s.) “People heard ‘steakhouse’ and thought it was fancy,” Yoo told me during a meal last month. When he rebranded as a “Korean bar and grill” last month, business increased overnight, he said. When I returned to Golden Hof post-pivot, I was relieved to see that his steaks had survived the rebrand — and that you can now order them with Korean corn cheese and the viral honey butter pancakes from Yoo’s downtown restaurant, Golden Diner. You can order strip steaks and rib eyes as Korean barbecue with ssam and banchan — but there’s something charming about dunking those same meats into hot mustard béarnaise sauce with a side of fries. This is a Korean American steakhouse in its truest form, where poached lobster, kimchi jiggae, chopped salad and japchae all happily share a menu. 16 West 48th Street (Fifth Avenue), Midtown
Monday Night Medium-RareOn any given Monday, there’s a good chance you can find me sitting at the bar at Cozy Royale in Williamsburg. I don’t live anywhere near the restaurant, but it checks all of my basic needs for a weeknight meal: There’s Guinness on tap, entrees that hover right around $20, and you almost never need a reservation. Long ago, my friends and I made a weekly ritual of dining at Cozy Royale on Monday evenings, when the steak frites cost $25. (The rest of the week, they’re $37.) The steak tastes just right for the price — though some weeks there’s more gristle — and there’s no beating the mound of sturdy, salty fries, ideal for sopping up au poivre sauce, mayonnaise or both. (If you really want to hack the menu, arrive between 5 to 7 p.m. to enjoy $10 martinis and $10 shrimp cocktails.) 434 Humboldt Street (Jackson Street), Williamsburg
Our own little Asador EtxebarriBar Oliver had the bad fortune of opening right after my friends and I visited Spain for the first time, all but ensuring we’d be there, weekend after weekend, guzzling vermouth on tap. It was only after a few months away, and a dinner this summer, that I realized we had been doing it all wrong: We were treating this place like a bar when we should have been treating it like Keens. You have two steak options here. There are the specials — American Wagyu or dry-aged rib eye — priced by weight and advertised on a chalkboard menu behind the bar. (The last time I was there, the cheapest one was $157.) These special occasion steaks come out sputtering in a skillet with a pleasing crust and mild, beefy funk, and each time a chef cooks one, a veil of meat smoke hangs in the dining room like fog. Or you can order the ever-present Wagyu hanger steak ($39) served in a pool of olive oil and tart piquillo pepper sauce. Either option pairs wonderfully with the red vermouth on tap. 1 Oliver Street (Saint James Place), Two Bridges Read past editions of the newsletter here. If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here. Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note at here. Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
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