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Founded in 1996 ARCHIVE ![]() "Still Life" by Tom Wesselmann
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THIS WEEK EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT PETER LUGER. . . AND HOW TO GET A TABLE By John Mariani PETER LUGER OPENS IN LAS VEGAS By John A. Curtas NEW YORK CORNER SAGAPONACK By John Mariani GOING AFTER HARRY LIME CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT By John Mariani NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR HIGH SPIRITS FOR THE HOLIDAYS By John Mariani ❖❖❖
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED
TO KNOW ABOUT PETER LUGER. . . AND HOW TO GET A TABLE By John Mariani ![]() Peter
Luger, which began as a billiards and
bowling alley in 1887 in Brooklyn, after
years of decline was bought by Sol Forman
and his family and became the most highly
touted steakhouses in America. Famous for
its sliced porterhouse steaks, its refusal
to take credit cards and a wait list for
tables that can stretch out for months,
Luger, which has long had a branch in
Great Neck, Long Island, has in recent
years expanded to Tokyo and Las Vegas. I
spoke with Daniel Turtel, VP of Luger,
about the expansion, the availability of
USDA Prime meat and how to get a table.
The Meatpacking
District has lost most of its suppliers, but
there are still a few holdouts, like Jobbagy
and Weischel, which we still visit weekly. The
other distributors haven’t moved out of NYC,
just out of Meatpacking, to Hunts Point in the
Bronx, which has a huge market, as do certain
areas of Long Island. So it’s a farther drive,
but one of the four of us (Dan, Amy, Jody,
David) visit each market every week. I read that
when PL has not been able to obtain the
consistent quality that you will restrict
reservations. Is this still true? It’s still true
that we would, but luckily, we haven’t had to
do that for many years now. The beef industry
increasingly uses big data to track cattle
grading, including factors that contribute to
Prime grading—whether that’s genetic, feeding,
climate, etc. In 2010, 3% of beef was graded
prime; in 2021, it was closer to 10%. Combine
this with the increased overall production,
and you’ve got way more Prime beef in the
market, and you know where it’s going to be
coming from. For us, the net effect is more
consistent beef supply, but more work, because
we are looking for only the very top
percentage out of USDA Prime, and we generally
have more beef to sift through to find loins
and ribs that meet our standard. How can there
now be so many new high-end
steakhouses and chains around the U.S.
that all claim to be serving USDA Prime? Has
the supply increased exponentially and how
have you managed to obtain your needed
amounts for Brooklyn, Great Neck, Tokyo and
now Las Vegas? Who oversees purchasing in
those last two cities? The
numbers around Prime percentages have changed
drastically in the past decade, and while
Prime is up across the nation, that hides the
real story, which is that certain regions and
certain meatpackers are seeing virtually all
the gains in Prime grading. For instance, here
is a link to this week’s USDA Grading report
below. While Prime nationally was 9.7%,
Regions 1-5 are grading 18.26% Prime, while
Region 6 is grading 3.16% Prime. What these
disparities mean is that we’ve got to be more
selective about whom we work with and what
regions they operate out of, but once we pick
our partners (and we’ve visited every ranch
and packing house that we’re using at our new
locations), we have a much easier time of
filling our weekly quotas.
https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nw_ls196.txt The Brooklyn
location is famous for the difficulty in
getting a reservation. What tips can you
give to get a table? Can one eat at the bar
at PL? If one just shows up at, say 9 p.m.,
is there a good chance of being seated? Early weekday
lunches are a great way to sneak in, and
eating at the bar before 3 p.m. is a good
move. Depending on the night, 9 o’clock is the
right time to try to snag a last-minute seat;
you’ll have to wait a bit, but your name will
get in before they start closing out tables
for service. Is the Great
Neck location (below) just as
difficult to get a reservation at? Great
Neck tends to be slammed on the weekends and
holidays, all summer and Thanksgiving through
New Year’s. But it’s also out on the Island,
and so weekday lunches and evenings are much
easier. The beef is exactly the same, and
they’ve got a really unique lobster main
course, which we don’t have in Brooklyn. If
you can get to Great Neck, go. ![]() Do you still
take only cash, debit cards and Peter Luger
cards? Yes,
and gift certificates. We’re up to about
100,000 PL account holders, which is pretty
special, and it’s a source of pride and
competition to have a lower, older number. At
least a few times a year, we’ll get a request
from the children of a cardholder who has
passed away to reissue the card to them with a
little second-generation designation, so 100
becomes 100-A, 100-B and 100-C, for instance.
