Albert’s is a fancy bar that just opened up near Grand Central that features some really nice cocktails and a killer menu. I highly recommend the Salt & Pepper Martini, which is made with celery salt and sun dried tomato -infused vodka.
This joint is brought to you by the folks behind the great upper east side spot The Penrose, so I didn’t expect any slack!
I stopped by one Friday after work to meet my wife for a drink, but we ended up ordering their jojo fries, and their t-bone for two, which is a dry-aged 35oz beast that also comes with two sides for $150. What a deal!
We went with the lemon and walnut crispy Brussels and the spatzl “mac” and cheese. Both were incredible!
The steak itself was an easy 8/10. It had mild aged flavor, but it ws cooked to a perfect medium rare with a great, deep golden brown crust all over.
I’ll definitely be back to try the tartare, the strip steak frites, and the burger.
My friend’s family has been in the meat business for a century. His great grandfather started a company called Golden Packing in 1920, and my friend just re-established the family business in 2020. He got his start learning about and cutting meat, and then later was in sales with various operations. Now he runs his own show, having started his own operation exactly 100 years after his great grandfather did the very same thing. So cool.
His 21st century Golden Packing is even operating in a space that’s literally across the street from their original location in NYC’s meatpacking district on Little West 12th Street. One of the last few remaining meat packing businesses in the area. That’s something special.
He gave me a quick tour of the facility, and we even tasted some burgers and dry-aged steaks that we cooked in the office upstairs. Check out this video of the dry aging room, which is just across from the office:
This place was amazing. The smell of that room permeated through my mask and filled it with a mouth watering blue cheese aroma. I was salivating while taking these pics and videos. If I was in that office it would be hard to keep me from wandering off and just hanging out in the aging room.
Check out the progression on these aged short loin anterior ends. It goes from one day, to five days, to nearly three months.
And that same middle pic, just a week or so later:
Here’s a look at how burgers are made:
I actually made those! Chuck gets cut up into pieces and then turned into ground beef via these machines.
Anyway if you’ve been following along on Instagram, you may have noticed that I’ve been posting some butcher and packing type pics and videos lately. That’s because I’m “interning” here at Golden Packing, learning the business!
That’s right. I’m finally putting my money where my mouth is, and stepping into this glorious world. Here are some more shots of the day to day:
It’s a lot of fun. I’m learning so much, and somehow I find it exciting to wake up at 3:30am when I’m going to this new “office.”
Filets:
Rib eyes:
Short loins:
Skirts:
Even lamb:
Over time, I’ve had the opportunity to sample the wares, as you might imagine. For example, I’ve never touched anything as tender as these bone in veal tenderloins:
The skirt steaks are killer. Here’s an easy preparation I did with them to make fajita pitas:
Here’s my treatment of their porterhouse:
What a tasty beauty.
And also their bone-in tenderloin. This was fun!
Really great product, and it’s no wonder that they service so many of the city’s best steakhouses. They DO offer steams for home delivery as well, but the main bread and butter is their restaurant clientele.
Strassburger Steaks‘ “Steakhouse Collection” of home delivery chops is wonderful. Thick, aged cuts of highly marbled beef are vac sealed and shipped right to your door in tight styrofoam coolers, surrounded by ice packs.
The first thing I made was a rib eye. I overcooked it a little, but here’s my video:
It was really flavorful, and the aged profile really came through nicely.
Next up, I did a Philadelphia Italian-inspired twist on taco night: ground beef, blue cheese and broccoli rabe.
These were incredible! The beef was 80/20, really brightly colored pink and delicious.
Then I tried a “dry-brine” on a highly marbled porterhouse. Here’s a pic before brining.
And after:
Check out the video:
As you can probably see, with the exception of the area right near the bone on the strip side, this technique made for a really great Maillard brown crust.
I undercooked it a bit, but thoroughly enjoyed.
I still have a lot more to try, but this is a great start. I definitely recommend these steaks for home delivery. And don’t forget, I wrote an article about Suzy Strassburger and this company way back. Check it out HERE if you haven’t read it yet.
That’s right you meat eating sons of bitches, I’ve written a book!
The Beef Bible: A Carnivore’s Compendium is a collection of articles, musings, and beef information that every steak lover should have at his or her fingertips. Inside my meat manifesto, you’ll learn all there is to know about the beef biz; from breeding to butchery, from calving to carving.
The Kindle edition is just $4.99. But here’s a money saving tip: Kindle is FREE as an app on your phone, and you should be able to borrow my book from the Kindle owners lending library for FREE as well, once you install the app! It can also be shared with you through the lending library by others who have purchased it. So you don’t even have to pay the measly $4.99 if you don’t want to drop a crisp Lincoln to support my sorry ass.
