We went to the Down Under Steak House at Toftrees (that’s the ritzy golf resort here) last night. And no, it isn’t a steakhouse. I’m not sure what’s going on here, if it’s a local, state, or east coast block, but apparently restauranteurs — and customers — have a problem understanding the concept of steak house. But before I deal with State College, let me address this first:
jeffrey Quick on March 30, 2006 at 12:47 pm said:
Yeah, I guess you’re right. I enjoyed the variety of Bloomington’s ethnic restaurants when I was there this summer (what, TWO Tibetan restaurants?), but quality was all over the map, and south more often than north. I wish I could get raw milk cheese as good and as cheap as what I bought at the Co-op though.
I’ll only go to the “new” Bloomingfoods, east of the mall. The original down off Kirkwood, is filthy, dark, and disgusting. They have Bloomington’s best cream (however ironic that may be), though you’re likely to be lectured on holistic diets, how dairy is cow abuse, and health food when you check out.
Two Tibetan restaurants, and surely Tibetan is the world’s more boring food. They’re both owned by the Dalai Lama’s brother, who is IU faculty. Don’t eat at either unless you don’t mind dead flies floating in your room temperature, free-range water.
If you want great local food, eat at Wee Willie’s, on South Walnut, or Ladyman’s on Kirkwood. Now, back to State College.
So we went to the Down Under Steak House, opened the menu, and no ribeye. I asked. They had just taken it off the menu. I sat there for a few minutes, decided I wanted a steak, not roast beef, and we went to Outback. No commentary necessary there; it was okay, but at least it was a steak.
You can’t call yourself a steak house if you have only three steaks on your menu. This is the only place I have ever been where restaurants with only three steaks on their menus call themselves steak houses. Is it because nobody out here has ever eaten in a steak house?
If you go to Quaker Steak and Lube (that’s a Pittsburgh chain), their thing is wings. The menu has two pages of nothing but different types of wings. That’s an excellent analogy for a steak house.
At a steak house, the predominant item on the menu is (drum roll) steak. That means more than just three, more like three pages of steaks (though you are allowed to have chops as well). That’s what makes it a steak house.
You cannot have three pages of salads on your menu and be a steak house. Nor can you have Wednesday’s Monkfish Special, not if you’re a steak house. Nobody goes to a steak house to eat salad or fish. You go to a steak house to eat steak.
What is so hard about that? How is it that you can’t find a ribeye here unless you go to a chain? And what makes you think you can call yourself a steak house, if you only have three steaks on your menu?
Go to Chicago or Kansas City, both cities that specialize in the genre. Note that when you go into a steak house there, most of the menu is (drum roll) steak. Do you not get the connection between steak, as in on the menu, and steak house?
One thing is certain: When we next visit Bloomington in May, Little Zagreb will be a necessary stop, at least once.
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Right Wing Prof,
I’m sorely disappointed you went to Outback. One thing I’d always thought you right-wingers had going for you was knowing what it means to be carnivorous.
I’m afraid for a steak to be a steak, it has to be cooked over a flame, not on a cast-iron grill like in Outback. This is not negotiable, and even knee-jerk liberals like myself know it.
As a math instructor you may be unsurpassed, but as a food critic, you’ve got your work cut out for you.
This is a sad day indeed for the right-wing conspiracy.
LOL! I didn’t go there gladly.
So is this odd misconception of “steakhouse” an east coast thing?
I don’t know, actually. In NYC, I’m not sure whether Peter Luger’s has anything other than the porterhouse on the menu, because to the best of my knowledge, no who goes there has ever ordered anything else. I suppose they must have something for people who get dragged along.
But I think the Outback is an abomination. There are a few chains out here that clone it. It’s sad that so many Americans think what they sell is steak.
My 9-year-old daughter won’t settle for that, and you shouldn’t either.
Yeah, I was at the Bloomingfoods past the mall. It was more cramped but more interesting (they had beer!) than Cleveland’s equivalent. (I’m a co-op member but prefer shopping the capitalist health food stores.)
I think I hit both Tibetans. the one in the house was decent, the other not good.
Bloomingfoods is sort of Red China capitalist. It’s a co-op, but they give members barely any discount, and require them to work a minimum number of hours per month for next to nothing. Of course, considering the type of person that would leap at the chance to be a member of the Bloomingfoods co-op, sort of the same variety that joined the ashram until they moved to Idaho or wherever it was, it’s not surprising that they’re gladly bending over and begging for it hard and deep.
I forgot to add that Bloomingfoods has the highest gross profit margins of any business in the county.
The Lube is based in Sharon, PA–not Pittsburgh