I recently visited two steak restaurants in Norwalk, both serving great steaks. Together they agree that USDA Prime Beef is the essential starting place for a great steakhouse experience, but beyond that, their paths to a memorable meal diverge. Blackstone’s Steakhouse, on Main St, takes a time-honored approach, offering top-notch grilled beef with meticulously-prepared steak-eaters favorite appetizers, sides and desserts. Washington Prime puts first-rate seared steak at the center of a more contemporary menu, serving up a broad range of innovative dishes on a menu that offers much more than steak.
Steak is a restaurant tradition, occupying a prime position in the American culinary pecking (mooing) order. A thick juicy steak sizzling from the grill with a charred crust, for many of us, is the ultimate special occasion meal. Beef has suffered from some diet fads and changing culinary trends over the years, but maintains a prefered position in the culinary hierarchy.
The best steaks are found in restaurants – steak restaurants. These temples to seared red meat offer the highest quality USDA Prime beef cooked on commercial equipment that cannot be matched at home. The meat is vastly different from supermarket offerings, hand selected, carefully aged, with a characteristic flavor and texture. The cooking equipment is heavy duty with much hotter and more consistent heat than at home.
Aging the beef is also essential for steakhouse quality. Dry-aged beef is held at the proper humidity and temperature to allow natural enzymes to tenderize while some moisture evaporates, creating a unique flavor and texture. Wet-aged beef is stored in vacuum packaging to preserve the moisture while the passage of time tenderizes and develops flavor.
Four cuts are at the center of steakhouse menus. The rib eye steak, rich and flavorful, is much more popular since roast prime rib disappeared from most restaurant menus. The strip steak or New York strip is a perennial favorite, a flavorful cut from the loin available boneless or bone in. Filet mignon is more tender, with a milder flavor, often cut very thick. A porterhouse or T-bone has both the strip steak and filet mignon joined by a T-shaped bone – considered the ultimate by connoisseurs.
Blackstones Steakhouse, on Main Ave, is a classic in the best sense of the word. With its deep red wallpaper, dark paneling, wall size mirrors, comfortable upholstered chairs, soothing piano music, crisp white table cloths and waiters all in black, the space is classy, comfortable, welcoming and professional. Owner Aldo Hima, with George Clooney good looks, in a medium gray suit and crisp open collar white shirt, seems to be everywhere: greeting guests like old friends; supervising service; offering wine suggestions; and ensuring comfort for all. It seems like a private club where all are welcome.
The professional service depends on an experienced, well-trained, and knowledgeable staff. The well-rehearsed choreography of removing extra place settings announced that we were in capable expert hands even before ordering.
The menu is classic too. Dry-aged Prime steak is the thing. At Blackstones the Prime steak is seasoned only with salt and pepper, grilled on a very hot infrared broiler and, importantly, allowed to rest prior to another quick flash of heat just before being served. “The juices equalize and are absorbed into the meat while resting,” Aldo told us, “keeping the steak juicy and flavorful when sliced.” The steaks are exceptional.
A long list of typical steakhouse sides like creamed spinach, hash browns, and crisp-sweet onion rings are prepared flawlessly and served in generous portions. The fresh salads and hot or cold appetizers are appealing. The entrees were presented on a gueridon (rolling cart) by two servers, one transferred the sliced steak from sizzling platter to plate, basting it with its own juices, while the other boned a Dover sole with deft expertise and finesse, another seldom seen classic touch.
LIke Aldo, Chef Jared Falco, at the newly-opened Washington Prime in SoNo, insists that Prime beef is the only meat appropriate for a real steakhouse. The fat marbling throughout, larger cuts, superior taste, and legendary reputation make it the only serious option.
Prior to opening, Chef Falco carefully researched steak cooking methods. There was lots of testing and trials (I wish I could have been there for
that) to find his favorite. His conclusion: “Simple is best.” Steaks are seasoned with salt and pepper and grilled on a double broiler, 900 degrees on top and 500 on the bottom. The cooking surface is a heavy chunk of cast iron. Instead of traditional grill marks the steaks have a thick even charred crust, yielding great flavor and contrasting texture with the juicy pink interior of the steak without any acrid burned flavor. It’s done well!
The steaks are offered with five deeply flavored sauces: horseradish cream, bearnaise, maple truffle chili, chimichurri, and umami bomb. The menu asks you to choose one – but ask for a sampling.
Falco’s goal is to create “a new steakhouse, where the rest of the menu is as good as the steaks, with personal choices from the Chef’s favorites, – what I like to eat. An anti-steakhouse.” The eclectic menu is much broader that a typical steakhouse. The steaks are the centerpiece of the menu, but the offerings go way beyond beef (like the five-hour braised octopus) with contemporary flair, careful seasoning, and creative thinking. Falco has a deft hand with spice and heat. Most dishes included one or the other, each with distinct flavors – no one size fits all here.
Great steak doesn’t come cheap. The best meat is expensive to begin with, the aging process adds cost and the know-how to do it right is rare. But it’s worth it. Treat yourself to dinner at these exceptional restaurants, it won’t be a mis-steak!
Blackstones Steakhouse
181 Main St, Norwalk,
203-840-9020
Washington Prime
141 Washington St. SoNo
203-857-1314
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