LEO's Eats with Robin Garr
Let’s consider the economics of steak. Hungry for a sizzling rare boneless strip? Meijer had USDA choice for $7.99 a pound this week. (Kroger had flatiron, a chunk of chuck, for just $5.99 a pound, but let’s keep things upscale with strip or rib eye.) Bring it home, slap it on the grill, add a potato and a salad, and you’ve got steak dinner for two for $10. Such a deal.
Now let’s tinker with this scenario. No feedlot beef from industrial farms, pumped full of bovine growth hormone and steroids for me. Nope, make mine grass-fed, please, and additive-free. Easily done, but you’ll pay for the privilege: Whole Foods will sell you a pound of all-natural strip steak for $16.99; add $5 for dry-aged.
You’d rather have it locavore? Me, too. Head for a farmers market where the nice folks from Dreamcatcher, Fiedler, Stonecross and other local farms will fix you up with a hormone-free, humanely raised chunk o’ cow for prices competitive with Whole Foods.
You’d really rather go out, you say? OK, but prepare for sticker shock. High quality beef prepared to your liking in a high-end steakhouse is going to cost real money.
For the record, you can get a porterhouse steak at Ponderosa for $12.99, or $3 more with buffet privileges. This gets you a pound of cow, cooked and served with all the trimmings, for less than you would pay for the raw meat at Whole Foods or a locavore farm stand. If this suits you, then bless your heart.
For fancier steak and service, though, the price goes up: At Stoney River Legendary Steaks, a 14-ounce New York strip is $27. At the iconic local Pat’s Steakhouse, you’ll pay $38.75 for a 15- to 16-ounce prime, aged rib eye. Jeff Ruby’s has a prime, aged bone-in strip or rib eye for $48 and $49; and Eddie Merlot’s asks $39 to $64 for steaks topping out at the Scrub Ranch Wagyu beef rib eye. Bon appetit!
In short, upscale steakhouses aren’t cheap eats. You dine here knowing the price will be high and that this toll will purchase a memorable meal of highest quality, with suave, sophisticated service appropriate to the fare.
Which brings us to Z’s Oyster Bar and Steakhouse, where we gathered a party of nine for a dinner that proved pleasant enough, but that lacked the high level of food and service I expect when the steaks range in price from $32.95 to $60.95.
Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/zs-an ... -economics
And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/z%E2%80%99s ... -economics
Z’s Oyster Bar & Steakhouse
101 Whittington Parkway
429-8000
http://zsoyster.com
Rating: 79
