Prime cut ribeye steak. Photo courtesy Allen Brothers.

On Father’s Day, many families will be heading to steakhouses to treat Dad to a splendid meal. If you want the best steakhouse experience, what should you look for?

We live in a city with many choices. So we turned to Chef Arturo McLeod of Benjamin Steakhouse, which has restaurants in New York City and White Plains, New York. With 35 years manning the grill—20 of those at the venerable Peter Luger Steakhouse—he shared eight items to look for if you want a premier steak experience.

1. The Restaurant Serves Only USDA Prime Beef
A great steakhouse only serves USDA Prime meat, a tiny percentage—2%—of the world’s beef production. USDA Prime Beef is the highest quality, and truly superior to the next cut down the scale, USDA Choice. Prime has more marbling, rendering it a more tender, flavorful cut of beef (see all of the beef grades). Only USDA Prime beef can be dry-aged, as the process requires meat with a large, evenly-distributed marbling content.

2. The Beef Is Hand-Selected
In a top restaurant, the chef visits the markets at the crack of dawn to hand select the best produce, meats and proteins. The chef of a steakhouse visits his meat purveyor on a daily basis and hand selects every cut of steak that he purchases. He picks out the superior meats and leaves the rest for someone else.

3. The Beef Is Dry Aged In House
The dry aging process is the key aspect of serving best-tasting steak: It’s what sets a good steak apart from a great steak, and a good steakhouse from a great one. The process involves hanging the loins of beef to dry at for several weeks under controlled temperatures and humidity. The process deepens the flavors and enhances tenderness. Only the more expensive cuts of meat can be dry-aged, as the process requires meat with a large, evenly distributed fat content. Every cut at Benjamin Steakhouse is aged for exactly 28 days, rendering a more juicy, tender and extremely flavorful piece of beef.

4. The Grill Is Sizzling Hot
When you’re not in the kitchen, it’s hard to determine this one. But top beef chefs get the grill as hot as possible to sear in the juices and deliver a superior plate of meat.

5. A Great Chef & A Great Beverage Director
Beyond a mastery of cooking juicy cuts of dry-aged beef, the chef pays equal attention to serving top-quality sides and desserts. The beverage director should ensure an ample supply of affordable bottles of very good wine and wines by the glass.

6. You Receive Exceptional Service
From the reservationist who answers the phone to a pleasant greeting when you arrive to the responsiveness of waiters and busboys, you should feel welcome and cared for. If the quality of the food is your first priority, service should be the second.

7. You Like The Ambiance
This is a matter of personal taste. Restaurant decor can range from a grand room with brass chandeliers, vaulted ceilings, plush leather banquettes and fireplace (like Benjamin Steakhouse) to something more contemporary. The atmosphere can be tranquil or lively. But whatever you choose, it should emphasize that you’re having a special dinner.

8. There Is Consistency
The restaurant maintains these high standards on a daily basis, year in and year out.

TIP: If anything is not to your liking, don’t hesitate to speak with the manager. Even if it’s something that can’t be fixed on the spot (“too noisy,” for example), your constructive feedback can be used to make improvements. If they aren’t aware of it, they can’t change it.

Check out our Beef Glossary.

If you prefer something with a kick, you can add lemon or orange liqueur, some tequila or vodka, or your favorite whiskey.

Or, you can make a Long Island Iced Tea, which contains no iced tea but is an homage. It gets its name because it resembles an iced tea.

Long Island Ice Tea first surfaced—according to the leading story—in the late 1970s. It was concocted by a bartender at the Oak Beach Inn, which had two locations on the east end of Long Island, New York.

Another claim is that the drink dates back to the 1920s during Prohibition,* invented in a river island community called Long Island in Kingsport, Tennessee (details).
 
For 13 long years of Prohibition, which saw the rise of organized crime and bootlegging, it was common to disguise cocktails as non-alcoholic drinks, lest neighbors or law enforcement officials catch you enjoying a cocktail.
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*Prohibition Trivia: Prohibition began with the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which outlawed the manufacture and sale of liquor from January 17, 1920 until the amendment was repealed in 1933 (the only instance in U.S. history of a full repeal of a constitutional amendment). Drinking itself was never illegal, just manufacture and sale; and there were exceptions for medicinal and religious uses.

Long Island Iced Tea, so named because it looks just like…iced tea! Photo by A41cats | Dreamstime.

