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Peter Luger Steakhouse, Williamsburg (Since 1887) and Great Neck Long Island


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Well, we have my early front-runner for meal of the year and I can't believe there isn't a thread already for Peter Luger Steakhouse.

We were hopping around Brooklyn for a bachelor party this weekend and there was no way we were skipping Peter Luger's (Williamsburg location obviously, also a second in Great Neck). I've heard some amazing things from friends who visit on a regular basis, and the experience lived up to the hype. We started off with various cocktails, and my Bulleit Old Fashioned was well-made and lasted most of the meal. I probably should have paired the steak with a bold red wine, but it worked. We paired the tomatoes and onions with a slice of bacon for the appetizer, and together they made a weird variant of a BLT, but delicious. That slice of bacon was heavenly, definitely a must-have and worked well with the steak sauce poured over. Just google a picture and start drooling.

For entrees, we kept it simple - steaks for everybody, potatoes, and creamed spinach. The potatoes provided a decent starch and I really liked the spinach (delicious but not too creamy), but that was about it. They aren't supposed to be the star though - the steak is. And boy, it did not let down. Cooked a legit medium-rare (we did have to please nine, after all) you could cut a bite with a few pushes of the fork. The meat was absurdly tender and flavorful, and we all left extremely full. Our waiters were excellent and provided great service with a playful attitude, everything came to $110-120 per person, and lunch was still a great value.

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A steady decline over many years for many reasons (long winded treatise available upon request).  I started going 50 years ago & was there often enough 35 years ago.  However, I haven't gone in at least 10 and have maybe been there 3 times in the last 20.  So many better places these days, not that Keens wasn't always right up there (and still is).

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22 minutes ago, Steve R. said:

A steady decline over many years for many reasons (long winded treatise available upon request).  I started going 50 years ago & was there often enough 35 years ago.  However, I haven't gone in at least 10 and have maybe been there 3 times in the last 20.  So many better places these days, not that Keens wasn't always right up there (and still is).

How is Old Homestead? I went there once ... in 1983! I have absolutely no idea if it was any good or not; I was overwhelmed by the whole New York experience.

PS - This really makes you appreciate the heyday of Ray's the Steaks, doesn't it? In a single restaurant, we had Michael Landrum, Jarad Slipp, and Michael Hartzer (granted, that moment was fleeting, but RTS was serving great steaks for quite some time before the Slipp-Hartzer era).

When you can buy Wagyu Tri-Tip at The Organic Butcher, there's no need to ever order steak in a restaurant again.

PPS - Have you read the comments in that article? There's a near-unanimous agreement with Wells - almost some sort of catharsis. I'm pretty sure that's also going to happen when ... oh, never mind.

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I have no idea about Old Homestead, other than you probably dined alongside many rock stars, artists (the non-starving bunch) and movie folk in the '80s.  It was the hot place to party, ordering verrrry expensive bottles of wine, Kobe beef & other high end items to make the evening more enjoyable.  I went twice back then-- pretty much out of my league.  Haven't gone since.

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1 hour ago, Bob Wells said:

I've never been to Luger's but I love the attacks on people who order fish. Quality steakhouses know how to cook fish too.

I've been to Luger's countless times over the years and agree on the decline, which seemed particularly steep post-2005 or so. I think that there are three factors at play here - first, the experience is no longer singular. Plenty of spots in Manhattan offering similar approaches to the Porterhouse, if not the atmosphere. Second, the steakhouse has evolved significantly over the years - remember Charlie Palmer Steak when Bryan Voltaggio was there? Steak wasn't even the main draw, arguably. As Bob stated, fish is a huge focus in steakhouses now, as are more interesting, less indifferently cooked side dishes. Finally, hard to keep a family business running on all cylinders for so many years. Need a singular focus on quality and a vision for the future. 

Wouldn't cry for them though - based on the value of that land alone.

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