The Real Reasons Steakhouses Are Disappearing

Posted on 02/11/2019 by Wirecutter

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24 Responses to The Real Reasons Steakhouses Are Disappearing

  1. SgtBob says:
    02/11/2019 at 10:38

    “Cruel food?” It’s meat. It comes from an animal. Killing the animal is necessary before eating it. A heavy-handed propaganda video, which you know and probably had the same revulsion at the veggie message as I did. Here’s what everybody expects from a steakhouse: A good steak cooked the way you want it and a moderate cost.

    Reply
    • Bacon says:
      02/12/2019 at 03:42

      Well now, hold on just a minute. Killing the animal before eating it is a kindness, but it ain’t necessary. I mean, until you’ve taken a big bite out of a cow on the hoof, you ain’t lived…

      Reply
  2. Ken M says:
    02/11/2019 at 10:50

    Out here in West Texas steak houses can’t keep up with demand…waiting times can go an hour or more just for a table

    Reply
    • Wirecutter says:
      02/11/2019 at 04:32

      Same here in Tennessee.

      Reply
    • nonncom says:
      02/11/2019 at 11:35

      Same in Florida….favorite is Ruth’s Chris Steak House, but it is costly….One of my all time favorites was the steakhouse at the stockyards out past the airport in Phoenix….Porterhouse supreme…..it’s been about 30 years, though….

      Reply
  3. Uchuck the Tuchuck says:
    02/11/2019 at 11:20

    But how can anyone possibly enjoy a meal unless they spend two or three hours exploring their toxic masculinity and arrive at the conclusion that somehow they are evil, even if they can’t exactly explain why? It’s a floggin’ steak! Rare and bloody! Eat and enjoy! Never apologize to the cow, or to the animal on whose behalf she pretends to speak!

    Reply
  4. Bad_Brad says:
    02/11/2019 at 11:47

    I order my meat from Crowd Cow or Hippie Beef. There’s a few others. Straight from the ranch where it was raised. No chemicals. Awesome cuts. I have a smoker and a Kamado and know how to use them. No steak house can come close.

    Reply
  5. Bill says:
    02/11/2019 at 12:23

    You are better off going to a good butcher and ordering the exact cut you want. Then take it home and grille it. It is cheaper and better than you can get at a steakhouse, and only a little more work.

    Reply
    • Wirecutter says:
      02/11/2019 at 12:44

      I don’t go to a steakhouse for the meat, I go to give my wife a rare night out. We can only afford to go maybe once every couple months, so it’s a treat for both of us.

      Reply
    • grego says:
      02/11/2019 at 13:49

      Yep. Steakhouses are way to pricey.

      Reply
  6. Andrew says:
    02/11/2019 at 12:54

    Ponderosa? They still have those? Maybe if the steaks there weren’t complete crap.

    As to Outback, well, fuck them. Longhorn is better.

    Maybe if the ‘steakhouses’ actually focused on STEAKS and not on everything else except steaks, they’d improve their survival chances.

    Reply
  7. warhorse says:
    02/11/2019 at 12:57

    around here you’re lucky if you can find a steakhouse that doesn’t smother the meat with pepper and spices. you can’t taste the damn meat. outback made my mouth burn for hours after, and longhorn was damn near inedible.

    Reply
  8. sjmld says:
    02/11/2019 at 14:54

    7-mile in Columbus Nebraska. Steak better than any I’ve had in my travels all over the USA.

    Reply
  9. STW says:
    02/11/2019 at 15:01

    My only problem with steakhouses is that, generally, I can do a better job at home. I don’t see the point in may more for inferior food. I’ll generally order something I can’t easily do myself instead.

    Reply
  10. =TW= says:
    02/11/2019 at 15:55

    I’ve had good steaks and breakfasts too at the Outlaw Cafe on 395. And you gotta try their pies!

    Anybody been to Black Bart’s in Flagstaff?

    Reply
  11. John the River says:
    02/11/2019 at 16:18

    I’ve had a memorable steak at Bartons and some place in Dallas I can’t remember the name of.

    Otherwise I always prefer to grill at home, on cast iron. Season, sear both sides and edges then pop into a oven or move off the direct heat of the coals.

    “If God hadn’t intended us to eat animals he wouldn’t have made them out of meat”

    Reply
  12. =TW= says:
    02/11/2019 at 16:41

    Kenny- now might be a good time to re-post your fried steak instructions. (Couldn’t find it when I looked for it recently.)

    Meanwhile, here’s how I do mine:
    3/4″ Spencer Steak, a dash of lemon pepper and/or Cajun’s Choice in each side while the
    CAST IRON skillet is getting HOT. A little cooking oil or Nucoa no-burn margarine in the skillet.
    Slap that steak in there and cover the pan. After about 2 minutes, flip the steak and re-cover the skillet.
    Remember you adjust cooking time to steak thickness, temperature must be very hot so expect some flame and be prepared to jump back. Practice makes perfect.
    You can kill the burner now and let that steak coast for another minute or two.

    That skillet is still plenty hot, so toss in some beans for a side dish. I like Bush’s but Ranch Style or even B&M beans will do. I add sliced red onion and some Pico Pica hot sauce to make the beans a little more interesting. Stir ’em up- they are ready when they stop bubbling.

    Ranch Style beans are good in Chili too. Give ’em a try.

    Reply
  13. gardenweasel says:
    02/11/2019 at 16:47

    The Aussie-accented narrator obviously has no idea how beef is raised in the USA. While I buy a grass-fed cow, have it butchered and fill my freezer every year, most beef in the USA is raised in feed lots and fed corn, soy beans and distiller’s and brewer’s left overs. Drought? drought where? Iowa, Illionois, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, Minnesota, Texas, etc., etc, — all sources of cattle feed. Check the commodities prices over the last 10-20 years. Corn is down 20% since 2008, soy beans are down 25%. Drought my ass, how does lower feed costs lead to higher prices? Guess again. The price of beef may be going up, but it isn’t because of drought. Inflation, demand, government regulation, and plain old corporate greed and price fixing due to lack of competition are much more likely causes, not to mention the cost of real estate and other business costs.

    Reply
  14. Ranch says:
    02/11/2019 at 17:06

    Beef, Booze, and Backy. Charge what you must, I will buy it.

    Reply
  15. Subsunk says:
    02/11/2019 at 20:22

    The price of beef isn’t going up. And it is more sensitive to the price of diesel or gasoline to haul them, put out hay,and clear land for more grass. My calves bring good prices but they are usually less than$1.30/ lb. The markup is the feedlots, butchers and middlemen. still steaks are cheap at the grocery stores compared to after long droughts. If you can’t feed them you cut back the herd to what the grass can support. So 6 months into a drought, cows are cheap. After another 9-12 months they get expensive again because you don’t have any to sell.

    The chick in the video is wrong again.

    Subsunk

    Reply
  16. Anderson says:
    02/11/2019 at 21:23

    Feeding cattle grass/hay is fine, but they need grain also. If you don’t understand that fact then you don’t know much about quality beef. A true fact.

    Reply
  17. D. Bag says:
    02/12/2019 at 05:03

    Sounds like this is primarily a big city problem for steakhouses, as I like the rest have seen them thriving in Wisconsin for ages with no slowdown in sight.

    Sure, if you’re paying $35k/month for some prime NYC real estate and have your clientele slowly turning into transsexual vegans all around you, sure, you might be hurting. The rest of us are more likely having trouble deciding which steakhouse is the one that’ll get our business.

    Reply

Play nice.