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“T-Bar Steak and Lounge”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	New American	Upper East Side	Moderate	Great

lets placed his cutlery on his plate and spoke.

“The way to judge a chef’s skill with steaks is to order the strip,” he said. “The rib eye anyone can cook. Not even an Irish bar can’t f—k it up.”

“Why’s that, Josh?” I asked.

“Well, you see Andrea, the rib eye is rich with marbling, so there’s really no way to screw it up. The strip is not as marbled so to get the fat right, you have to get good meat and cook it right.” After eating both of these cuts, Mr. Cutlets proclaimed both were excellent. He was impressed. Shameless agreed. “I need to find out where he gets his meat,” he said, seeking out the chef. Turns out it’s Suzie “Sirloin” Strassburger’s Strip and Pat La Freida’s Rib Eye (Black Angus; aged 14-21 days). Cutlets was not surprised. They seemed very pleased, and continued to eat, leaning in like two schoolgirls talking about Justin Timberlake, chatting about cuts, marbling, and something about a Testicle Festival Shameless went to last year to have some Prairie Oysters. Steven’s ears perked up, “Did someone say Testicle Festival? I have one every day!”

Shameless smiled. “Yeah, I went last year. It’s in Montana. I have a belt buckle, too,” he said, standing up to show off an oval cooper buckle branded with a giggling cow holding his hooves in front of his private parts. “Can I get that online?” Steven asked, eyes wide with envy.

At this point, I was observing the interaction between Shameless and Steven about the belt from the Festival of Testicles, cracking up, and getting my fair share of sides ($8 each) of sweet corn (scraped from the cob and buttered), roasted carrots (sliced on the bias and steamed just enough to coax out their natural sweetness), mashed Yukon gold potatoes, a tall collection of well-done fries (hot, salty and crunchy), and a magnificent bacon gruyere and potato cake—a kind of smoky, cheesy, quite buttery Spanish tortilla that was probably not very good for me, though it was possibly the best cake I’ve ever eaten. Forget blackout, coconut layer and red velvet. Bacon, potato and gruyere cake rocks.

Desserts at T-Bar come in the form of communal fish bowl sundaes in three flavors—strawberry shortcake, chocolate brownie, and banana parfait ($12 each, feeds more than 3). These are smi ... [more, click below]

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Posted: October 29, 2007

Other restaurants in Upper East Side :
+ Sfoglia   + Zoe Townhouse   + Accademia di Vino   + T-Bar Steak and Lounge   + Parlor Steakhouse   + Le Caprice   

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