Peter Luger Steakhouse (2001-2003)

[Orik]

Things I learned from this thread:

- Some people actually go to Sparks for the steak and pay for it with their own money.

- Most people prefer Peter Luger's steak. There are dissidents, but not among prominent critics.

- Derek Jeter (who?) is better than Ray Ordonez (who?)

[Wilfrid]

Wilfird's attorney friend has it right. You might not like the Luger style, but there is no denying it isn't there.

Eek. Where is it?

[rich]

Things I learned from this thread:

- Some people actually go to Sparks for the steak and pay for it with their own money.

- Most people prefer Peter Luger's steak. There are dissidents, but not among prominent critics.

- Derek Jeter (who?) is better than Ray Ordonez (who?)

You forgot to add that I'm a fool and idiot whose opinions are suspect.

[Jinmyo]

I like you, Rich.

[Fat Guy]

I know PL isn't as good as it once was and there have been enough similar comments here to at least make that possible. So why don't critics see that? Intimidation seems to be the only logical answer - unless you can think of something else.

Well, the other logical answer is that . . .

. . . you're wrong!

Actually I hadn't focused on the historical issue. I'm mostly just saying Peter Luger is currently the best. Was it ever better than it is now? That sort of thing is very hard to determine. Were you eating there in the days before they switched from wood-fired grills to gas broilers? That was probably quite a long time ago; I'm not sure of the date, and I think the broiler is probably a better tool for cooking steak anyway. We know the meat supply isn't as good as it once was at the high-Prime level, but Peter Luger still gets the best of what there is, which may be as good as it ever was. Only a serious butcher could tell us for sure (who was the butcher who posted here awhile back telling us how Peter Luger always gets the best?). Have they changed the aging process? Again I can't say. I have commented elsewhere that I think there's probably some flavor sacrificed for tenderness in the equation they use, but I have no means of testing that hypothesis. There always seems to me to be a funky taste in the "sauce" and have often wondered whether there's a seasoning agent in use.

[Steve Plotnicki]

"Intimidation seems to be the only logical answer - unless you can think of something else."

Let me ask you. Intimidation by who? The steak mafia?

Fat Guy, are you intimidated by Peter Luger? Wouldn't you write a bad review of PL if you had a shitty meal there? In fact I recently went to the PL in Great Neck and had a pretty bad meal there for Luger standards. The steak didn't seem to be as aged as what I'm used to in Bkln, and the butter sauce was on the sour side. There, I wrote about a bad meal there and I wasn't intimidated by anyone. But the two eGullet lunch meals I had this past year were superb.

[jaybee]

Anyone who says that PL steaks are "bad" doesn't have any taste in steak. Anyone who doesn't think PL serves one of the best steaks anywhere in the world, doesn't know their steak from Salisbury. Anyone who ascribes PC to the motive to like PL steak needs a tongue transplant or should become a vegan. Case closed.

[tommy]

bobby van's intimidates me. but only because of all of the tossers i see standing at the bar when i walk by. it's a tossateria in there. chilling.

[Fat Guy]

Fat Guy, are you intimidated by Peter Luger?

Yes, now that you mention it I distinctly recall that Mr. Luger came to me in a dream just last night with the express purpose of intimidating me. He was quite tall and dour and he walked with a freaky limp -- it wasn't a normal limp, but rather a three-step cycle of different limps. He wore a brown wool three-piece suit with suede elbow patches and had a dry-aged short-loin sub-primal slung over his shoulder. He told me, "Fat Guy, you even think about a bad review and I'll pull a Rosengarten on your sorry ass. You'll wind up divorced, insane, and co-hosting a TV show with Giuliani's wife." With that, his three-headed pet cow growled at me and, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

[tommy]

He told me, "Fat Guy, you even think about a bad review and I'll pull a Rosengarten on your sorry ass. You'll wind up divorced, insane, and co-hosting a TV show with Giuliani's wife." With that, his three-headed pet cow growled at me and, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

yikes. at least he didn't threaten you with having to serve as a moderator an out-of-control internet food site. count your lucky stars for that.

[Robert Schonfeld]

I have a friend who's a butcher. An old timer. A big time old timer. Wears a gold cleaver for a tie bar.

I once asked him who has the best steak in New York. He said Peter Luger, because every supplier will give them the first buy, and they always buy the very best of its kind that is available. He was talking about the Porterhouse. He said the only way to get a steak of the quality of Luger's, and to try your hand at prepearing it, is to buy one from them.

[awbrig]

This place is also Francois Payard's favorite steak place as well...

[Deacon]

Let me try and make a good analogy. Okay, it's like saying . . . that the Chrysler Building is taller than the Empire State Building. Or that the speed of sound is faster than the speed of light.

Well, you tried to make a good analogy, anyway. . . .

Okay, that's far enough. I can only hold my tongue up to a point, any further and the top of my head's going to come off. Matters of taste are not scientific absolutes. I don't want to rehash Nina's "subjectivity" thread again, but as I said, I can only tolerate this line for so long. You can't argue about the height of the Chrysler Building or the Empire State, but you can validly argue about which building you "like better." The speed of light is an absolute, the "best" (whatever that means to you) steakhouse in NYC (or anywhere) isn't. If it were, the Management might as well close down the site right now for further input. Why not just argue about which end to crack an egg on? (That's from Gulliver's Travels, BTW.) Wars have probably been started for less.

The whole reason there's a site is that taste varies. I can't "prove" to you that what I see when I see "blue" is the same as what you see. For all I know, you might look and see what I call "red." But as long as your vision and mine are consistent over time, we can still have a discussion about art.

