I will follow this up with posts about subsequent Steak Club events (hopefully while drunk), but for now this is a quick summary of our 4 nights so far.
1) Smokeys Club. This being my first Steak Club I had to order the biggest steak on the menu as is tradition. I was not disappointed with the T-Bone (20oz, $45). I got it medium and it was well cooked. Smokey's gives you no shortage of other stuff as I got soup, salad, a relish dish and I got fries instead of the hash browns. The hash browns are great, but I've had them before and wanted to try something else. I started the evening off with one of the many specialty martini's (I went with banana), before switching over to one of my favorite beers, locally made fantasy factory. Overall I think I like Smokeys a bit more than the rest of the group. I give it a solid B.
2) Tornado Steakhouse. After enjoying my T-bone so much at Smokey's I got another at Tornado (21oz, $39) . Plus I'm angling for a nickname like Costanza (hope I don't get stuck with Koko). Got it medium again and it was perfect. This was a great piece of meat. All the sides are a la carte here which is fine. The bill ended up being about the same as Smokey's after salad and sides were added. I went vodka gimlet here before switching it up to beer. I think this was the top Steak Club event so far, and I think others would agree. The quality of the meat was spectacular, which made this place the best. Grade A.
3) Outback. We went cheap and saved some dough on this one. You get what you pay for. They had no T-bone on the menu so I got a porterhouse (18oz, $24). The meat was pretty good, but the rest left something to be desired. They had only the corporate allowed beers, which meant they all sucked. I had one crappy beer then switched to their specialty margarita which was decent. The sides were pretty shitty but the price was right. If they had put this piece of meat with the sides and drinks at another place it would have been great. Grade C+.
4) Johny Delmonico's. Went back to upscale and was very disappointed, I went with the tenderloin (10oz, $41). Everything was a la carte again here. We got the calamari which was decent at best. and the garlic mashed potatoes were not significantly better than what I make at home from a bag of dehydrated mix. The specialty drinks were only so so, but they had a couple decent beers on tap. I ordered the tenderloin medium rare and it was borderline medium well. Grade D.
