As my friends and family gathered around my Big Green Egg grill last month for America’s 250th birthday, one of my relatives remarked that we should gather at the grill again soon but this time – instead of hot dogs or smoked pork as we had on July 4 – to eat steak!
Like a fellow Generation X member endowed with impressive wisdom recently reminded me, the great American steakhouse used to be ubiquitous all over our great nation. But nowadays it seems they’re going extinct. It’s hard to imagine, but one of the reasons is beef itself has become so expensive! And difficult to produce. This is especially crazy for our generation because we all vividly remember that excellent “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner” advertising campaign with it’s evocative theme music and the iconic voice-over narration from western movie legend Robert Mitchum.
But no, the steakhouse is – if not dead, at least on life support. There are lots of reasons. Restaurants in general have suffered during and after the pandemic. For years, Americans have been deciding that red meat isn’t exactly healthy to be eaten all the time. And the rest of the traditional accompanying dishes? Loaded baked potatoes, piles of fries and massive yeast rolls with plenty of butter – to say nothing of decadent desserts – aren’t exactly bastions of nutritional diets either.
Still, sometimes in life you need to embrace luxury just a bit.
Now some of this restaurants brought upon themselves by not updating their décor or menus in decades. I remember when our local standout steakhouse and seafood restaurant Scoggins closed a few years ago. It was a real loss to our community, but the offerings hadn’t really changed since I was a child. And I’m no spring chicken, folks. Still, you would think that with the giant wave of nostalgia recently some of these chains or local joints would make a go of it again with the throwback themes. But the cost of ingredients continues to rise, and the recent advent of the horrible screw worm cattle parasites to our country is only going to make things worse.
So, what’s a steak fan to do in our area? Good news, we’ve got a few options left locally! La Strada restaurant in Lake Lure focuses on Italian food, of course, but they do offer some amazing Black Angus Tenderloin Medallions – order them rare to really savor the flavor. And over at The Highlands Reserve you can order your choice of a Bone-in Ribeye, Filet Mignon or a Prime Rib! Sure it isn’t the same as a dedicated steakhouse, but it is a small step to make sure a beloved American tradition doesn’t “moo” quietly into that dark night.
