One snowy night about two decades ago, when I lived in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, I passed by Peter Luger Steak House. I was fairly new to New York then and did not know the provenance of this particular restaurant, only that it was very old (est. 1887, to be exact). I didn’t know then the culture or the etiquette one observes in dining here: cash only, you leave your steak in the hands of the servers (stern, gruff, bowtied), you consume schlag as if your life depended on it.
From the outside looking in, the whole enterprise looked too intimidating, and I walked right by and found my way back to Bedford Avenue. It would be months before I ventured out again, this time for lunch, where I took the baby step of getting a Luger Burger, a decadent half-pound ground chuck with dry-aged sirloin and tenderloin trimmings.
Now the legendary steakhouse (credited with establishing the tone of every steakhouse that’s come after) has brought its Old World charm out West, marking its first domestic expansion in 60 years, landing at Caesars Palace. (Two other locations are in Great Neck, N.Y., and Tokyo). It’s retained its iconic German beer-hall interiors, but with a very Vegas feel: soaring ceilings, bronze chandeliers and brick archways welcome guests into the 8,700-square-foot space, and, lest you need a quick history lesson, photos along the walls of the restaurant’s 135-year history.
And it’s this history that’s alive and well here, starting with the menu that improves only one thing from the Brooklyn original: a shellfish tower that’s requisite for any Vegas restaurant worth its oyster. Otherwise, this is as pared-down a steakhouse menu as you’ll find. Even in a city of excess, Peter Luger stays true to its minimalist, meaty self, where it speaks only one language: USDA Prime.
But first, prepare your palate with a little appetizer: a salad of sliced tomatoes and onions ($18), completely unadorned, but do slather on the Luger sauce that’s ever-present on the table. (This sauce, you will be told, is good on everything, until you’re ready for the sweet end of the meal, in which this will be replaced with schlag, the house-made whipped cream.) Don’t skip the jumbo lump crab cake ($35), which contains big, juicy bits of crab meat that needs very little in the way of seasoning.
“We start with the best ingredients,” says Daniel Turtel, Peter Luger’s vice president. “It’s simple stuff, but it’s the best version.”
This is true for all the sides on the menu, including the German fried potatoes, creamed spinach and sauteed cremini mushrooms ($15 each). All play equal supporting roles on your plate—solid, dependable, classic.
Which brings us to the meat. If there’s a star in this understated menu, it’s obviously the signature porterhouse, billed as Steak for Two ($149), Steak for Three ($216) or Steak for Four ($286). Dry-aged in-house one floor below in a custom 4,000-square-foot box, it’s prepared with nothing more than clarified butter and salt (none of that fancy French sea salt, just … Morton). Cut from a short loin with a T-bone running down the middle of the steak—one side New York strip, the other side filet—it’s placed directly onto a broiler that’s nearly 1,000 degrees, giving it a nice dark char on the outside and a gorgeous pink on the inside. Then it’s placed on a hot plate with clarified butter, where it will continue to cook, before a server (stern, less gruff than the ones in Brooklyn, bowtied) takes it to your table and slices it expertly as it sputters and crackles in all its glory.
The rest is 135 years of history. Some things you just can’t improve upon.
PETER LUGER STEAK HOUSE Caesars Palace, 702-731-7267, caesars.com. Wednesday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Monday & Tuesday, 5-10 p.m.
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