Tweet and ye shall (sometimes) receive: a hungry man who jokingly Tweeted Morton's Steakhouse asking for a porterhouse when he arrived in Newark Airport was shocked when he was greeted by just that when he landed. And Peter Shankman, a social media entrepreneur, swears on his "entire professional reputation and all I hold dear to me that the story below was in no way staged, planned in advance, or in any way faked." more ›

Like many businesses and residents in the path of the Long Island Rail Road extension, Midtown steakhouse Maloney & Porcelli is staring down the barrel of six months of noise, dirt, and inconvenience as workers construct an above-ground ventilation system. But the owners of Maloney have hit upon a novel way of coping with the work outside their establishment: They're trying to motivate the laborers by offering open bars and steak dinners if they meet their official deadlines. more ›

After cows tested positive for foot-and-mouth disease last week in Japan, the country put a halt to exports of Wagyu, the famous cattle breed that's raised according to strict traditions and yields exceptional marbling, delicate texture, and high prices. With no end in sight, chefs are running out of their precious meat. "Everyone that buys from us has called up and said, 'How much do you have left, lock it up for me?' " George Faison, chief operating officer at De-Bragga & Spitler, a meat supplier in the Meatpacking District, tells the Wall Street Journal. "We only have 500 pounds left." Very troubling, Japan! How are Americans supposed to extravagantly blow hundreds of dollars on a steak (or $81 on a burger) now? more ›

About two months ago, midtown steakhouse Smith & Wollensky ran an ad saying they would trade stock certificates for food in an attempt to lure business men who got stock bonuses instead of checks. But so far, only two shares of Citigroup stock were used to purchase a cup of creamed spinach soup at the beginning of the deal, according to DNAinfo. Back in February, Citigroup stock averaged about $3.25 a share. C'mon guys, just one little share of Apple stock could get you hooked up with a nice steak dinner! more ›

This week Sam Sifton at the Times upgrades Strip House, the swank Greenwich Village steak house, to two stars. (The paper last reviewed it in 2000.) "William Grimes, in a review for Times that year, wrote that Strip House 'wasn’t so much a steakhouse as a catalog of hip references to the idea of a steakhouse.' He awarded the restaurant one star. Now it deserves two," Sifton declares. "Age has given David Rockwell’s design for the room a kind of gravitas, and with it the restaurant has gained some of the clubby appeal you used to be able to find at places like Gino, on Lexington Avenue, which has a similar layout, or in the bar room at 21. (As at 21, there is great fun to be had in snooping about the place. In addition to portraits of Viennese strippers, torch singers and ancient celebrities on the walls, there is a signed portrait of Thurgood Marshall near the bar.)... And the food is generally marvelous, the steak often superb." more ›

An actress claims a manager at Smith & Wollensky steakhouse attacked and berated her for refusing to sleep with a bartender—and police covered up the incident to "maintain goodwill" between the NYPD and the eatery. Jennifer Sachs, 38, says a patron and a drunken manager at the 49th Street restaurant called her a "f---ing Jew" when she refused the barkeep's proposition. When police arrived, she claims they arrested her on false charges of assault and disorderly conduct so they could keep getting cheap food and drinks. more ›

Steakhouses have been slowly watching the death of the power lunch, and they won't stand for it anymore. First Maloney & Porcelli wanted you to lie about your steak, and now this: Smith & Wollensky will take your stock bonuses in exchange for a meal. In a Times ad (up on S&W's Facebook page), Smith & Wollensky "will swap NYSE and NASDAQ stock certificates (priced at the close of business) for our USDA Prime, dry aged steaks at both lunch and dinner." Grub Street has the lawyer's disclaimer, which says the diner must present "the original stock certificate, plus a separate stock power with a medallion signature guarantee affixed.' The ad says they'll even take GM, which at $.61 will at least buy you a nice whiff of someone else's steak. more ›

