Comments on: All You Can Hold For Five Bucks

All You Can Hold For Five Bucks

Joe Beese — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:03:45 -0800

The New York steak dinner, or beefsteak, is a form of gluttony as stylized and regional as the riverbank fish fry, the hot-rock clambake, or the Texas barbecue. Some old chefs believe it had its origin sixty or seventy years ago, when butchers from the slaughterhouses on the East River would sneak choice loin cuts into the kitchens of nearby saloons, grill them over charcoal, and feast on them during their Saturday-night sprees. - Joseph Mitchell, 1939.

The beefsteak endures - as does the writing of Joseph Mitchell.

By: jayder

jayder — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:15:12 -0800

I love this line from the NYT article: "Once you start going to beefsteaks, it's an addiction," said Al Baker, a Hasbrouck Heights policeman who had organized the evening's festivities to benefit the Special Olympics. "You've got the tender beef, butter, salt, French fries, beer — all your major food groups."

By: infinitywaltz

infinitywaltz — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:38:14 -0800

Man, I don't even eat beef, but this sounds like so much fun!

By: mikelieman

mikelieman — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:40:27 -0800

When beefsteaks became bisexual, the etiquette changed And here's wishing a very happy Gay Pride Month to all our GLBT&tc Members!

By: DU

DU — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:48:13 -0800

So beefsteaks aren't sausagefests?

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:52:04 -0800

Man, I didn't notice the date of the piece at first, so I was simultaneously shocked and very, very jealous. Now I am just very, very jealous.

By: rkent

rkent — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:53:32 -0800

They never served potatoes in those days. Too filling. They take up room that rightfully belongs to meat and beer. Damn right!

By: Postroad

Postroad — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 17:59:19 -0800

See tucci plainv Mitchell in gil joe Gould

By: Comrade_robot

Comrade_robot — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:00:16 -0800

"A man isn't inclined to eat as much if his wife or girlfriend is watching," Rob Nightingale explained. "After their 15th or 18th slice, she kind of gives him the look and makes him stop." (Mr. Mitchell put it more succinctly: "Women do not esteem a glutton.") WhAAAAAAAaa?

By: dirtdirt

dirtdirt — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:00:24 -0800

"(...) at a contemporary beefsteak it is unusual for a man to do away with more than six pounds of meat and thirty glasses of beer." Fuckin' a.

By: Isosceles

Isosceles — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:08:05 -0800

I'm with Alvy; so very, very jealous. And, some simply wonderful writing.

By: St. Alia of the Bunnies

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:14:31 -0800

That article was enough to turn me into a vegetarian. *urp*

By: gman

gman — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:16:41 -0800

Blasphemy.

By: ArgentCorvid

ArgentCorvid — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:16:54 -0800

First, I thought we were talking about the sandwich. Then I started reading the article, and thought these parties were some new trend in New York. Then I noticed the date, although all the talk about prohibition should have tipped me off.

By: thedaniel

thedaniel — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:17:04 -0800

Yesterday, I was at a loss for what to plan for my friend's birthday next month. Today, my course is sure. Time to start saving those beer crates.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:18:31 -0800

hurf durf beefsteak thrower

By: DU

DU — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:32:47 -0800

Women do not esteem a glutton. But a really, really big burp at the end....well, suffice it to say I have more than the average number of children.

By: nasreddin

nasreddin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:37:48 -0800

NYC meeatup anyone?

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:53:45 -0800

I had always thought of people in the past being vastly different than us. Walking extraordinarily fast, never smiling in photographs, and dying in massive numbers from illnesses that we modern humans shrug off. But, now I see the how the distended stomach pain of gluttony and alcoholism reaches throughout history to connect us all, the people of today and old-timey proto-humans of yesteryear.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:53:50 -0800

just reading that article made me gain weight

By: Artw

Artw — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:54:10 -0800

So this is what American tourists are looking for when they wander into an Angus Steakhouse?Poor fools.

