An Edge With Your Porterhouse
BLT Steak brings a new vibe to a familiar concept

By Tom Sietsema
The Washington Post Magazine
Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007

Steakhouses surface in Washington with the regularity of Barack Obama headlines, a reality that inevitably prompts a question: What makes the new kid on the block any different than the competition?

BLT Steak blew into town in November with a bit of an edge: Its initials refer not to the classic sandwich but to a chef with aspirations, Laurent Tourondel, whose restaurants in New York -- BLT Burger, BLT Fish, BLT Fish Shack, BLT Prime and BLT Steak -- have met with considerable success. (The "B'" stands for bistro.) The chef's outpost here marks his first foray outside Manhattan, and the venue comes with several frills that suggest a restaurant to be reckoned with.

This is not your father's steakhouse. While Dad would be pleased to find lots of familiar dishes on the menu, from a big shrimp cocktail to a porterhouse built for two, it might take him a moment to adjust to the environment. BLT Steak ranks among the more relaxed places in the city to cut into meat. Except for placemats, the tabletops are bare. Banquettes are covered in camel-and-brown suede and strewn with pillows. The sommelier who shows up to help you select wine is female and friendly, and the soundtrack (noise alert!) pulses with non-muzak. The forward-thinking vibe pulls in an audience that looks as if it grew up watching "The Facts of Life" rather than "Father Knows Best."

BLT showers you with generosity from the moment you sit down and a plate of charcuterie hits the table: slices of sopressatta, chorizo, prosciutto and bresaola, plus a pot of chicken liver pt that tastes as if it came from the kitchen of a skilled Jewish mama. This parade of protein and fat, rounded out with Gruyere- and bacon-topped toasted country bread, began as a gratis, opening-week gesture but continues even now. Coming right behind the charcuterie are Bunyan-esque popovers that break open to reveal a sauna's worth of steam. Be careful: Eating a whole popover is likely to fill you up -- and you have yet to see your first course.

Get some oysters. They're cool and briny, arranged on a tray of crushed ice and so enticingly fresh that they need no sauce. Except for the jumbo shrimp, which have only size to recommend them, seafood is the way to go before a meal of meat. I admire the simplicity of uncooked clams and whatever seasonal ingredient finds its way on the raw bar menu (stone crab claws from Florida most recently), but the tuna tartare reminds me that an actual chef had a hand in its creation. Soulayphet Schwader, the chef de cuisine, shapes the red, raw fish into an elegant block, which rises from a cool, creamy base of mashed avocado. A splash of soy sauce, jolted with wasabi and lime juice, and a cone of latticed potato chips complete the pretty picture. BLT's salads run to a bountiful mound of chopped vegetables and an agreeably tangy Caesar.

Some steakhouses treat fish like difficult relatives: something they know they have to entertain but aren't particularly thrilled about. BLT Steak cooks its fish with affection. As long as you're splurging, you might as well ask for the Dover sole, which is $45 and fabulous -- firm, thick and delicately sweet. The only adornment it needs is what it gets: a butter sauce sparked with capers and minced preserved lemon. Life is good! A blizzard of menus greets your arrival; one of them is a list of specials, and if risotto is among the choices, check it out.

On to the meat of the matter. You can feast memorably -- or not -- up and down the price scale here. One of my happiest memories at BLT Steak involved a hanger steak. It costs $24 for 10 ounces of rosy, nicely chewy and terrifically delicious beef, which is served in thick slices in a heavy black casserole with a coin of herbed butter and a shower of shallots. Rib-eye is almost a pound and a half of great eating, too. (BLT wet-ages its meat for nearly a month, then broils it at 1,700 degrees.) But the lamb steak is a bore, and the short ribs, while tender and winy, fall into the category of good-but-not-great. The boxed section on the menu highlights the choicest cuts of all, Japanese Kobe and domestic wagyu beef, prized for their marbling, tenderness and flavor.

The pice de rsistance on the menu is that Kobe beef, the genuine article from Japan; the descriptor properly tags only beef that has been raised and slaughtered in Hyogo Prefecture. The price gives away its origin: A Kobe steak at BLT costs $25 an ounce, with a five-ounce minimum. But it looks different from any other steak you've probably had before, with thin veins of white fat alternating with ribbons of pink silk. Its astonishing richness is such that the best way to sample it is to order a steak for the table and pass it around.

As with so many steakhouses, entrees show up naked here, and side dishes and even sauces run extra. I didn't find much among the vegetables that I couldn't live without. Braised carrots are as sweet as dessert, hash browns are merely decent, and as fun as they sound, blue-cheese-filled tater tots, each piece as big as a marshmallow, seem like a convenient way for the kitchen to use up mashed potatoes. As long as they're eaten quickly, the onion rings are a good choice, sweet and hot (though quick to cool and go limp). And the garlicky creamed spinach, gilded with bechamel, is one of the most decadent things you'll put in your mouth at BLT Steak if you're not splurging on Kobe. Some steak lovers consider sauce sacrilege -- Why mess with a good piece of meat? -- and I've stood in that camp before, particularly when I'm looking at a grand slab. That said, a bit of enhancement can come to the rescue of a lesser cut, and the kitchen knows how to whip up a proper enhancer, be it an aggressive horseradish sauce or a gossamer red wine reduction.

Sommelier Jennifer Lordan has composed an admirable wine list with a little something for everyone (well, as long as he or she can pay for it). While the focus is on labels from California and France, this one -- unlike a lot of steakhouses -- pays plenty of attention to white wines in the fresh and floral-spicy realms. And there are unexpected pleasures, including a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand's Nelson region and a lovely pinot noir from the notable German producer Franz Kuenstler.

I always feel a little sorry for whoever makes desserts in a steakhouse, which is the job equivalent of the Maytag repairman. Who wants something big and sweet after so much food? That didn't prevent friends and me from fork-fighting over carrot cake with ginger ice cream, and a seriously decadent peanut butter and milk chocolate mousse with a scoop of banana ice cream. Lemon meringue pie with blueberries, on the other hand, was achingly sweet. Another option is cheese, which rolls to the table atop a wooden trolley and tempts diners with greater than the usual selection, everything served at a fitting ripeness.

Pedigreed beef, a dedicated sommelier, a proper cheese course, a room that doesn't demand a dark suit -- BLT Steak adds something fresh to its genre. Just remember: You'll want to visit with a big appetite. It wouldn't hurt to bring a fat wallet and your cardiologist's cell number, either.