Glitz met gluttony Tuesday in a sleek, fancy New York restaurant called Beacon and — need we say it — gluttony won.
About 225 people, well-dressed, well-coiffed and seemingly well-to-do, were on hand deep into the evening to celebrate the revival of a time-honored but largely forgotten feeding ritual called a Beefsteak. They were there to eat and eat and eat.
Waldy Malouf, a chef with a penchant for history, supervised the cooking and dispersal of a mountain of provisions including 675 pounds of aged beef, 350 lamb chops, 300 lamb kidneys wrapped in 300 strips of bacon, 80 pounds of shrimp and crabmeat and four kegs of beer.
“The foundation of a good Beefsteak,” wrote legendary reporter Joseph Mitchell in the New Yorker magazine six decades ago, “is an overflowing amount of meat and beer.” Guests were offered unlimited amounts of the victuals and nearly unlimited time in which to eat them, so it was considered bad form if a reveler was able to eat again following a Beefsteak.
The Beefsteak began as a celebration for members of political and social clubs such as Tammany Hall that flourished in this city during the last quarter of the 19th Century and until the advent of World War II. And a good part of its fascination, at this distance at least, was the ritual of the event.
Originally these were rough and ready stag events. No tablecloths, no napkins; no knives, no forks were allowed. Copious consumption was applauded. In short, as Mitchell wrote, “A man who don’t like to eat with his fingers hasn’t got any business at a Beefsteak.”
Herein lies the crux of an unspoken conflict Tuesday evening. The presence of women at Beefsteaks, following the end of Prohibition and their winning the right to vote, led to the addition of certain novelties including fruit cups and fancy salads, dance bands instead of German brass bands, even napkins and cutlery.
At the sold-out ($85 including tip) “second annual” Beacon Beefsteak, sad to say, many such things were in evidence: forks have long been welcome with the seafood first course, but here they were left on the table during the meat course. Not only were napkins available, but there were plates and tablecloths on each table. One garnish that was absent but not missed at Beacon was the wearing of paper chefs’ hats. In the old days, jokes and slogans were written on them.
Where are the vests?
As for the audience, Sam Brown, at 19 the youngest diner present, said, “I was expecting a bunch of old-time railroad tycoons wearing vests and pocket watches.” There were some portly personages in attendance, but they were outnumbered by a good many young lawyers and stockbrokers not long out of college.
The band was brass, but it played jazz. Wine was available (as a supplement). As the evening began, strangers seated at the same table were somewhat stiff and reserved.
But the beer, a lager freshly brewed at Brooklyn Brewery from a pre-Prohibition formula, provided a delightful taste of the past and soon loosened tongues in the present. Soon guests caught the mood of the evening and showed little reluctance to revert to a more primitive style of dining as the meat was served. Indeed, unmistakably greasy hands came together vigorously to applaud whenever the waiters returned bearing large platters of freshly sliced steak. An informal poll taken after the meat course revealed that at least three-quarters of the diners, women as well as men, had opted to eat the chops and sliced beef with their fingers instead of using knives and forks.
The menu read thusly:
First course: Burgers on toast, jumbo shrimp cocktail, lump crabmeat with Russian dressing, relish dish of white radish, carrot and celery sticks and olives; dinner: roast dry aged Black Angus sirloin (shell) of beef, grilled double lamb chops, lamb kidneys wrapped in bacon; dessert: chocolate layer cake.
Burgers the best
The burgers, small patties made from the tail of the sirloins, “about 50 percent fat,” the chef estimated, were the flavor hit of the evening. For the second year in a row, bacon-wrapped kidneys, although sweet and tender, were the least demanded item. The most quickly and thoroughly devoured, a surprise perhaps because they were — if pristine — relatively flavorless, were the shrimp and crab. “But I can’t put out enough,” Malouf acknowledged. “So I serve a limited amount and when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
As for the meat, the lamb chops — tinged with a Mediterranean herb mix and cooked over hickory — were superbly meaty and sweet. The broiled steak also was what it was meant to be, flavorful, firm and juicy. They also exposed, bite by bite, one major concern about consuming quantities of red meat: The cumulative taste sensation was fat, Fat, FAT.
“Who is interested in eating a lot of high-fat meat?” asked one of the guests. Almost everyone, for at least a single meal now and then, appeared to be the answer. Yet at one table, a pair of second-year diners revealed that their companion of last year, who admitted to feeling “bilious” after the meal, had opted out of this event. “He said he had to go to his daughter’s piano recital,” one of them said with the slightest sneer.
“I intend to come every year,” said former baseball star and wine authority Rusty Staub. “Not just because the food is so good but because there is so much good feeling in the room.”
Which would have provided better food, a Beefsteak in Mitchell’s era or the one held Tuesday night? Chef Malouf believes the seafood he serves is probably of better quality than it would have been then. As for steaks, the pre-WWII cut was a Delmonico, or shell, that had been aged for eight weeks and developed an inch of mold. It would have been very firm textured and have a pronounced nutty, woodsy flavor. Beacon’s corn-fed Black Angus sirloin strips had been aged for 28 days, developed a thin coating of mold and, when trimmed and cooked, were arrestingly flavored and beautifully chewy. Emma Meppen, a magazine creative director from Australia, found the meat “honest, not tricked up,” and liked it a lot.
Our kind of idea
A visitor from Chicago was left wondering how New York had managed to create such a meaty feast before the beef capital of the Midwest had thought of it.
Would there be leftovers? The chef was asked prior to the event.
“I hope so,” he replied, adding that Beacon plans to host abeefsteak in 2003. “This is like Thanksgiving. If there are no leftovers, the cook did something wrong. Also, I want at least a little for my staff. They love kidneys.”
The menu
First course
– Burgers on toast
– Jumbo shrimp cocktail
– Lump crabmeat with Russian dressing
– Relish dish of white radish, carrot and celery sticks and olives
Dinner
– Roast dry aged Black Angus sirloin (shell) of beef
– Grilled double lamb chops
– Lamb kidneys wrapped in bacon
Dessert
– Chocolate layer cake
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Napkin and flatware optional
Brooklyn Brewery’s Pre-Prohibition Lager
Coffee available on request
Cash bar available
