Steak and ritual
Steak and ritual
Peter Luger, Lure, Tenmile Distillery, white truffles, Christmas Eve reservations, Paradise Lost, coffee badging, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Porterhouse for the holidays
Every December, a group of seven friends from college gather for a holiday lunch at Lure. For an annual affair of this sort, the meal must be all about ritual: It’s lunch, but cocktail orders are placed immediately. Then, the Grand seafood tower, to be devoured before the rest of the order (sushi, burgers, chicken lollipops) goes in. Finally, ice cream sandwiches, on the house.
The pace of celebratory holiday meals is a vital part of the ritual. Catching up with old friends deserves an essentially infinite block of time; failing that, a minimum three hour calendar hold, please.
This was the fifth year in a row for this particular holiday tradition. Last Wednesday, another group of old friends gathered for dinner at Peter Luger Steak House for a holiday meal we three first enjoyed together in 2006 and then for 16 years since. (Both traditions took 2020 off.)
There’s no better restaurant for ritual in New York City, and perhaps the world, than Peter Luger. This year, as every year, we arrived a half-hour before our reservation to allow for a drink at the long bar that also serves as the waiting area for tables. It’s a great scene, with a surging crowd representing a perfect cross-section of New Yorkers, and a usually gruff and busied bartender jotting tabs on slips of paper to be settled in cash.
The next part of the ritual: finding out which dining room beckons. Broadway, to the right of the host stand, is where I had my first-ever Luger meal, so I have a soft spot for it, but one of my dining companions rates it last among the three options. Corner, to the left, is the largest and a fine choice, but Driggs (above), straight ahead, is the ancestral home of this holiday dinner and probably our favorite — and the one where, without asking, we were seated this year. (There’s also an upstairs, where we landed in 2021. Don’t let this happen to you.)
Then, the order ritual: menus are refused, the canonical list, recited — bacon, the tomatoes and onions (to be drowned in Luger steak sauce), and porterhouse for three with hash browns and creamed spinach. In my 20-plus years dining at Luger, the steak has never scored less than an eight, and nearly always hits 10, as it did this year. Hallelujah is not too strong a word.
For dessert, the sneaky-excellent cheesecake and the hot fudge sundae with schlag, which in younger days we smeared on each other’s faces and now we merely inhale by the spoonful. To conclude: another cash payment — the pre-dinner visit to the ATM ritual — and then the exit through the bar, past the late crowd and the yellowed press clipping of Johnny Carson declaring the meal he ate at Luger to be the best of his life.
And thus the ritual is finished, another year of New York City living in the books. This is why we do it. –Lockhart Steele
→ Peter Luger Steak House (Williamsburg), 178 Broadway, Reserve.
→ Lure Fishbar (Soho), 142 Mercer St., Reserve.
RESTAURANTS • Intel
→ WHITE TRUFFLE SEASON REPORT: 2023 has been graced by some of the highest quality white truffles from Alba in years. Here, three of the best bang-for-your-buck options in the city right now:
Per Se (Upper West Side, above): Practically guaranteed to be the most generous tableside shaving in town. Expect a classic Carnaroli risotto biologico, or hand-cut tagliatelle with parmesan mousseline and brown butter. Don’t be surprised if a second shaving arrives after you’ve mixed around the first. $210 per, supplement to the tasting menu.
Gabriel Kreuther (Midtown): A special worthy of the restaurant’s impeccable pasta dishes: a hyper-seasonal preparation with pappardelle, brown butter-chestnut purée, chanterelles, and nori breadcrumbs finished tableside with white truffles. $130 per, supplement to the tasting menu.
The Modern Bar Room (Midtown): The fingerling potato agnolotti with burrata comes with a generous tableside blanket of Alba’s finest. It’s probably the best deal in town, and the most accessible way to sample white truffles. $75 per, a la carte in The Bar Room. –Lee Pitofsky
NYC RESTAURANT LINKS: Major Food Group’s ZZ’s Clam Bar closed, converted to Carbone private dining room • Why the East Village was NYC’s top dining neighborhood this year • Sammy’s Roumanian eyes new Lower East Side space for return • Civilized drinking: what makes a good bar.
GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Gift Guide
Little rest for the weary
In 2017, John Dyson and Joel LeVangia took over an old farm upstate and started Tenmile Distillery with grand plans to release the state’s first American single malt whisky. At last, the day has come: Little Rest is Tenmile’s three-year-aged Scottish-style single malt made with locally grown barley. The golden-hued spirit — with notes of pear, vanilla and peanut — has already taken home double gold medals. Order it online or visit the distillery to sip it in person. –Kat Odell
→ Shop: Little Rest Classic (Tenmile Distillery), $100 (or $250 for the 1st edition gift box).
