Boulud's Fancy Steak Lunch, Reviewed!
Reviews of La Tete d'Or's tableside roasts and Penny's seared mackerel. Plus: Txula Steak's menu, revealed, and more thoughts on eating red meat
The United Steaks of America
Quite a few folks — and corporations — have meat on their minds right now.
Adam Platt of New York Magazine went down to D.C. to muse upon marrow bones, filet mignons, and the changing tastes of the MAGA crowd.
Ligaya Mishan of the New York Times dropped by La Tete d’Or and two other chophouses — to see if our city’s bastions of beef are truly evolving. She also made the following key statement: “It seems to occur to no one that we are being fattened up like the cattle we feast on.”
And President Trump, who really, really likes steakhouses, had a few words to say about cattle last month at the United Nations General Assembly, of all places:
“No more cows. We don’t want cows anymore. I guess they want to kill all the cows,” he lamented, a dig at folks who correctly warn that cattle are significant producers of greenhouse gases (our own EPA says as much). That said, the actual threat to these friendly ruminants isn’t a fictional class of murderous environmentalists, but rather droughts out west and dudes in Patagonia vests wielding sharp Laguiole knives and decanters filled with Opus One.
It’s tough out there for heifers hoping to make it to retirement!
Indeed, Americans love their red meat. Beef consumption hit record levels last year, per market research firm Circana, even as steak prices continued to soar.
Chain restaurants are taking notice of all this:
Souvla, the tiny fast-casual Greek chain, announced last week that it will “finally” add beef to its menu, in the form of brisket.
Sweetgreen added steak to its salad bowl menu last year.
Chipotle has long offered beef barbacoa and sirloin cubes, but in September, the company brought back a third option, carne asada, as it was the brand’s “most-searched for menu item.”
And in New York, modern steakhouses or beefy brasseries seem destined to overtake wine bars as the prevailing new restaurant rubric of choice.
Among the notable new entrants: Two Thai meateries and three Korean steakhouses. A splashy Mexican beef palace opened in the Theater District this summer; it serves very good steak tacos. And although Eugene Remm closed his Catch Steak in Chelsea, he rallied months later with a replacement steakhouse, The Eighty Six, in the old Chumley’s space. The circle of life, lol.
Sometimes, we even end up with three steakhouses on a single block!
So, that’s where we’re at.
As I’ve said before: I won’t review every new steakhouse, but sometimes, I’ll write about a few cool dishes that stand out. So today, I’m revisiting La Tete d’Or to check out the new lunch service.
Let’s get to it.
Behind the paywall: The Early Fall Steak Issue
Review: La Tete d’Or’s $75 “trolley cut of the week"
A few words on the soaring price of beef
Review: Daniel Boulud’s (very good) wagyu chopped steak
Review: The lush mackerel at Penny