[Steve Plotnicki]

Deke - I'm not saying you have to prefer Luger, but I am saying that you have to notice that they age their steaks a certain way plus cook them a certain way as well. That is not a subjective thing. The steaks taste of those processes. That's why the measure is akin to a scientific measure. We are not measuring how much you like the process (which most people love by the way,) but whether it has affected the taste of the steak or not.

[Deacon]

Oh, I see. Well, allllrighty then.

Yes, I fully agree. If Peter Luger always gets first choice at the source (there's the conspiracy theory of the week) and if they age in a certain formulaic way--yes, by all means, those things are quantifiable. Definitely.

And when Shaw's Peter Luger nightmare is filmed, the part of Peter Luger will be played by Kevin Spacey.

Keyser Soze's Steakhouse--you'll take it our way and like it! No wonder nobody else can compete.

[jaybee]

Everyone knows the little end is the best one from which to crack an egg. This was proven by British scientists in 1878, and the war with the farmers of Wales settled the point. Or was that the Falklands/Maldives war?

[Robert Schonfeld]

If Peter Luger always gets first choice at the source (there's the conspiracy theory of the week)

Are you suggesting that my butcher friend is a conspiracy theorist? Do you want him to come at you with his gold cleaver?

If you want to contradict someone with that kind of experience, you're going to have to offer some facts, or at least someone else who wears a gold cleaver for a tie bar.

[SobaAddict70]

Anyone who says that PL steaks are "bad" doesn't have any taste in steak.  Anyone who doesn't think PL serves one of the best steaks anywhere in the world, doesn't know their steak from Salisbury.  Anyone who ascribes PC to the motive to like PL steak needs a tongue transplant or should become a vegan.  Case closed.

I've never been there.

Maybe with all this vitriol, I should go. But only in a group, pls.

That way, I can duck and cover when the tomatoes come flying, as they're sure to do.

hehe

Seriously, I've had steak less times in my life than I've had chicken. Like enough times I can count them on two hands. By steak, I don't mean chopped steak. I don't mean Swanson's Salisbury. I mean porterhouse/filet mignon/T-bone oozing with beef juices and an obligatory pat of butter. A major beef eater I'm not. So gotta be honest with you, I may not be able to discern that special something ppl keep talking about. Or I might. I dunno. Sooooo confused.

Mr. Demille, I'd like my money shot now.

SA

[Rail Paul]

Mr. Demille, I'd like my money shot now.

 

SA

Gloria Swanson is loading .. but she has a 30.06, with a clip, fifteen shots, look left...

[jaybee]

Maybe with all this vitriol, I should go. But only in a group, pls.

Lugers charges an inordinately high price for vitriol, but it is well aged, served with a side of bile and a souçon of acid. Just give them 24 hours notice if more than six are in your vitriol party.

[Suzanne F]

Sorry, but vitriol is NOT the best way to cook anything. Much too wet for a good steak -- you end up with the equivalent of steam-table Blarney Star brisket. And it leeches all the nutrients out of vegetables. As for fish, oh, PUH-LEEZE! Maybe lobster can stand up to it, or monkfish, but a delicate turbot would just wither away. How can you possibly consider vitriol as a proper cooking medium? You must be a total idiot.

[Deacon]

Are you suggesting that my butcher friend is a conspiracy theorist?

No, but I am curious as to why and how Peter Luger's buyers get first pick at the meat wholesalers. I hope Shaw will enlighten us. He's written authoritatively on his own site about the subject.

Perhaps a fair way to compare the steaks at Peter Luger, Sparks, and Smith & Wollensky would be to let Sparks or S & W get first pick for a period of six months to a year. Then, everything else being even, we'd see if it was the buyer's eye for meat, the way it's aged, or something else.

[Fat Guy]

I've never gone shopping for meat with the gals at Luger's, but other journalists have and they've reported the same thing. I've got a few butcher contacts who all confirm it, as do two people I've spoken to who work in the wholesale meat industry. Plotnicki, who was the butcher who posted here about selling meat to Luger's? Anyway, I'd characterize it as common knowledge in the industry. Luger's is a long-standing and massive account at all the best wholesalers, they pay quickly, the family members select every side of beef and stamp it with the Luger's stamp, they're very responsive in a negative way if they get a bad piece from you, there's a big prestige factor in being able to tell your other customers that you sell to Luger's, etc. -- it's all the old-world labor-intensive hands-on schmoozing crap you need to do to get the best product.

As far as I know neither Sparks nor S&W serves a porterhouse, so it's pretty hard to compare. I think you basically have to break down the steakhouses by who serves the best of each cut. Sparks has a very nice strip. S&W's extra-aged rib is exceptional. And Luger's has the best porterhouse. The porterhouse is the king of steaks, therefore the steakhouse with the best porterhouse is the best steakhouse. Okay, bye.

[SobaAddict70]

You must be a total idiot.

I think you have me confused with my evil twin brother....ASS.

We were switched at birth.

ba-dum-bump

hehe

SA

[Deacon]

Luger's is a long-standing and massive account at all the best wholesalers, they pay quickly, the family members select every side of beef and stamp it with the Luger's stamp, they're very responsive in a negative way if they get a bad piece from you, there's a big prestige factor in being able to tell your other customers that you sell to Luger's, etc. -- it's all the old-world labor-intensive hands-on schmoozing crap you need to do to get the best product.

Sounds like Glengarry Glen Ross: the best salesmen get the best leads so they sell more so they're the best salesmen so they get the best leads. . . .