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| Another month, another big ol' steak. I love my life.... |
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| This is Rosebud Steakhouse when it's not pouring down rain. And dark. |
This month we visited
Rosebud Steakhouse on Walton. Right behind the Drake Hotel. If you don't know where the Drake is, you don't know Chicago. Rosebud is a chain of restaurants, most of which serve Italian food. There are two steakhouses in the family, and both have a solid reputation around town, and are highly reviewed.
This month we brought another couple with us. This was a first on this project, but it won't be the last time it happens. Both June and July will feature people other than ourselves dining. Plus. I'm not sure how this is going to work yet - but
watch this blog for an announcement regarding an essay contest I'm going to run to dine as our guests at Wildfire in September. More to come on that, so don't get too excited. Yet.
Enough of the warm up. Kinda. Camera couldn't take good pictures. Too dark. Most of the images are borrowed.
Let's get into the story.
Saturday in Chicago
was rainy, cold and miserable. The Cubs were playing the Giants that NIGHT (this is a rare thing - a night game at Wrigley on a Saturday). Our friends, (for anonymity's sake we'll call them) Georg and Amalia, live on Southport,
relatively close to Wrigley. That being the case, our departure time bumped up by half an hour, because we needed to get to their neighborhood in time to make our reservations. We left our house at 4:30. This made for a long drive, and a relatively cranky driver. As can be expected, we were late getting to their house, which made us late getting to the restaurant. We arrived at 6:45 for our 6:30 reservations. I'm an enigma when it comes to timely arrivals. With work events I tend to leave myself JUST
the exact amount of time I need to travel, which inevitably leads to being late, but for personal things, I'm the guy who tries to get there 15 minutes early. Unless it's family. In which case, it's about a 50-50 shot on whether or not we'll be late.
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| Oh yeah, NOW I know where the Drake is.... |
Getting away from the point. We pulled up (in the rain) to the Rosebud Steakhouse 15 minutes late for our reservation. We used the valet service for the ol' minivan. Pulling up to the restaurant, Georg observed, "
Boy, if you didn't know this place was here, you'd never find it." Its location is in a tricky spot. It's two blocks north of the Hancock Tower, and two blocks east of Michigan. It's on a one way street heading west, and the area doesn't exactly get a lot of traffic. You have to know it's there, or you won't ever see it. There are still a whole lot of blocks downtown where you can cross the street without worrying, most of them between Michigan and Lake Shore Drive. This is one of them.
Arriving in the rain led to us hurrying inside. There was a green awning in front - apparently this is standard issue to steakhouses.
It's kind of like the three balls in front of a pawn shop. Once in, we were greeted by the Maitre'd station just inside from an entry vestibule. There were plenty of empty tables when we arrived, so I got over the being late thing, but on the way out, the place was filled, including the entry vestibule. They
seem to do a fairly brisk business.
Looking around the place I was immediately struck by its intimacy. By "its intimacy" -
I mean its smallness. There couldn't have been more than 20 tables in the whole place, and there was a bar (with no patrons) taking up half the back of the restaurant. The restaurant was a mixture of dark woods and cream paint. There were various books on the wall, used for decoration and nothing more (for a while the now closed Cafe Wheaton had a copy of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous on the wall. I always thought that was inappropriate, yet funny at the same time...). The light fixtures are large alabaster bowls. Again, most of this
is standard issue steakhouse stuff.
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One of the few pictures that turned out OK. This was OUR particular
bread basket. The butter has a hint of honey. Tasty stuff in here.... |
We were shown to our table immediately, a small table for 4 near the back, and were presented with a big basket of various breads and our menus.
There is an article about the breads at Rosebud here. Try the pretzel roll. It's fantastic. The menus are printed horizontally on card stock, about 8" x 16" and placed in a leather, non-folding board. I noted that they were "unwieldy." I should have followed that with, "
And the server is standing behind me right now, right?" Because you know that's what happened. She asked if I had trouble with it. Never fails. We got past my faux pas, and we were introduced to her. Her name was Mary, and she was dressed in a full tuxedo. I do like that a lot. It's a touch of class that shows the management cares about the details. Anyway, Mary welcomed us, asked us for drink orders (no pushing of alcohol - nice), and gave us a little bit to go over the menus.
As with all of these reviews,
I familiarize myself with the menu weeks in advance. So, when it comes time to order things, I already know what I'm having. I do like to ask what the house specialty is, but beyond that, I pretty much know what I want before I enter. Saturday night we were perusing the appetizers, and I mentioned that in my research, Rosebud has a reputation as
having the best burgers in Chicago. (Sorry Marc L., turns out I was wrong about that being Gibsons...) Well. One of the things on the appetizer menu was a plate of 2 oz. Mini Burgers with 1000 Island Dressing, Cheese, Carmelized Onion and Pickles. A plate of those was ordered (3 burgers - Amy decided she didn't want one) and a plate of Bacon Wrapped Scallops was ordered as well (3 scallops again - Georg and I weren't too hip on them - I don't like seafood - but decided we'd split one for sportsmanship). Mary left to place the order, and before she came back to take our entree order, our appetizers arrived.
