David Burke Primehouse

Dry aging room at David Burke's Primehouse

Of course I did a little reading up on Chicago before I landed, hungry and looking for dinner. David Burke's Primehouse had many stellar reviews and lengthy descriptions of the dry aging room where house aged rib eyes and strips (and sirloins for the house "burker") are held with fans wafting over the meat and beautiful slabs of pink Himalayan salt for up to 75 days. Little did I realize David Burke's Primehouse was literally in the lobby of my hotel. Pretty hard to resist.

Chicago is a meat eater's town. Once Chicago's meat packing industry boasted that the windy city "fed the world." Today there seems to be a steakhouse on every corner. This is not the lean, grass fed, politically correct beef dominating menus on the far coast. This is fatty, corn-fed, heavily marbled mid-western beef. The beef that Michael Pollan followed. The beef from stockyards and industrial farms. The beef we are not supposed to want.

I did feel a bit guilty and a bit local when I sat down at my leather clad table and ordered an old time favorite: the wedge salad. I know I should prefer a darker green. I know I should want a delicate olive oil vinaigrette but there is something irresistible about the combination of crisp iceberg lettuce, tangy blue cheese, salty bacon and bright onions. David Burke's is a first class version. Instead of the usual sprinkling of ripe tomatoes, this should be a main course salad accented the rich blue cheese dressing with a concentrated, glassy tomato vinaigrette. I felt like licking the plate.

 Ribeye is the house specialty and one of only 3 cuts DB's ages in house. So I gave it a try -- aged for 55 days. The first bite (maybe the first two) was as good a bite of steak as I've ever had. The char from the grill, the ribbons of fat and the salty meat made a delicious, near perfect combination. But with further bites I wanted less not more of the oddly thinly cut savory meat. James and I are both big (dangerously big) fans of salt but Primehouse's steak teetered dangerously on the verge of being just too salty -- even for me.  Perhaps my taste fatigue owed to the fact that I had no side? I ordered the baked potato hash but found the bacon jam with raisins way too sweet for the dish and the potatoes themselves dry and oddly, given the seasoning level of the meat,  under seasoned.
I can't deny I love the classic old fashioned steak house. But steak houses are expensive these days and for me it takes a phenomenal steak to warrant the $50, $60, even $70 price tags routinely charged by todays "modern American steakhouse(s)." Not a one of the current collection can stand up to my beloved Peter Luger where they not only age but cut their own steaks from hand selected whole sides of beef. David Burke's is a pleasant evening out, a nice place to go once. Peter Luger is a steak to dream about, over and over again.