(Trigger warning: MEAT)
My old friend Ivan from Berkeley came to Chicago for a meeting yesterday, and I offered to take him to a Chicago steak restaurant (he took me to many great places when I visited him two years ago during the Great Cross-Country Trip). My first choice, which was a BYOB (I prefer to bring a really good bottle and pay corkage than buy from an always-overpriced wine list), was full, so we went to a place I’ve been before: the Chicago Cut Steakhouse.
The restaurant is on the north side of the Chicago River, and is right along that river, so you can have your meat outside with a great view of the water and the center city. Walking from the train station to the restaurant, and over the LaSalle Street Bridge, you get a great view of Chicago and its splendid architecture:
Ivan cabbed in from O’Hare, and I met him at the place. Here he is:
And here he is in 1972 when we first met—as graduate students at Rockefeller University. This is my group of pals among the first-years. I’m in the center and he’s on the right holding the guitar. 45 years have done a job on both of us. But we’re still here—and scarfing down steaks!
The appetizers: foie gras on buttered brioche toast for me, a salad (iceberg wedge salad, bacon lardon, and Maytag Bleu Cheese) for Ivan. This is not a place for vegetarians, though they do have, I’m told, good seafood:
Our steaks: we each had a big 35-day, dry-aged ribeye. Mine was rare, Ivan’s medium rare. This one’s MINE!:
The side dishes with the steak, which we shared, were sauteed mushrooms and truffled scalloped potatoes with cheese. The wine was a 2013 Guigal Gigondas, and was fine.
The sunset on the walk back to the train (taken with an iPhone). Chicago can be a lovely town when you’re enjoying its architecture with a belly full o’ beef:
Look at you, Jerry! Awesome!
Love that old photo.
That’s a Wilson T2000 tennis racket you’re holding. Were you a Jimmy Connors fan?
Actually, I believe it’s a Chemold aluminum racket.
Was that Jerry Garcia?
I’m thinking more Alan Bates circa Women In Love.
I see our host as a very young Cat Stevens. When he was brilliant!
Sounds like a wonderful evening. Looks like it too. The weather looks perfect.
I love Gigondas and I’ve been there many times — and stayed there for a week, plus other nearby villages as well. Good choice of wine!
Oh, and the food and the view look great too! 🙂
As the end of the month is approaching and I am living on rice and pasta until payday, the pic of the steak is pure torture.
I’ll have to revise my prejudice that American food is bland, boring and easy, maybe it is because of KFC and McDonalds?
That dinner is mouth watering!
And although I do not eat starches, once a fortnight or so I surreptitiously eat an American ‘brownie cookie’.
The US (like Canada) is full of really lousy food *and* really good food. Comes from a “nation of immigrants” in both cases.
Black & blue?
Looks wonderful. May I ask what was the name of the place that was full?
Yes, Bavette’s Bar and Boeuf, a VERY popular place in Chicago (I haven’t been there yet). You can bring a bottle, and the “corkage” is giving a small glass to any person you select in the room. Another place I go to does that as well, and it’s a nice thing. You get to pick someone who looks as if they could use a good tipple, and they are always grateful.
What an excellent idea.
Also curious what the other, other place is? I’m always looking for BYOB places and one of the only other steak joints I know if besides Bavette’s is Las Tables on the North Side. Would be pleased with any other recommendations!
Las Tablas – damned autocorrect!
It’s a great town with wonderful wonderful food and buildings, but did you have to end with that one!
Simon is affronted by the inclusion of Trump Tower, that big rounded skyscraper. All I can say is that it was part of a good picture, and you can’t see the name.
As a 1972 grad from Antioch College, I LOVE these old photos . . . recently back in touch with fellow Antioch science students thanks to a listserve started by a science grad. So fun to connect with old lab rats!
That lone tomato is waving surrender
Well composed architecture pics!
Bellies xtwo full o’beef alongside
a quintet of hirsute darlings !
What a post, Dr Coyne !
Blue
ps I love.love.love steak !
m’usual weekend fare ! with alongside it
a fine tipple o’Argentine wine: Malbec !
Incidentally:
that corkage – ‘fee’ is also darling !
I want that steak. And the potatoes.
I want them now. Give them to me.
Please?
Oh my, I’m hungry!
Delightful! Thanks. Love the look of that steak.
Grow the beard back!
I had one for 10 years from 1983-93…
Steak for breakfast, now there’s a plan
A motley crew, but you would have made good enough soldiers with haircuts all around.
I always suspected you were a Hippie in your youth .lol.
I’m not a steak fan, but it does look like a good place for it!