Sunday Night Cluster

This past Sunday, the boyfriend, his son and I went to Peter Luger's late afternoon/early evening for dinner. The reservation was for 4:45pm. The boyfriend couldn't get a later time! He had been given a gift certificate for the restaurant and we were all looking forward to the meal. We got stuck in traffic and arrived 5 minutes late. The front of the restaurant was heaving. There was a huge crowd of rather large people. We proceeded to wait for another 20 minutes, with more people arriving practically every minute. Meanwhile, waiters were rushing back and forth with large platters of steak, weaving round oblivious people waiting for tables. I started thinking about cleaning my bathroom.

We were seated in the back room with a view of the kitchen. I saw the maitre d' decide to seat us there when the way to another dining area was too crowded to navigate. It was interesting to see the waiters work. Restaurants tend to have a rhythm to them and it's always fun to see how well choreographed the wait staff is. Our appetizers arrived very quickly - beefsteak tomatoes and onions and bacon. The tomato was good, but I think the dish is mainly an excuse to eat the Peter Luger steak sauce. The bacon was a thick slab of greasy delicious meat, closer to a Canadian bacon, but shaped like an American bacon strip. Another excuse to have steak sauce. It made me feel like having a fried egg.

Then there was a really, really, really long pause before the main course. I looked around and noticed that there were a lot of overweight people in the restaurant. I also saw a lot of gigantic desserts go by. At one table, a little boy was completely defeated by his steak, which had been cut into small pieces by his father. He sat there chewing diligently, but the pile of steak pieces didn't seem to be getting any smaller. At the table behind us, they were debating how many hot fudge sundaes to order. Three out of four of the members of that family were large. Our table had gone silent. I started thinking about cleaning my bathroom again.

Finally, the steak arrived - the Porterhouse for three. It was very large. The plate was very hot. The son had wanted his steak closer to medium. The waiter cooked his slices further with the side of the plate! We ordered creamed spinach, onion rings and German sauteed potatoes. They were very good, especially the creamed spinach. The steak was very good as well, but it felt like I was eating it in the middle of Grand Central Station at rush hour with "Happy Birthday" sung a few times. I was also a little defeated by the steak. Two pieces turned out to be a lot. I kept eating the creamed spinach. We brought home leftovers, enough for another meal.

We decided against dessert. I think we just wanted to get out of there. Seeing a large number of overweight people parade by made me pause, even though the boyfriend and I did go to the dessert bar at Whole Foods afterwards. We fought our way through the crowd in front of the restaurant and left.

Peter Luger is an institution. I just didn't enjoy my meal so much. The food was very good, but I just didn't like the atmosphere and the attitude of the restaurant. Our waiter was very nice - that saved the meal - but I couldn't help feeling as if the restaurant felt like it was the best at what it did, so it could do whatever it wanted and make people wait. And wait, even when they had a reservation; between courses. My experience of really good meals, is that there is a certain rhythm to the meal itself in which the pauses between courses are carefully timed. Not so this night. For the amount of money a meal at Peter Luger's cost, I could think of quite a few other restaurants where food, timing and service would have been perfect. Besides, there are a lot of other steak houses in New York now. And some of them have very good service.