The Golden Steer, Las Vegas, Nevada

Posted on February 22, 2013 by The Jab

Part two of Le Continental’s Las Vegas steak house tour.

The Golden Steer has been my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas since I first visited with friends while attending the Viva Las Vegas weekend in the late 1990s. Originally opened in 1958, expanded by adding the bar and lounge in the 1970s, and remodeled in the 1990s, it retains an old-fashioned Victorian steakhouse ambiance. It is the third oldest restaurant open in Vegas, after El Sombrero (opened in 1950), and Bob Taylor’s Ranch House (1955), which I covered last week in part one.

You can’t miss the place for the spectacular sign out front, but the building itself is nondescript, part of a small strip of shops with parking out front (and no valet service). Once in the bar, have a seat on one of the red bar stools and order a Manhattan. It will be served in a huge cocktail glass. You’re getting a double so it’s worth the high Vegas price, but I prefer my cocktails smaller. The cocktail should be a short, cold drink, so it can be enjoyed before it starts getting warm (which is why most vintage cocktail glasses you find are 3 ounces). Some of my favorite steakhouses (like Harris’ in San Francisco) serve cocktails in a 3 ounce glass with a mini-shaker or pitcher on the side, so you can medicate at your own pace. I wish the Golden Steer did the same. But it’s a minor quibble. I love everything else about this place.

The dining room at the Golden Steer continues the Victorian club steakhouse atmosphere with wood-paneled walls, button-tufted booths, and paintings of Wild West themes. Take a look at the plaques on some of the booths honoring celebrities who have dined here, including Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., John Wayne, Elvis, and many, many more.

For an appetizer I suggest their specialty escargots de Bourgogne. Le Continental always goes for tableside preparations so I also highly recommend the Caesar salad, prepared tableside of course. The Golden Steer serves aged prime corn-fed Midwestern beef and the steaks are excellent. I usually order the 20 oz. bone-in rib eye. On my recent visit with some local Vegas friends I asked for my steak done medium rare ‘Pittsburgh’ style, which means it’s cooked with a good dark brown crust, and it arrived perfectly done. Warning: use ‘Pittsburgh’ when ordering steaks with caution. As you will see in my next post you could get burned, literally!

The perfect steak!

The potatoes and the sides are always good at the Golden Steer. This time we had creamed spinach and sautéed mushrooms. Both were delicious! The baked potatoes are huge and fluffy and you can also get old-fashioned Lyonnaise potatoes.

After dinner how about a flambéed desert, such as Cherries Jubilee or Bananas Foster? Both are made tableside and are the perfect way to end a fabulous meal at Las Vegas’ best steakhouse.

Before…

and after! (taken in 2003)

The Golden Steer
308 W Sahara Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89102
(702) 384-4470
Open daily 4:30p – 10:30p

Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House, Las Vegas, Nevada

Posted on February 15, 2013 by The Jab

Part one of Le Continental’s Las Vegas steak house tour

An oasis in a desert of suburban tract homes and chain stores on the outskirts of Las Vegas, Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House stands on a large plot of land that makes you feel like you are on a cattle ranch when driving up their long driveway lined with a wooden fence and wagon wheels. Bob Taylor opened the restaurant on 80 acres of remote desert in 1955 as the Ranch House Supper Club. He personally cut and cooked the steaks over mesquite coals for his guests until 1980, when he sold the restaurant and the new owner changed its name to Bob Taylor’s Ranch House.

Upon entering the low ranch house style building there is a bar with a large lounge on your left with a great number of TVs in it, but continue ahead past the hostess stand and right in front of you proudly sits the mesquite grill, so that everyone who enters the restaurant can see and smell the meat cooking away. If it doesn’t make your mouth water you are probably a vegetarian (haha, just kidding my veggie friends). I visited at lunch time on a Saturday, and I was saving my appetite for dinner at the Golden Steer, so I had a hamburger. It was tasty after being grilled over mesquite coals, though it was cooked medium and not the medium rare I had ordered. The bun was nice and fresh and the onion rings I had on the side (for a small extra charge) were good.

The dining room is in classic rustic western style, with (most likely the original) wood tables and chairs, white tablecloths, and appropriately vintage looking candle lanterns on each table. There is a nice big fireplace that was filled with wood during my visit but it was not lit, despite the cold temperatures outside. Western themed pictures cover the rustic wood walls. Unfortunately, so do some large TVs, which thankfully were turned off when I was there. I can imagine the room might look nice at night as long as they don’t turn on those damn TVs.

I expressed concern to the waiter that the Ranch House was surrounded by recent development and is right next door to a large road or canal project (visible in the first photo above). But she assured me that the place is very popular and it isn’t going anywhere. Still, just imagine how much the land is worth (you could build several houses on its lot) and you can see how the Ranch House should be on your list for your next visit to Las Vegas, because who knows how long it will remain?

Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House
6250 Rio Vista St Las Vegas, NV 89130
(702) 645-1399
Open Sun-Thurs 11am -10pm, Fri-Sat 11am – 11pm

Albie’s Beef Inn, San Diego, California – CLOSED

Posted on January 18, 2013 by The Jab

UPDATE: Albie’s closed at the end of 2015 and was gutted by the new owner. The previous owner Ted Samouris saved much of the decor including all the nudes and plans to reopen, but as of June 2017 nothing has been announced so it seems unlikely that it will reopen.

Staying on topic with last week’s post on the Red Fox Room in San Diego, my friend D. A. Kolodenko recently gave a wonderful review of another one of my favorite steakhouses, Albie’s Beef Inn, for San Diego’s City Beat weekly magazine. In his column he mourns the loss of the Whaling Bar in the remodel of the venerable La Valencia Hotel in La Jolla, which opened in 1926. Although you will no longer be able to enjoy that classic bar, there are still some classics that remain in San Diego, Albie’s being one of them, the adjacent Andy’s Steak ‘n Eggs being another. Read on for more…Goodbye, Whaling Bar.

Photo by Amy T. Granite for City Beat

Some of Albie’s artworks by Larry ‘Vincent’ Garrison

Albie’s happy hour (M-F 4pm-7pm) is one I try to catch when I’m in town, for double well drinks at the single price, plus free food. A photo I took of the bar area in 2001 (it is not uncommon to see people with walkers in Albie’s):

Albie’s Beef Inn
1201 Hotel Circle South, San Diego, CA 92108
Phone (619) 291-1103
Open for Lunch M-F 11:30am – 4pm; Happy Hour M-F 4pm – 7pm; Dinner Mon-Th 5pm – 10pm, Fri-Sat 5pm – 11pm; closed Sundays

Red Fox Room, San Diego, California – RELOCATED

Posted on January 9, 2013 by The Jab

I grew up in San Diego and spent my early adulthood out and about on my Lambretta motor scooter almost every night of the week. But even after I turned 21 I wasn’t keen on hanging out in bars. The usual crowd in most San Diego bars were either older folks (which I appreciate now) or young surfer-jock types that I usually didn’t get along with. There were a couple of exceptions, like Pal Joey’s that had good bands (such as the Paladins in their early days). But in the late ’80s things changed with the opening of the Casbah Club and the Pink Panther bar, which really got things going as far as bar culture in San Diego. The Casbah was a live music club while the Pink Panther was just a dive bar taken over by cool people, with good music provided by DJs most nights of the week. You could always count on a fun and hip crowd at either venue, many dressed in vintage attire as that was when the rockabilly/swing scene really got going (along with a lot of the Mod scene that had not moved away or “settled down”).

Image by Dan Soderberg (http://www.dsoderblog.com)

It was around this time when I started visiting some of the vintage restaurants and bars that remained in San Diego, with friends who had the same appreciation for what remained of classic places with style where you could go gussied up for a night on-the-town and fit right in. The Red Fox Room was one of the best of these, and it remains pretty much the same to this day. I will remember fondly the nights at the piano bar (one of many in San Diego that are still going – more on those in later posts) when Shirley Allen was on the keys. Sadly, cancer took her away in 2005 after 15 years playing lounge standards with friends sitting in on various instruments.

Dining Room – photo by Paul Krawczuck

The Red Fox Room opened in 1959 on U.S. highway 80, taking over the restaurant space next to the Lafayette Hotel (formerly the Imig Manor), which originally opened in 1946 and is a great place to stay in San Diego. The interior decor installed in the Red Fox has a fascinating history. Many of the wood treatments (such as the fireplace mantel) were created in 1642 and installed in an inn in Surrey, England (which first opened in 1560). In 1926 the Inn was dismantled and the carved wood, bar, and back bar all were shipped to the U.S. and installed in actress Marion Davies’ beach house, which became a hotel in 1947. Sometime in the 1950s part of the interior was removed, the hotel demolished, and some of the interior from the old Surrey Inn was installed in the Red Fox Room. When you visit, try to explore the dining room, bar, and foyer and look at the beautiful detailed woodwork (hopefully without bothering other diners!).

booth in bar area

Now on to the food. The restaurant is a steak house so I recommend the steaks of course. The steaks are aged choice beef and an excellent value, ranging from a low of $18.95 for a top sirloin to a high of $23.95 for a filet mignon. I usually get the regular sized New York steak, but on my last visit in December I went twice so I tried the filet as well as the New York. I preferred the New York’s flavor because of the extra marbling, but I thought the filet was very good, a real bargain. All steaks come with a chilled relish dish, a nicely chilled salad w/ homemade dressing, choice of baked potato, French fries, or rice pilaf, and garlic cheese bread – yum! All the sides were quite good so you can see what a good value dinner is here. The drinks are also a good value – they are strong yet inexpensive. And they use Old Crow in the well, which is one of my favorite cheap bourbons!