By: ignignokt

ignignokt — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:16:16 -0800

This sounds even better than Fogo de Meat.

By: bink

bink — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:21:08 -0800

I was pretty excited about the Jersey ones, until I got to the MARGARINE. Unacceptable.

By: jamstigator

jamstigator — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:27:59 -0800

Eerie timing on this post -- I just took an 18-ounce T-bone out of the freezer to grill for dinner tomorrow. Glad to see I'm not the only decadent meat-eater around!

By: Miss Otis' Egrets

Miss Otis' Egrets — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:48:07 -0800

It had been hung for eight weeks and was blanketed with blue mold. The mold was an inch thick. He cut off the mold. I wonder if the bisexual beef was as well-hung?

By: rosswald

rosswald — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 19:57:01 -0800

Want. Give me a time and place and im there!

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:33:45 -0800

Seconding the idea of returning this to NYC. 3 lbs and a gallon sounds about right for me - I'm a lightweight. (Although I'm living in Bergen County now, so maybe I should keep my eyes open for one of these around my place.)

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:39:12 -0800

> Little strips of lean ran through the discarded fat, and he deftly carved them out and made a mound of them on the block. "These trimmings, along with the tails of the steaks, will be ground up and served as appetizers," he said. "We'll use four hundred tonight. People call them hamburgers, and that's an insult. Sometimes they're laid on top of a slice of Bermuda onion and served on bread." Times change, oh my.

By: drhydro

drhydro — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:30:25 -0800

Why heck, this sounds like a typical Satiddy night around Drhydro's house....

By: mrbill

mrbill — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:53:43 -0800

This sounds even better than Fogo de Meat. Living just down the street from a location, our nickname for the place is simply "Meat". "Feel like Meat tonight?" "Nah, too full of high school kids after prom/graduation/etc. Next weekend."

By: ninazer0

ninazer0 — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:09:17 -0800

What a great article. "Grease on his ears" indeed!

By: spasm

spasm — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:46:30 -0800

Magnificent; one of Mitchell's best. Any carnivores still hungry may enjoy this as a companion piece, Argentina On Two Steaks A Day.

By: RussHy

RussHy — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:26:38 -0800

Great find, Joe. Best of the Web.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 05:48:38 -0800

It didn't take women long to corrupt the beefsteak. They forced the addition of such things as Manhattan cocktails, fruit cups, and fancy salads Women! With their fancy life-saving dietary modifications!

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:13:00 -0800

The essay appears also in Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink , which has as well his take on clams and other good stuff

By: uncleozzy

uncleozzy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:31:45 -0800

Holy cats, this is like reading about Shangri-la.

By: now i'm piste

now i'm piste — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:06:44 -0800

Time travelers have a new destination!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 07:52:47 -0800

What a terrific writer, and how I'd love to travel back in time:

"In the old days they didn't even use tables and chairs. They sat on beer crates and ate off the tops of beer barrels. You'd be surprised how much fun that was. Somehow it made old men feel young again. And they'd drink beer out of cans, or growlers. Those beefsteaks were run in halls or the cellars or back rooms of big saloons. There was always sawdust on the floor. Sometimes they had one in a bowling alley. They would cover the alleys with tarpaulin and set the boxes and barrels in the aisles. The men ate with their fingers. They never served potatoes in those days. Too filling. They take up room that rightfully belongs to meat and beer."

By: MrMoonPie

MrMoonPie — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:48:54 -0800

Those unfamiliar with the Fogo de Meat references and who are looking for a modern-day equivalent should look to see if there are any Brazilian steak houses nearby. It's pretty much the same thing, but with a salad bar. (I can't get through the NYTimes paywall, so maybe there's a reference there?)

By: Danf

Danf — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:46:35 -0800

Joe Mitchell's Secret. (You need to be registered, and truthfully, I am not sure how much of a hassle that is, but this Mark Singer New Yorker profile is what got me to read most of Mitchell's writings.