TASTE: It’s What’s For Dinner

And lunch, too: Steak offers more choices than its name implies

Max Jacobson

Steak is certainly an elemental name for a restaurant, and even more so when one considers that this is also a wine and gourmet-food store. The concept belongs to the Droz brothers, David and Guy. David designed the place; Guy is the chef. Together, they have fashioned a winning concept for a neighborhood in sore need of one. The restaurant is located in the hinterlands of Henderson, near Horizon Drive and U.S. 95. It's perched above a gentle rise, with the far-off lights of the Vegas Valley gleaming during clear winter evenings, visible through handsome louvered windows conceived by David.

It quickly becomes clear that wine, not steak, is David's abiding passion. An attached wine shop features a mind-blowing collection of boutique wines from all over the planet, not to mention such goodies as tea, flatbreads, chocolates, pasta and cheese. Labels as prestigious as Colgin, a mighty $275 California Cab, fight for shelf space with Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand, a more modest $16.

Even better is the restaurant's enlightened wine policy. Taking a page from Marche Bacchus (a French wine shop and bistro in the northwestern corner of the Valley), this restaurant allows its guests to select a wine from the shop and drink it in the dining room, charging a civilized $10 corkage, a deal too good to ignore.

It's equally hard not to be impressed by the eye-catching, masculine décor, sleek as a jungle cat. Enormous mustard-yellow and rust-red sound panels hang suspended from the ceiling, along with rustic amber lanterns on metal chains. There is a dark wood parquet-style floor, and dark wooden chairs with beige leather cushions.

The restaurant opens for lunch and dinner. The abbreviated lunch menu is strong on salads, sandwiches and pastas, fare such as tuna salad, or a corned beef, sauerkraut, Gruyere-cheese and Thousand Island-dressing sandwich that the menu incorrectly calls a Monte Cristo. Hey, fellows, I think you mean a Reuben. Perhaps this disconnect can best be explained by the fact that the brothers have Israeli roots. That means that you can trust the falafel-and-hummus appetizer, something I didn't expect to find on a steak-house menu but was glad I did.

I'd also give high marks to the chef's creative appetizer, Crazy Skewer. Picture large shrimp on a skewer, bound with a flavorful Japanese seaweed salad, and then coat the whole shebang in panko bread crumbs so that it looks like a golden paddle. It's original in the extreme, and delicious. Crab cake is a reliable, if more conventional, choice. There is also one of the more appealing antipasto plates around, full of marinated olives, Parmesan cheese, roasted peppers, thin prosciutto and capers.

Steak's house salad has thinly sliced steak on it, so it's more of an entrée. The Caesar is the creamy rather than the punchy type, so I recommend the Greek salad, which has a nice mix of olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and feta.

If you've come for steak, be aware of a few things. The restaurant currently serves USDA Choice beef, not Prime, and the price reflects that. So it's not really fair to compare these steaks with those at high-end steak houses on the Strip. Here, a steak sets you back $24-$39 (for a whopping 24-ounce bone-in rib eye with two sides). On the Strip, you'll pay quite a bit more, though the Drozes plan to offer Prime beef at a higher price, should their customers so demand.

The meat is tasty enough here, but I enjoyed the sides even more. Leeks and sweet corn are a delightful choice, and so is the perfectly grilled asparagus. Creamy risotto was fine, but the potato puree could have been stiffer and richer in butter. You also get a choice of sauce with your meat; peppercorn, minty balsamic, Provencal or cabernet. I like the herb-infused Provencal, but the cabernet is good, too.

There are pastas such as angel hair with shrimp and vegetables, and fresh fish such as trout with spinach and gold squash. For dessert, you can have a silky crème brulee, a generic chocolate lava cake and my personal choice, crepes stuffed with vanilla cream and topped with strawberry sauce and whipped cream.

Perhaps a few things need to be tweaked here, but this is a commendable effort for two young entrepreneurs. Now, let's see if the neighborhood responds.


  • Get More Stories from Thu, Dec 14, 2006
Top of Story