hrough our good fortune,
we had procured a gift certificate to somewhere we’ve never been before
– Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
Or, as I like to call it, Ruth’s Chris’s Billy’s Bob’s Jim’s Joe’s.
As you might know if you live in a city that has one of these restaurants,
Ruth’s Chris is the “home of serious steaks”. As opposed to, say,
Outback Steakhouse, which is the home of mildly amusing steaks, and Ponderosa,
which is the home of hilarious steaks.
I’m not usually much of a steak fan. Steaks are too complicated
to me; I’m normally quite content with a burger and fries. I’m also
not much into restaurants that are pretentious – ones that sell $100 bottles
of wine, or ones that hire coat-checkers (both of which apply to Ruth’s
Chris).
But I may have changed my mind last night.
First, other than the items I already mentioned, there was little pretense
at Ruth’s Chris. The waitress asked if it was our first visit (I
don’t think we even needed to answer, due to the clueless look on our faces),
and proceeded to explain the whole menu to us. We both decided on
the Petite Filet, which ran at about $21. And for $21, you get –
a piece of steak. No potatoes, no salad, no vegetables – that’s all
extra (although they do throw in the bread).
But that steak was worth every bit of the $21 – especially since it
wasn’t our $21 to begin with….
Their menu says that they broil the steaks at 1800ºF (980ºC).
That seems amazing to me. I don’t know how the meat doesn’t completely
disintegrate at that temperature. Instead, it comes out perfectly
– slightly crispy on the edges, but the inside melts in your mouth.
And they serve it with something called a bearnaise sauce – I had no idea
what it was when I ordered it, but the taste was amazing. (I later
found out that it’s basically a tarragon/wine sauce.) Combine all
that with garlic mashed potatoes and peas au gratin (I’ve never had peas
with cheese before, but they were great), and I’ve already promised my
wife that we’ll have to go back someday soon. Hopefully I’ll be getting
a bonus in the near future – if so, I think we’ll be on our way back downtown.
We probably should have just gone home after that – since my parents
were babysitting for us and it was already starting to get late -- but
we didn’t. We decided to head over to Station
Square, which is kind of a combination shopping mall/tourist hangout.
Well, at least we tried to go to Station Square. Between the bridges
and the rivers and the hills and the historical buildings and everything
else, Pittsburgh has to be the easiest place in the world to get lost in
(except, perhaps, for Tokyo). So somehow, instead of making a left
after getting off the bridge (and don’t ask me which bridge, because I
have no idea), I made a right, and ended up at the top of Mt. Washington.
Mt. Washington is basically a cliff across the river south of downtown,
and it probably has the best view of Pittsburgh from anywhere. If
you’ve seen any of the classic Pittsburgh-Golden-Triangle photos, they
were probably taken from Mt. Washington. We drove around for a while,
taking in the sights – the lights of downtown, the great new stadiums,
the hole in the ground where Three Rivers used to be.
We finally made it to Station Square, just in time to sneak into Jellyrolls
before the cover charge went into effect. Jellyrolls is a dueling
piano bar – basically, two guys play pretty darn close to anything anyone
can think of on the piano. I think the talent level to be able to
do that is astounding (although they did get stumped a couple of times
when we were there). “Bohemian Rhapsody” on two pianos is very, very
cool.
I don’t know why more people don’t take advantage of the no-cover-charge-if-you-go-early
deal. I mean, not only do you get in for free, but you get a better
seat (or a seat at all – we’ve been there when it was standing room only).
Plus, you get to stay just as late as everyone else if you want to.
Of course, for us, that wasn’t very long, but that’s OK. It’s
the first time in as long as I can remember that we got to go out and do
something other than just go out to eat. When I was little, my parents
never went anywhere – God love them, but we’re doing everything in our
power to try not to turn into them.