Sparks Steak House in midtown has settled a class-action lawsuit filed by waiters who accused owners of skimming money from the tip pool and using it to pay other workers, including bartenders, the pastry chef, the wine-cellar master and banquet manager. The waiters sought $5 million, but settled for $3.15 million, and more than 40 waiters should receive over $20,000 each from Sparks, the fifth-highest-grossing restaurant in the city. "What're you going to do," Sparks' owner Michael Cetta asks the Post. more ›

With the days of the extravagant Power Lunch all but forgotten in these tough times, Midtown steak hotshots Maloney & Porcelli are resorting to blatant falsehoods to get their meat sold! Their new website, Expense-a-Steak, lets customers enter their bill total and download a sheet of false receipts for the amount. For example, a fake $231 bill is separated into seven receipts for places like "Office Supply Hut" and "The Panini Experience." They're even offering fake doggy bags with Chipotle logos on the front! The ruse didn't come a moment too soon, because as the press release reminds us, "one of the biggest casualties of the financial crisis is the expense account meal." And President Obama isn't do anything about it, so at least Maloney & Porcelli is stepping in. more ›

A Virginia farmer is making a special delivery to NYC this month: 420 pounds of Ancient White Park steer, an extremely rare breed considered so delicious that for centuries only British nobility ate it. According to the Post, a mere 612 registered Ancient White Park cows reside in America, with another 1,000 worldwide. Intrigued by the pedigree, farmer Alec Bradford bought a herd of Ancient White Park five years ago, but he admits, "I didn't even realize the beef tasted so good until I slaughtered the first steer." Bradford's NYC friend, Graham Johnson, announced the sale on his Facebook page on July 30th, and the whole steer sold out in two days! But fear not—Bradford will bring two more dead steers to town in September and October. For according to his reasoning, "The only way to save it from extinction is to eat it." Before any animal rights agitators get their feathers ruffled, let's just remember the carnivorous wisdom of Troy McClure: "Don't kid yourself Jimmy, if a cow ever got the chance he'd eat you and everyone you care about." more ›

This story—and we do hope it's a story—makes the guy who complained about a snake head on his plate at TGI Friday's seem like a big fat baby: A German tourist claims that while eating steak and spinach at the Waldorf Astoria on Friday night, he bit into something you'd only expect to find on the menu at a Red Roof Inn. There's really no delicate way to put this: Axel Sanz-Claus tells ABC News that during his meal at the legendary hotel's Bull and Bear Steak House, he bit into a blood-soaked tampon. UGH: "I had it in my mouth, chewed it and nearly swallowed it," Sanz-Claus says, adding, "This is so disgusting, I've felt sick ever since." more ›

Gersh Kuntzman at the Brooklyn Paper has jumped on the Peter Luger backlash bandwagon with a savage evisceration of the legendary Williamsburg steakhouse. Take it away Gersh! "It needs to be said, and said loudly: Peter Luger is an over-rated, obnoxious, pompous, unsatisfying, overpriced and underwhelming restaurant that serves a single, well-prepared dish." For his money, the new Brooklyn outpost of Morton's "is the better restaurant. Yet I remain unsatisfied with the realization that no amount of negative reviews will destroy the Luger hegemony." And it's true; history has shown that no force—not rats, not Lohan, and certainly not some disgruntled local muckraker will ever bring Luger to its knees. more ›

Famed restaurateur and one-time blogger Jeffrey Chodorow has just opened up Center Cut in the Empire Hotel, and if for some reason a vegan had to eat a steak—say, to win a million dollars or get Fugazi back together—this would be the place to force it down. The theatrical 190 seat restaurant, complete with bar and lounge, is serving "steakhouse classics" using naturally-raised meats, free-range fowl and sustainable seafood. Their catchphrase is "where style and sustainability meet," and the kitchen uses primarily Brandt Beef, which comes from cattle fed a vegetarian corn-based diet for more than 300 days without the use of antibiotics. more ›

By the end of next year, downtown Brooklyn will have a new upscale steakhouse to rival Peter Luger in Williamsburg; it was recently announced that Morton’s will be occupying the ground floor of a new Marriott annex tower on Adams Street. The Chicago-based restaurant chain will dish out their beef, seafood and sandwiches in a 300 seat restaurant near the Brooklyn Bridge. more ›