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| Not our scallops. I guess this is what they come from though.... |
Scallops first. In the course of this project, and indeed over the last year,
I have let go of my absolute prejudice against all things shellfish. I don't really have grounds for disliking them, because I've never really had one I didn't like, (not unlike cats - I hate them on principle - but have yet to meet one I didn't like) but I have a wall between myself and shellfish. The scallops were smallish bacon wrapped cylinders, covered with a barbecue-ish sauce and wrapped in bacon. They were complemented with a corn relish of some sort that none of us ate. Since I had never tried them before, I decided to try the scallop portion independent of the bacon. I know what bacon tastes like. Light and flaky, the scallops really tasted like...nothing...except the sauce. So. I guess that means they were good. Amy said they were not as good as the scallops she had at Joe's, but that they were good. The bacon was outstanding.
Some day someone is going to have to explain to me why food that tastes like nothing is good. I know seafood shouldn't taste fishy - but WHY EAT IT?!
Now. The burgers. The reputation is deserved. Juicy, seared to perfection, and just basically tasty as hell, the burgers were a nice start of the evening's dining. Served on a pretzel roll, the juice had bled into the bottom of the bun, soaking it with flavorful goodness. They were served with a small dish of ketchup on the side, and the
roll had been lightly toasted. It's hard to say much more about them besides I could envision myself eating at Rosebud again just for the burger. It was that good. Amalia informed me that any time I was in the city at lunch, she might be persuaded to join me there for lunch. Provided...I asked. Tough persuasion.
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The Rosebud Burger. I believe it was Jules who said.....
"MmmmmmMM. That is a tasty burger..." |
While feasting on our appetizers, Mary returned to ask for our entree orders. Amy and I knew what we wanted long before we got there, but Georg and Amalia were curious about the Chateaubriand for 2 that was listed as a special. Asking Mary about it, she was not short of opinion. She basically talked them out of it. When asked what the house specialty was - she replied, "The Chicago Cut Bone-In Ribeye." Oddly enough, that was what I was having.
Surprise! Pretty much it goes like this, every Chicago place worth its salt has a bone in ribeye on its menu. It is the most flavorful steak, and something about the wet-aging that is standard in Chicago with that steak makes it super easy to cook, and super easy to enjoy.
Well. The bone in ribeye is a 24 oz. piece of meat. Rosebud also featured two smaller ribeyes, a much smaller 10 oz. - which would be hard to cook correctly - that might be too thin - and an 18 oz. Delmonico cut. Named after Delmonico's restaurant in New York, the Delmonico is a ribeye cut a certain way. I'm not sophisticated enough to know more than that, so don't ask.
EDIT: Oh my God. I found an article. I wrote this late at night, so I didn't feel like doing the research. Wanna make your eyes bleed?
Read this article about the Delmonico Cut. Odd. I've always heard of it as a ribeye. Always.
Amy had decided before we got there on the Delmonico, cooked rare. Amalia ordered the Petite Filet medium, I got the bone in ribeye medium rare, and Georg was really struggling with what to eat. Mary was pushing him toward the Delmonico, but he wasn't sure he wanted that much food. He's not a big red meat guy, and that was a LOT of red meat.
Being who I am, (big red meat guy) I was no help in this situation. Finally, after much handwringing, Georg decided on the Delmonico as well, cooked Medium. I felt bad for him,
because it was obvious the choice wasn't one he felt solid about. That has to be a tough feeling.
For our sides, we were informed that the starches and the vegetables were packaged so that one order of either would be enough for 4 people. Georg and I had relinquished control over the side dishes to the ladies. They chose the Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes (as Amalia said, "What in there is bad?") and the Grilled Asparagus.
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If you can picture two people glistening like
they were just sprayed with baby oil, and panting
heavily, then this is an exact image of our kiss. Oh, and
picture their lips meeting. That's important. |
More conversation followed, mostly about theatre projects and kids, as we awaited our entrees. Amalia and I have acted opposite each other twice - including the World's Sweatiest Stage Kiss as Harold and Marian in "The Music Man" in 2003 - and I was lucky enough to direct her in "Steel Magnolias" in 2004. We have a solid relationship based on our own (it turns out increasingly)
peculiar sense of what theatre should be and how it should be done. I was on stage with Georg in "1776" back in 2001, and have seen him a couple of other times, including opposite Amalia in "She Loves Me,"
where the two of them met. None of that has anything to do with food reviews, which is why you came here, but I don't care.
The following is
foreshadowing. We learned about it before. During the conversation, I noticed that we had been waiting for our food for a while, and I said, "The waiting is the hardest part."