Seeing our family business become part of
another family’s tradition is just one of the
best things about being here. What effect did
the negative N.Y. Times review
have on business? The immediate
aftereffect was that reservations went through
the roof. It seemed that anybody who had dined
with us in the prior ten years wanted to come
out and show support, and anybody who hadn’t
dined with us wanted to come out to weigh in
on the debate. That was October, so it
basically began the Thanksgiving-New Year’s
rush about a month early. Things went back to
normal in January, but then the pandemic hit
and everything changed again. How did PL
bounce back after Covid? And what happened
to all that beef PL and other steakhouses
were not buying during the
closures? Covid
was, of course, tough for everyone. Our
customer base—both locally and nationally—was
incredibly supportive during this time, and
our mail-order meat business via The Butcher Shop skyrocketed.
We started doing delivery and takeout, which
we’d never done before, and we were able to
send thank you lunches to the hospital crews
who were working through an incredibly
difficult time. That was one thing we were
really proud of during Covid. Another was that
we kept our full staff on full family health
insurance the whole time, so that they
wouldn’t need to be worried or changing
providers in the middle of the pandemic. The
result was that when finally we were legally
able to open our doors, we didn’t have to
scramble to rehire like a lot of other places
had, and we bounced back right away. Is there a next generation of the family to take over and continue its legacy? Right now,
generations two through four are holding down
the fort and represented in management. My
great-aunt, Amy Rubenstein, is Sol Forman’s
daughter, my aunt Jody Storch is Sol Forman’s
granddaughter, and David Berson and I are
Sol’s great-grandsons. There’s no next
generation yet to speak of, but we’ve got a
few family weddings next year, so things are
in the works! Many N.Y.
steakhouses now claim to have owners and
staff who once worked at PL. Is this largely
true or are they just claims? It’s true. Quite
a few waiters have gone on to start their own
places, and this has definitely helped to make
the menu that we pioneered the sort of
standard for the Classic American Steakhouse.
The service and menus at these places tend to
look like ours, but the beef aging and
selection—always done at Luger by family—is
different. It’s neat to see the little
variations here and there.
As of right now,
we have no immediate plans for more openings.
(Tokyo and Vegas branches will be up by the
time this goes live!) Prices have
risen across the board for beef. Is this
likely to continue and has there been price
resistance? There is
definitely resistance, but so far it seems to
be futile—especially for those buying Prime
short loins or ribs. Even within USDA
Prime-rated cattle, the prices of different
primal cuts (Chuck, Rib, Loin, Round, Flank,
Short Plate, Shank, Brisket) move together,
but not perfectly in tandem. We use Prime
chuck for our burgers, for instance, and while
this is much more expensive to buy than Choice
chuck, the price difference is not as great as
the difference between Prime Loin and Choice
Loin. Prime Loins and Ribs are going to be the
most sought-after cuts, and continued demand
for them will probably bulldoze over whatever
price resistance comes in at other points of
the market. ❖❖❖ . . . AND PETER LUGER STEAKS A CLAIM IN VEGAS By John A. Curtas ![]() "You're not being rude enough,"
was the first thing I said to our
waiter as he cheerfully guided us through
the menu and drink order. He just winked and
shrugged, "That's not the way we do things
around here," as he continued to be more
solicitous than a billboard lawyer at a
fender-bender. ❖❖❖ NEW YORK CORNER SAGAPONACK
4 West 22nd Street 212-229-2226 By John Mariani ![]() By
its name one
might think that the menu at Sagapanock (an
affluent town in the Hamptons)
might be serving up swordfish, softshell crabs
and shad roe from the choppy
waters off Montauk. But since Kyungil Lee (below)
took over premises of that name, he
has focused the menu on Asian-Mediterranean
cuisine via Executive Chef Phil
Choy, formerly at Daniel Boulud’s Boulud
Sud. The results are
stunning. Open for lunch
&
dinner Mon.-Sat. ❖❖❖
GOING AFTER HARRY LIME By John Mariani ![]()
© John Mariani, 2016 ❖❖❖ NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
HIGH SPIRITS FOR THE HOLIDAYS ![]() By John Mariani
The
spirits industry goes all out during
the holidays, pushing new products as well as the
same old product in brand new
bottles. Anyone who loves “brown goods” like
Scotch, rum, Cognac and rye would
love to find these under the tree this year.