For more holiday inspiration, consider the FOUND Objects archive.
GOODS & SERVICES LINKS: Sneak peek: Rembaum Hanau in Tribeca • Meatless Italian market opens in Greenwich Village • Homeware and design store Beverly’s puts down roots in Chinatown • Rolls-Royce opening ‘VIP Experience Center’ in Meatpacking District • Aman Interiors launches inaugural collection • Why the end of the year is the perfect time to open a premium credit card.
WORK • RTO Report
Drip, drip, drip
We are late to “coffee badging,” but it’s a very good turn in the absurd RTO-WFH dance of 2023. Defined as a quick visit to the office (long enough for a cup of coffee or two) in order to satisfy in-person requirements, it’s reportedly pervasive. (Per this Owl Labs “State of Hybrid Work” study, 58% of workers “coffee badged” in 2023.)
Last Wednesday after lunch on the far west side of Manhattan, we visited a friend toiling inside the nearby Starrett-Lehigh. Having not spent much time in offices this year, the experience was jarring. Despite the upscale, ground-floor food hall and a host of other au currant building upgrades, there was one other employee in his company’s roughly 3000-SF space, itself amply appointed with snacks and high-end appliances.
During our stay, we peeked into a much larger office, most of a wide-open full floor, that was awaiting its next tenant. There was a time when we would have drooled over the possibility of being that tenant, of outfitting the glistening, barren space with our own high-end fixtures and cleverly named conference rooms. But in this era of “coffee badging,” the idea seemed absurd.
Still, back in the friend’s office, we worked side-by-side for a productive hour, admiring the 24-inch monitors and selection of cords rising from the punched hole on the desk. Unfortunately, none fit our dying laptop, so we packed up and headed home to finish up. –Josh Albertson
CULTURE & LEISURE • Tuesday Routine
Into the flames
KAVÉ POURZANJANI, owner + creative director, Paradise Lost
Neighborhood you work in: East Village
It’s Tuesday morning, where are you working?
If I’m not rolling around in bed going through emails on my phone, I’ve managed to get myself out of bed and into the bar, where I can check emails less comfortably.
What’s the Tuesday morning scene at your workplace?
I try to get in a bit before the opening team so I can have the space to myself to catch up on computer work, and start settling in for the night ahead. The bar is a lot brighter than it will be in a few hours and boxes of pineapples and mint are starting to pile up from deliveries. Sometimes, I’ll sit in silence and enjoy the rare moment of quiet in the bar, but today I’ve got Idles playing through the bar’s speakers to get the energy up while I start preparing for the shift ahead.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Well it’s a Tuesday and we’ve only got 50 covers on the books, but I already know that the number will grow to well above 150 by the night’s end. I’ve gotten through the most important emails by now, but a designer has come back to me with a revision for our next event’s flier that I’ll need to roll around in my mind for the evening. I’ve got to make a bank run for change and to stop by FedEx to pick up inserts for our menu.
I’ll need to be back in time to perform line-up and go over the day’s 86s and points of improvement with the staff. If I’m lucky, I’ll have some time to re-re-reorganize some of the back of house space. And during the shift, I’ll try to make some time to try and rejigger a cocktail that had an ingredient discontinued with my beverage director while juggling breaks and cut times for our staff.
What’s for lunch?
As a certified francophile, opening shop a block away from Le Fournil, one of the best French bakeries in the city, was perhaps not a smart move, but I’ll be damned if I’m not having a ham and cheese sandwich on the best baguette in town followed by a Belgian waffle or an almond croissant. Before that though, I’ll stop by Coffee Project for a noontime iced latte.
Any plans tonight?
The light at the end of the tunnel is a burger, a High Life pony, and a shot of Fernet with my name on it at Holiday Cocktail Lounge. Maybe if I get out early enough, I’ll make my way to Attaboy to have a daiquiri and a Sidewinder’s Fang and say hello to whoever else happened to swing by after their shift.
WORK LINKS: Kickstarter’s Greenpoint office is becoming a hype house • Baccarat signs branding deal with owners of 545 Madison • A skimpy bonus season awaits some white-collar workers • The race is on to hire interns for 2025… But the class of 2024 can’t land jobs.
ASK FOUND
Hit reply or or email found@foundny.com with questions and/or answers.
A few FOUND subscriber PROMPTS that require your immediate attention:
What are your favorite bookstores in the city?
What are the best Brooklyn homewares stores?
What are the best NYC restaurants for New Year’s Eve dinner?
RESTAURANTS • The Nines
‘Twas the night before, ticketed
Raf’s (Noho, above), 12/24, family-style Feast of Seven Fishes including seafood tower, $165 per, reserve
Il Buco Alimentari (Noho), 12/24, seven-course Feast of Seven Fishes, $95 per, reserve