Speaking of Las Vegas, as I was: Peter Luger's Steakhouse has finally opened at Caesars Palace. I'm a longtime fan of Peter Luger's in Brooklyn but my last few trips east, I haven't had the enthusiasm to make the long cab ride out to it. That long drive is part of the reason but another is that I've become less of a fan of very, very expensive steakhouses. There's a limit to how wonderful a steak can be and more and more steakhouses are exceeding that limit in this country.
Spending money, when one spends it the right way, can be fun. Feeling fleeced of it is not.
In Beverly Hills, steak seekers used to have their choice of Ruth's Chris, Fleming's, Wolfgang's, Morton's, The Palm, Mastro's and one or two others. I've had great meals at all the named places but in just the last few years, all the named ones except Mastro's have closed and I don't believe it's just that people are eating less red meat. All of these places offered fish and chicken. I just think that for many folks, "steakhouse" has become a synonym for "clip joint."
In Vegas, your basic Peter Luger's steak runs $72 for one, $149 for two, $216 for three, and $286 for four. That's just for the plate o' meat. Early reviews say it's a great steak but like I said, there's a limit…and it also bugs me that the price for two is more than double the price for one. i wonder what they'd charge if you said, "Bring us two orders of the steak for one."
Add an appetizer, a side dish and a dessert and you're looking at $117 per person and that's without tax, tip or beverages. Those tariffs are a little above the current prices at the two Peter Luger'ses in New York, by the way.
You may remember some excitement from me when it was announced that Peter Luger's was coming to Vegas. Imagine! There would be one only 273 miles from me instead of 2,787 miles away! Now, I'm feeling like it's not my kind of place. I don't feel like I'm part of the target audience for it or a lot of places in Vegas lately. The prices of hotel rooms, shows and other forms of entertainment are just alienating me as are the offers I'm getting for package deals. I have a problem with "package deals," as I'll explain in another post shortly.
Years ago, there was a great Chinese restaurant not far from my home. I wrote about it in Story #3 in this article which I wrote way back in the previous century. You don't have to go read it. In that tale, I told how I took a lady named Valerie there for dinner on many of our dates. We both loved the food there.
By way of Updates and Honesty, I should tell you that that not long after that restaurant got bad and lost my patronage, it went out of business. Also, I should set your mind at ease and tell you that I've found an even better-than-that-one-ever-was Chinese restaurant that my current lady friend also loves. And I should tell you that in the above-referenced story, I changed that lady friend's name to Valerie. It wasn't really Valerie.
One evening, I took the lady who was not named Valerie to a very fancy and expensive steakhouse in Beverly Hills for a wonderful meal. Later, she found a gentle, kind way to tell me that though she loved her dinner, she was uncomfy when she peeked at the bill and saw what it had cost me. I told her I didn't mind. She told me that she minded. It was a little under $100 which at the time was a lot of money to spend on dinner for two people, neither of whom ordered alcohol. It would probably be twice that today.
She asked me what it cost me when we went to the Chinese eatery we both loved. I told her it was around $25. She said, "How about this? Every time you get the urge to take me to a place where dinner runs $80 and up, we instead go to the Chinese restaurant and you give me $20 to spend on something I really need for my life? That way, you'll be ahead and I'll be ahead. Because frankly, while I enjoyed our dinner tonight, I didn't enjoy it any more than when we eat at the Chinese place."
I thought for a second, decided I couldn't see anything wrong with that and agreed. We did that for the rest of the time not-Valerie and I dated, which was another six months or so. It never occurred to me to continue that policy with subsequent companions but I may reinstitute it with regard to steakhouses.
Or if she doesn't want the money, maybe I'll send it to Operation USA or some cause that can put it to better use. I've probably been eating too much beef anyway. The policy may not apply any time I'm on an expense account and someone else is paying.