But in the rare case that you do want to support my sorry ass with a cash purchase, there’s a fuckin’ paperback version as well, and it won’t cost much more than a crisp Hamilton! It’s available on Amazon for just $11.99:
That’s my “proof” editing copy with the annoying “not for resale” ribbon across the front. Yours will be much prettier. And that’s Benjamin Franklin in the back, from the mini-series John Adams. Damn that’s a lot of founding fathers mentioned in one post, for no reason at all really!
Those of you who follow along here … “religiously” … will recognize some content, but everything has been updated and improved for the book. The Kindle version has full color photos for your phone and/or tablet displays, while the paperback is in regular old black and white, save for the cover art. A color print job would’ve meant me charging upwards of like $25 to even make a penny on the sale. Absurd! At that price, just go out and buy the fucking steak instead of reading about it.
In any case, I hope you savages read what I have to say, and continue to worship alongside me at the Holy Altar of Beef!!!
Listen up you savages! I’ve got some new merchandise available in the form of t-shirts, hoodies, zip-ups and long sleeves. Some folks have asked me about knives, but I’m still in the process of finding the right blacksmith to make my design ideas come to life. Anyway, take a look HERE and browse my high fashion gear to your carnivorous heart’s content.
Tambour Bistro and Wine Bar is a cool spot that serves up some great Mediterranean style eats in Brooklyn. They have a great deal going on: for $120 you get an appetizer, a dry-aged porterhouse steak from Romeo Brothers (Bensonhurst meat shop), a side and a dessert.
My wife and I came in to try this stuff out. Here’s what we had.
First, some nice wines. I had a Rioja and my wife had a white that I can’t pronounce.
The mussels here are incredible. Make sure you ask for a spoon to slurp up the sauce at the bottom of the bowl. There’s white wine, roasted chili peppers and herbs in that crack sauce.
This arugula salad was simple and refreshing, with kalamata olives, feta cheese, pickled shallots, English cukes and marinated baby tomatoes.
Next up was the main event: a 70-day dry-aged porterhouse, served Florentine style, with charred lemons and rosemary.
This thing was a real beauty. Perfectly cooked with that great brown Maillard crust on it.
There was a lot of earthy funk on this from the aging process, so wiping an occasional bite across the charred lemon was a great way to cut the fat and funk with a pop of brightness.
We finished every bite. I highly recommend this steak. 9/10.
On the side we had the asparagus with crumbled parmesan cheese. That’s an Italian chimichurri sauce in the back. Basil, oregano, lemon, etc. Great with the steak actually.
For dessert, we had this perfectly executed creme brûlée.
This baby was big, creamy and flavorful.
I will definitely be back here to try their bacon as well as some other cuts of steak. I suggest you give it a shot too, especially if you live in the area.
TAMBOUR BISTRO & WINE BAR
652 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
This was my fourth and final stop on the Michael White restaurant tour (not including Marea). This was a pretty big meal, so I’ll just get down to it and list everything we tried.
Chicken & Eggplant Meatballs
I admit I didn’t have high hopes for this, but it ended up being my favorite item of the night. So tasty. Really nice.
Scallop Crudo
Beautiful and light.
Carpaccio
The goat cheese on this was a nice touch.
We tried four different pasta dishes:
Tortelli
This was a squid ink dough stuffed with lobster meat inside, and garnished with cuttlefish. Using seafood is a great way to make a ravioli style dish a bit lighter. Really nice.
Garganelli
Braised lamb neck, sheep’s milk ricotta and broccoli rabe. A really hearty and flavorful pasta.
Tagliatelle
This was served with their classic Bolognese ragu, packed with delicious morsels of meat.
Fusilli
This was my favorite pasta of the night. Perfertly cooked al dente pasta with a delicious pork shoulder ragu and melted pecorino.
Lamb Chops
These had a grassy flavored green crust on the outside that gave the lamb a delicate earthy flavor.
Veal Milanese
The crispy prosciutto on top of the dressed greens here was killer, and it was the perfect way to introduce a little salt into the dish.
Porterhouse Florentine
This was cooked to a perfect medium rare. I love the charred lemon preparation here, and that filet side was super tender. 7/10.
We also tried two sides:
Mushrooms & Spinach
I loved that medley of wild mushrooms.
And of course, we also tried the White Label Burger from this location. Here, it is topped with fontina cheese, bacon, pepperoncini peppers and a tomato marmalade.
RISTORANTE MORINI
1167 Madison Ave
New York, NY 10028