The Red Fox Room is one of my favorite steakhouses in the country, for the decor, atmosphere, food, and good service. The steaks won’t knock you out, but at these prices they are a bargain. So dine there and then snag a table in the piano bar for some good jazz and standards – a wonderful evening back in time! Even better, book a room at the recently refurbished Lafayette Hotel and make a night of it!

Red Fox Room
2223 El Cajon Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92104
(619) 297-1313
Open Mon-Fri 11:00am-2:00am, Sat 4:00pm-2:00am, Sun 4:00pm-12am (midnight)

Thanksgiving Dinner in the Bay Area

Posted on November 21, 2012 by The Jab

For those who don’t have family nearby to visit for Thanksgiving dinner, Le Continental hereby presents some suggestions for dinner on Thanksgiving in the Bay Area. Note: there are probably many newer restaurants that are offering Thanksgiving dinner. The focus of this blog is such that we will only suggest older, classic restaurants.

Most hofbrau style restaurants have turkey dinner on the menu. By hofbrau I’m referring to the Bay Area meaning of the term: a cafeteria, where you order from a food line and take your tray of food to a table (not the German term Hofbräu, which usually refers to a brewery that serves food). Usually there are waiters to take drink orders.

One of the oldest hofbraus in the Bay Area, and one of my favorites, is Lefty O’Doul’s, named after a San Francisco native pro baseball player, which opened in 1958. I’m not a fan of sports bars in general (too many TVs and beer posters for my liking), but this one has much historic charm, from its wood interior and tables to its many photos and memorabilia of local sports legends of the past. Nothing is decorated in a tacky way like many other sports bars. The food is pretty good and the drinks are strong. My favorite meal there is the house made corned beef hash for breakfast (with a bloody Mary of course). It’s a large place so it should be able to accommodate customers at any time of day.

Another historic hofbrau is Tommy’s Joynt, which opened in 1947 on Highway 101 in the heart of San Francisco. Cluttered with bric-à-brac and signs, much of it very old, it is a charming bit of old San Francisco with a Victorian theme. The food is good and very inexpensive. There is a huge beer selection, and the highballs are cheap but strong (Old Crow bourbon in the well is a plus).

There are other hofbraus in the Bay Area, but they all have more contemporary decor, are generally too brightly lit for my taste, and have mostly mediocre food, including the Harry’s chain, the Roast Haus in San Rafael, Bogy’s in S. San Francisco, the Europa in Orinda, and Oak’s Corner in Emeryville. One hofbrau that I would like to try is Chick-n-Coop in San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood, but I phoned and it will be closed on Thanksgiving Day. Finally, there is Brennan’s in Berkeley, an old favorite that had pretty good food, but it moved to a new location a couple of years ago and I have not wanted to check it out. Sam’s Hofbrau in Oakland R.I.P. (not really, it was actually pretty disgusting).

For something much, much fancier you could do no wrong at Harris’ Steakhouse, that is open and serving Thanksgiving dinner. (There are probably booked already, but there’s always next year.) Harris’ only dates back to 1984 (not insignificant in restaurant years!), but it has a classic feel (it replaced the venerable Grisson’s) and serves the best dry-aged prime steaks in the Bay Area, in my not-so-humble opinion. It is not affiliated with the Harris Ranch lower-end steakhouse and brand. Make sure you enjoy a Manhattan or Martini, which is served with its own little pitcher in a barrel of ice. And don’t forget to peek at the steaks aging through the window from the sidewalk.

Another good choice is the House of Prime Rib. I like what’s left of the vintage decor (though much of it has been redecorated) and the food is pretty good. But I’ve had some problems with the service in the past, and on some occasions I’ve been unhappy with the table I was seated at and the noisy atmosphere. It is also always incredibly busy (which I can’t really understand). But if you can snag a booth in the front room it is an experience you should have at least once. They carve the meat and serve from beautiful metal carts, which originated at Lawry’s The Prime Rib in Los Angeles. They also stole the spinning salad bowl from Lawry’s.

As far as the East Bay (where I live) goes, I don’t know of any classic or historic restaurants that will be open for Thanksgiving dinner, but if you do know of one please mention it in the comments.

Thanksgiving Day Hours, 2012

Lefty O’Doul’s – 7am – 12 midnight
333 Geary Street San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 982-8900

Tommy’s Joynt – 10am – 12 midnight
1101 Geary Boulevard San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 775-4216

Harris’ – 3:30pm – 8:30pm
2100 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-1888

House of Prime Rib – call (I couldn’t get through as the line was busy)
1906 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 885-4605

Le Continental

dining and drinking with The Jab

Tag Archives: steakhouse

The Golden Steer, Las Vegas, Nevada

Bob Taylor’s Original Ranch House, Las Vegas, Nevada

Albie’s Beef Inn, San Diego, California – CLOSED

Red Fox Room, San Diego, California – RELOCATED

Thanksgiving Dinner in the Bay Area

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