CLYDE MAY 9-Year-Old Cask
Strength Straight Rye Whiskey ($64)—Aged in former
bourbon barrels, this
Alabama spirit comes out at 57.5% alcohol, from a
mash bill of
91% rye and 9% barley. Another innovation is to
steep American oak, cherry wood
and French oak chips into the whiskey for four more
months to give even more
nuance to a rich, distinctly caramel flavor with
notes of toasted nuts. ABERFELDY 15 YEARS OLD
LIMITED EDITION 2023 ($70)—Part of the brand’s Red
Wine Cask series, this is
first matured by Malt Master Stephanie Macleod in a
combination of refill
casks, then finished in Cabernet Sauvignon wine
casks from Napa Valley. It has
a harmonized structure with honey and spice, bottled
at 43% alcohol with
no harshness in the finish, only a pleasing
pale woodiness in the finish. BRUICHLADDICH ($65)—In its
distinctive turquoise bottle, this single malt is PENDERYN PATAGONIA
($85)—This is the eleventh of Penderyn’s “Icons of
Wales Edition” series, the
first of their blended whiskeys using its own
single malt along with that of
the La
Alazana Distillery in Patagonia,
started in 2011 by the Serenelli family. (Welsh
settlers came to Patagonia as
early as 1865.) Bottled at 43%, it is
multi-leveled with a harmony of sweetness
and citrus, toastiness and muted heat.
BEVERLY HIGH RYE ($60)—The
name sounds like something students at Beverly Hills
High School sneak into
their lockers, but there is a lot of care put into
this 50-50 blend of rye and
bourbon by founder Andrew Borenzweig (an L.A.
native) and Master Blender Murphy
Quint, made in small batches from whiskies from Iowa
and Indiana. The
introduction was only in 2021, but the whiskey has
already won its share of
awards. It’s a very smooth blend, slightly caramel
and lends itself to a
snifter as well as the cocktail shaker. DOS MADEROS RUM ($45)—Paola
Medina blends the best strains of fermented
sugarcane from both lighter
Barbados and heavier Guyana stocks, using old Coffey
alambiques and
discontinuous wooden stills, spending five years
resting before being sent to
Williams & Humbert for aging in Palo Cortado
sherry barrels in Jerez,
Spain. There is a true refinement throughout,
revealing layers of flavors and
ending with a very satisfying finish that lingers on
the palate.
INDRI SINGLE MALT ($80)—It
was inevitable that India, so long a colony of Great
Britain, would someday
produce whiskey, and this cask-strength single malt
crafted by Surrinder Kumar,
is bottled at a whopping 57.2%, aged in bourbon
barrels. "Dru"
symbolizes the vessel used to
offer the divine drink "soma"
to the Gods. Aced on bourbon barrels, it won Best in
Show Double Gold at the
2023 Whiskies of the World Awards. BARCELÓ IMPERIALS RON
DOMENICANO 40 ANNIVERSARIO
($180)—Barceló has been making rum from the
cane fields of San Pedro de
Macoris, Dominican Republic, since 1980 and this
edition is limited to 15,000
numbered bottles, so it’s the kind of spirit that
may well go to auction houses
for sale. It spent more than two years in French oak
with varying degrees of
charring, spending ten years resting in French oak
coops, allowing time for
nature to work its magic of marrying complementary
flavors to produce a very rich,
though not overpowering, rum at 40% alcohol. The
bottle and gift box are
impressive as well. ❖❖❖ ![]() THINGS WE'VE NEVER DOUBTED ❖❖❖ Any of John Mariani's books below may be ordered from amazon.com. ![]() WATCH THE VIDEO! “What a huge surprise turn this story took! I was completely stunned! I truly enjoyed this book and its message.” – Actress Ali MacGraw “He had me at Page One. The amount of heart, human insight, soul searching, and deft literary strength that John Mariani pours into this airtight novella is vertigo-inducing. Perhaps ‘wow’ would be the best comment.” – James Dalessandro, author of Bohemian Heart and 1906. “John Mariani’s Hound in Heaven starts with a well-painted portrayal of an American family, along with the requisite dog. A surprise event flips the action of the novel and captures us for a voyage leading to a hopeful and heart-warming message. A page turning, one sitting read, it’s the perfect antidote for the winter and promotion of holiday celebration.” – Ann Pearlman, author of The Christmas Cookie Club and A Gift for my Sister. “John Mariani’s concise, achingly beautiful novella pulls a literary rabbit out of a hat – a mash-up of the cosmic and the intimate, the tragic and the heart-warming – a Christmas tale for all ages, and all faiths. Read it to your children, read it to yourself… but read it. Early and often. Highly recommended.” – Jay Bonansinga, New York Times bestselling author of Pinkerton’s War, The Sinking of The Eastland, and The Walking Dead: The Road To Woodbury. “Amazing things happen when you open your heart to an animal. The Hound in Heaven delivers a powerful story of healing that is forged in the spiritual relationship between a man and his best friend. The book brings a message of hope that can enrich our images of family, love, and loss.” – Dr. Barbara Royal, author of The Royal Treatment. ❖❖❖
MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET
NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher
Mariani, Misha Mariani, John A. Curtas, Gerry Dawes, Geoff Kalish.
Contributing
Photographer: Galina Dargery. Technical
Advisor: Gerry
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