Michael Lippman

Okay, so by now you've probably heard about the lawsuit.  Wolfgang Puck suing Wolfgang Zweiner for opening a steakhouse in Beverly Hills called "Wolfgang's" -- just a couple of blocks away from Wolfgang Puck's steakhouse, "Cut".  Hmmm.

Eater L.A. reports: Puck claims Zwiener's products are inferior and that patrons will be injured when they seek a meal created by a "world famous and award winning chef, and instead, receive a pedestrian meal from an investment banker." 

Note that the last part is a direct quote from Puck's suit!  Wow. 

Being a gargantuan fan of Cut, thinking it's the paragon of the new American steakhouse, and reading Puck's strong language, my first reaction would be to assume that "Wolfgang's" is a shameless ploy, and no matter what anyone said I would assume the quality is way below Cut, and I'd probably never even try it.

But, then, I learned that Wolfgang Zweiner was once the head waiter at Peter Luger in New York and that Wolfgang Zweiner has 3 other locations of his eponymous restaurant (and they're not all around the corner from Cut), and that Wolfgang Zweiner's parents, the Zweiners, named Wolfgang Wolfgang when Wolfgang was born.  

Okay, so now I'm torn between two lovers.  I grew up on Peter Luger, and loved it more than anything for years and years.  Then, at a certain moment, my tastes changed and I developed a preference for a slightly firmer steak, a slightly gamier, aged flavor, and my devotion to Peter Luger and its buttery, blubbery, lush gorgeousness flagged.  Today, I am an absolute devotee of the 35-day-aged NY at Cut.  

So I went to Wolfgang's and sat alone at the bar, the better to concentrate.  I ordered a New York and a side of sauteed mushrooms.  (I held off on ordering the tomato and onion salad, which my dad used to love at Peter Luger, but which never did much for me.  Point is, dad, it's on the menu.) 

The dishes came, the portions large.  Just seeing the steak, sliced thick and resting inside the bone, immediately brought me back to Luger and reminded me of ... pleasure .

And, there it is

The server removes two slices and puts them on my plate, then adds a couple of spoonfuls of the mushrooms.  

look at that sheen on the steak

I cautiously cut the meat and taste.  And ... it's nothing short of excellent.  Oddly, it's kind of right in between Luger and Cut.  The slices are thick, the meat lush with that silky, buttery sheen.  But it's got some more of that aged flavor.  (It's aged 28 days, in-house)  A good char.  Good saltiness.

I'm sorry, Wolfgang Puck, but there's really nothing to argue with about this steak.  Maybe investment bankers know how to cook a steak?  I don't know.  There have been quite a few over-hyped steaks hitting the L.A. scene over the past few years, and this is not really one of them.  Sorry.

All right, fine, I do have one minor complaint about the Wolfgang steak:  there was a slightly, ever so slightly, herbal flavor to the steak that seemed out of place to me.  Mint?  Lavender? I couldn't quite put my finger on it, nor could I communicate to the bartender effectively what the heck I was talking about.  He said it probably had something to do with the dry-aging, but he was no more helpful than that.  Anyway, this herb, or whatever it was, added a brighter note to the whole, which to me was not a plus.  But again, it was slight and did not, by any means, kill the experience.  By the way, the mushrooms were perfect, and I ate most bites of my steak with the 'shrooms.  

I actually feel bad saying it, Puck, but I'll probably return to Wolfgang's.  (Of course, I'll return to Cut, that's a given). 

Still.  The whole thing.  Weird.