Serious Eats New York - newyork.seriouseats.com

Primehouse New York's Rib-Eye sandwich

Posted by Nick Solares, October 27, 2008 at 2:45 PM

A few weeks back I reviewed the Primehouse New York burger, which I liked—but I must tell you about another item on the lunch menu: the dry aged rib-eye sandwich.

It comes on a French roll, topped with smoked mozzarella and sautéed mushrooms and onions, aided and abetted by a generous portion of steak fries, all for $19. It is assuredly one of the best bargains in beef, for this is USDA Prime rib eye from Creekstone Farms in Kentucky that is dry-aged for 28 days in Primehouse's Himalayan salt–lined meat locker.

It has all the virtues of the restaurant's steaks—an earthy, musky blue cheese–like flavor from the dry-aging and flesh that is tender and succulent. Primehouse's searing grill puts an impressive crust on the steak even when ordered rare, which is how I advise you try this sandwich to fully realize the potential of the beef. As I like to say, the steak has already been killed once.

The crusty bread is pliant enough to succumb easily when bitten, as is the beef. Truth be told, it doesn't necessarily benefit from the mozzarella, but the cheese is mild enough as to be innocuous and not interfere unduly with the flavor of the beef itself. Want fries with that? Find out after the jump.

The steak fries, as I noted in my review of the Primehouse burger, are exceptional—"freshly made from skin-on potatoes, they are deep-fried to a glorious golden hue and come out extremely ridged; they are about as far as possible from the generic, pale, limp, frozen steak fries that you might be familiar with."

Perhaps the only thing missing is a sprinkling of rabbit food—some lettuce and tomato, perhaps—if only to brighten the look of the plate. The pale pickles that currently grace it don't really cut it.

But at $19 I cannot really complain. B.R. Guest's executive corporate chef Brett Reichler recently noted of the Pat La Frieda Black Lablel hamburger blend "Hey, it’s dry-aged steak at half the price. In this day and age that’s not a bad thing."

The same can be said of the rib-eye sandwich at Primehouse. You would have to spend a lot more to get this much flavor.

Primehouse

381 Park Avenue South, New York NY 10016 (at 27th Street; map)
212-824-2600
brguestrestaurants.com
Note: The rib-eye sandwich is available during lunch and brunch (11:30 a.m to 4 p.m., 7 days a week)

2 Comments

Tags: Flatiron, lunch, Manhattan, Primehouse New York, rib-eye steak, sandwiches, steak