Long Island Iced Tea is a highball made with equal parts of gin, rum, tequila and vodka, combined with sour mix and a splash of cola. Some popular variations use equal parts of the main liquors but include a smaller amount of triple sec or other orange liqueur. Others replace the tequila with brandy, the sour mix with lemon juice (which we prefer), add white crème de menthe—and even replace the cola with actual iced tea.

Sometimes, changing the ingredients changes the name. See the numerous variations below.
Long Island Iced Tea has a much higher alcohol concentration than most cocktails (about 22%) due to the combination of five spirits and the relatively small amount of mixer. Some hardy souls order it “extra long,” which can double the alcohol to mixer ratio. Whew!

Long Island Iced Tea. Photo by Caartic |
Wikimedia.

LONG ISLAND ICED TEA RECIPE

Ingredients For Two Drinks

 
Preparation

1. In a cocktail shaker filled with ice, add spirits and sweet and sour mix. Shake well.

2. Add a few fresh ice cubes to a highball glass and strain in the drink.

3. Top with the cola, and garnish with the wedge of lime.

Here’s a list of variations, from Wikipedia, many of which substitute something else for the cola:

 
Imagine a party where you could taste them all!

Published just in time for corn season, Father’s Day and thank-you gifts for summer hosts, here are 50 of the most interesting corn recipes you’ll find in one compilation. We rarely get so excited when eyeballing recipes, and the photos are mouth-watering.

The recipes were contributed from acclaimed chefs nationwide: both local celebrities and national names such as Hugh Acheson, Dan Barber, Michelle Bernstein, Daniel Boulud, Harold Dieterle and Martha Stewart.

The recipes will keep you happy at breakfast, lunch and dinner. They cover every part of the meal: appetizers, soups, entrées and desserts. Here are just a few of the dishes that will delight you:

Corn “Seviche” In Corn Water, Corn Pudding with Bacon and Leeks, Fresh Corn Gazpacho, Fresh Corn Ice Cream, Jalapeño Corn Muffins, Popcorn Pudding with Salted Caramel Corn and Butterscotch Sauce, Roasted Corn and Goat Cheese Quiche and Sweet Corn Fritters.

The book also includes tips for buying, storing, cooking and grilling fresh corn, and instructions for easily cutting kernels off the cob to make these wonderful recipes.

A large portion of the proceeds from book sales will be donated to the Dougy Center, a national center that helps grieving children and families.

Get your copy now.

Engrave your Father’s Day message on a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label. Photo courtesy Johnnie Walker.

If the dads on your Father’s Day gift list drink Scotch, they’d be very happy to receive a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.

There are nine expressions of Johnnie Walker, including the more prevalent (and more affordable) Black Label and Red Label bottlings. Blue Label is the distiller’s top Scotch, a premium 80 proof blend that recreates the authentic character and taste of 19th century Johnnie Walker blends. The flavor is rich, peaty, malty and smooth.

As a top-of-the-line expression, each blue-hued bottle has a serial number and a certificate of authenticity, and is packaged in a silk-lined box.

As part of the mystique, there is no official age declaration for Blue Label. The youngest whiskey in the blend is rumored to be 28 years old. The blend contains more than 20 rare single malts and superior grain whiskies (by comparison, Black Label’s youngest Scotch is aged for 12 years).

FREE BOTTLE ENGRAVING

For a “keeper” of a gift, Johnnie Walker Blue Label offers a complimentary bottle engraving service. It transforms an already rare bottle of whiskey into something memorable.

Whether it’s a simple “Happy Father’s Day” or a more personal “I Love You,” head to the website to order your bottle(s).

Yesterday we introduced dessert verrines, dishes layered in small glasses. They can be either sweet or savory; the goal is to create a visually-stunning and sophisticated small bite.

Today, we take on savory verrines, popular as appetizers or cocktail food. You can also serve them as sides with a main course.

Think of three to five foods you enjoy together, then layer them in a glass.

We especially like to turn leftovers into savory verrines. They hardly seem like leftovers when they’re placed in such glamorous surroundings.

SAVORY INGREDIENTS CHECKLIST

Here’s a beginning list; you’ll no doubt have more to add.

 
To top it off, you can use one or more garnishes:

 
VERRINE COOKBOOKS

If you read French, there’s a larger selection. Here’s what we found in English, but we expect to see more as publishers catch up with the trend”