Breaking open a baked potato is a big thing?? Frankly, the idea of paying $10 for a baked potato is a bit much to me.
Oh, yes, tableside ritual whether with the salad, or the sides, or the tartare, is often big with the high-end places. After a certain point it becomes an “experience” thing, after all, what more can you do to a piece of dry-aged meat?
As mentioned, serious upscale steakhouses have an edge when it comes to in-house butchering and aging – I would say those would be category markers for comparison purposes, i.e. you compare within the tier that has those and within the tier that doesn’t and it’s unfair to go across. Of course the more established ones will often provide superior levels of service.
Me, I usually have someone else and better yet someone else’s government, be paying for dining at this price point. Because, egads how much for a &^%$# side of creamed spinach???
A friend owed me big this last summer and treated me to a no-expense-spared dinner at David Burke Primehouse at the James Hotel in Chicago. I’ve been there a few times before but we took the opportunity to try both the 55 day and the 75 day dry aged ribeye. These two steaks were $147 alone! I must say, trying them at the same time was quite enlightening. I wouldn’t have believed it otherwise but difference was significant with the older steak was indeed more tender and deeper in flavor. For lack of a better term, it was more mushroom-y…in a good way! However, this is not something I’d care to do if paying the bill myself. We were over $300 with sides & drinks.
If you go again, ask to see the dry aging room. It is really interesting. One wall is made up of pink Himalayan salt blocks and there are racks and racks of primal cuts. Here’s a link.
Wolfgang Puck’s CUT Steakhouse has a plate that has genuine Kobe, domestic Wagyu, and Nebraska corn-fed 35 day rib eye side by side by side. The taste differences are striking. The Kobe came in dead last by far.
I had understood that genuine Kobe beef wasn’t available at all, anywhere in the US.
It was restricted for a while, but is available today if you want to pay premium prices for sub-standard beef.
Per Wiki:
In 2009, the USDA placed a ban on the import of Kobe beef to prevent the Japan foot-and-mouth outbreak from reaching US shores. The ban was eventually relaxed in August, 2012 to allow limited amounts of Kobe Beef into the country but regular shipments didn’t resume until March, 2013.[9]
Yeah–I’ve only been to one of these places (Morton’s). I was required to be there as part of a work-related meeting, but it just felt foolish that someone was paying so much on my behalf for something that was 85% pretentiousness. Personally I just don’t get any enjoyment out of it.
Yes, a premium steak is really good–no doubt about it–(if you’re into steak), but all the other stuff, to me is essentially ordinary food that can be had just as good for much less (if you know where to go), and in a more enjoyable atmosphere (for me).
One of them old, dry aged cuts is on my bucket list!
I loves me a steak! Well, with wine, of course.
I can buy Nebraska Corn Fed USDA Prime ribeye, dry aged for 30 days at my grocery store for $16.99 a pound…
Sometimes it is good to live in Omaha
Wait, corn-fed is supposed to be a good thing now? If I’m going to be paying that much for a cut of beef, I’m going to insist on grass-fed.
Chronos, my friend
Corn fed was always a good thing.
Walpack Inn gets my money on the 1-2 times a year I save up for it. Perfect steaks, amazing appetizers, and fresh bread you’ll want the recipe for. Oh, and deer eat corn two feet beyond the window by your table.
“Well, you start with a large National Park. Then you put a great steakhouse right in the middle of it…” 
Corn is cheap and fattens them up before slaughter… grass fed is the much more flavorful cut.
I want to try Berns too. I’ve also heard dessert is an event too…you “retire” to another room and sit in leather lounge chairs with endtables.
Well, grass fed is now considered healthier, and it’s quite a bit more expensive, but I don’t know that most steak eaters would say that grass fed tastes better. Grass fed steaks and roasts tend to be leaner, which isn’t really all that good as far as taste goes. Grass fed is trendy, but it oversimplifies things to say it is better.
Grass fed beef is dry and stringy.
I’ve raised grass-fed, and I’ve raised corn-fed.
Corn-fed is better.
(A tip of the hat to the late Duchess of Windsor.)
Shout out to Lindey’s in MN, St Elmo’s in Indianapolis, Harry Carey’s in Chicago.
St Elmo’s has 1920/1930 steakhouse vibe, impeccable service and a shrimp cocktail appetizer to die for. I don’t like shrimp, and I don’t like horseradish, but I order it every time because it’s so awesome.
There’s a little, tiny, club in Studio City/North Hollywood called The Baked Potato that sells huge assed taters topped with all sorts of deliciousnesses costing upwards of $30. Not sure if it was worth it, but it was still very very good.
Also, the entertainment that night was fan-fucking-tastic. Comedy by Tom Papa, And music by Brendan Small (of Metalocalypse fame). Yes, they played The Duel from Doomstar Requiem, but they played a lot of other, non Dethklok stuff too. The place has an occupancy of less than 50 ppl.
Best steak I had will sadly never be repeated.
Windows of the World, July, 2001. That was an expensive meal. And it was delicious, too.