Foreshadowing kiddies,
foreshadowing.
Our entrees arrived. The potatoes were magnificently presented in a pan, loaded with cheese and slightly browned on top. The asparagus was on a small platter, plenty for the whole table. Our steaks were each served au jus with a tall, cylindrical bone to the side, with a sprig of rosemary protruding from the bone. Everything looked delicious.
Then, there was a snag.
Our steaks were trending towards cold. They weren't cold yet, but they weren't hot. I can tell you that. I don't expect a steak to arrive at the table sizzling like it does at Peter Luger's, but I do expect it to be hot. I thought for a moment it might have been the au jus, but further thought has convinced me that they basically sat in the kitchen, waiting for someone to serve them. That's what we were
foreshadowing. The steaks should have been to the table at least 10 minutes earlier. Since warming them would have required overcooking them, or, God forbid, microwaving them, we persisted in eating them. So, I have to review what I ate.
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Not my steak. This one appears to have cheese melted on it. This is Rosebud's
Bone In Ribeye. Charred. Au Jus. What more could you want? Oh yeah,
you want it served HOT. |
My steak was charred to perfection on the outside. Rosebud serves nothing but wet-aged USDA Prime steaks. Can't really screw that up. The center was warmish red, just as medium rare should be. It was flavorful, tender, and just utterly delicious. The fat, intrinsic to a ribeye, was thoroughly melted, and
the steak was probably my second favorite steak I've had on this journey, not that far behind Gibsons. But it wasn't
hot. Amy's steak was cooked to perfection, and coldish. She really enjoyed it also. Georg's was also cooked correctly, and he enjoyed it, and all Amalia has said is, "I know we should have talked about the food more besides "Yum." but really, we couldn't."
So. The steaks were great. Raised correctly, butchered correctly, aged correctly, and cooked correctly,
but they were not served correctly. I give Rosebud high marks on its food. We were greeted by the manager at one point, and while he was informed of the low temperature thing, we all conceded that short of re-cooking there wasn't much that could be done. Not a whole lot of help.
The potatoes had nothing bad about them. But we knew that before we ate them. They were light, yet cheesy, and the bacon didn't overwhelm the flavor as much as enhance it. Probably because they were served in their cooking dish, they were still hot. The asparagus was nothing special, and (surprise!) coldish. I don't know if I'd order that again.
If I went back.
After dinner we were given the dessert menu. We were told that desserts, with the exception of a couple items were big enough for 4. That was not hyperbole. The ladies, again in total control, decided on the Banana Cream Pie with Oreo Crust as our dessert. I ordered a cup of decaf, which was standard issue.
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Our actual pie. We should have put a bus next to it, so you
could see some size perspective. Woulda dwarfed the bus though.... |
I don't know what pie the slice we were presented came from, but I imagine it to be roughly the size of a
really big pizza. Or a small planet. The pie was delicious. Drizzled with a small amount of chocolate and caramel, the bananas were just right and the Oreo crust was a perfect choice. Very good dessert. And yes, one slice was big enough for 4.
So. There we were. We were done, having eaten in 2 hours and 15 minutes, and it was time to go. The check was $300 between the 4 of us with tip, so not all that pricey, but still in the upscale area.
It was an enjoyable evening of catching up and good to great-ish fine dining.
Couple of other summary facts/opinions:
Service was mediocre at best, and certainly not special. Plates tended to be cleared before they were ready to be cleared, and the cold steaks were inexcuseable.
The bathroom stalls are floor to ceiling. Apparently that is also standard issue steakhouse material.
The place is bordering on cramped. I was in the aisle, and my chair was bumped frequently. Amalia and Amy were right on top of the people behind us.
It's dark. Even with my super fast lens, pictures were a challenge.
It's noisy. See the cramped comment.
There are two Rosebuds that are steakhouses. I kinda wish I had chosen Rosebud Prime, but chose this one for its intimacy. I think that was a mistake. Maybe. I don't know.
Georg felt as if he ate too much. I'm a glutton, so I guess I hadn't ever taken that into account at most of the places we've been (except for my stupidity at Morton's). It was good to get that perspective.
So. Bottom line. Rosebud Steakhouse makes a hell of a steak. I don't think we'll be returning, because we've had equal meals elsewhere at similar prices with better atmosphere, friendlier staff, etc. I think I would have to say it was "typical." I thought maybe that might happen as this went on, that eventually all the places would blend together. Rosebud did nothing to distinguish itself. We got a fine meal at a fine meal price. That was to be expected. Rosebud was adequate. There's no shame in that.
I would go back for the hamburgers, though. Perhaps a lunch visit.
Thanks again for reading. I really appreciate it.
NEXT MONTH:
N9NE Steakhouse. Going with guests again.
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In lieu of the fairly bad picture of the two of us from Rosebud, here's our wedding day.
I think I'm thinking about steak. |
