Great American Bites: Keens Steakhouse, NYC's oldest, best
— -- The scene: The oldest steakhouse in New York City, and one of the Big Apple's oldest eateries period, Keens started as a clubhouse for the Lambs Club, a private theater and literary club. It was managed by Albert Keen, and in 1885, he opened it as a public restaurant (originally Keens Chophouse). Keens has just about the richest history of any restaurant in the country, and while it maintains the heavy, masculine, dark-wood-and-dim-light feel of classic steakhouses, it is also adorned from floor to ceiling with historic memorabilia and oil paintings spanning the past century and a half. Most notable among these displays is the playbill Lincoln held at Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated, and the world's largest collection of clay churchwardens' pipes, thousands of which hang from the ceiling, with more displayed in glass cases.
Keens' pipe smoking club once had 90,000 members. The clay pipes were too fragile to carry, so each had a serial number and was carefully stored and retrieved for their owners by the "pipe warden." Since smoking was banned in New York City, the club has become honorary, but virtually every Mayor, major political figure and high-profile New Yorker still gets a pipe. On display are pipes of past frequent Keens customers such as Albert Einstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, JP Morgan, General Douglas MacArthur, Buffalo Bill Cody and hundreds more very famous names.
From the outside, Keens looks like an innocuous theater district eatery, sporting a simple black awning and heavy wood door, but inside it is huge, and can serve dinner to 750 patrons a night. There's a classic bar you can eat at that boasts one of the city's best selections of whiskies, and a sign reading "No Service Will Be Provided to Anyone On a Horse." Every day, different carefully selected flights of small samples of wines and whiskies are offered for experimentation. There's a casual front room with low tables where many regulars lunch, and the vast main dining room which stretches back and back. Upstairs is a smaller dining room and several private dining rooms stuffed with more memorabilia and history. If you ask at a moment it's not too busy, a staffer will give you an unofficial tour. Part museum, part eatery, Keens is completely unique, oozing both charm and history. But the best part is the food - I have been many times and fervently believe that Keens is the best steakhouse in New York, and maybe the entire country.
Reason to visit: Mutton chop, all steaks, grilled bacon, crabmeat cocktail, Key Lime pie, wine and whisky flights
The food: From the start, the best steak requires the best beef, and it is impossible to top Keens in this regards. There are very few steakhouses, even at the high-end, which use exclusively USDA Prime beef, and fewer still that dry-age it themselves. Keens does both. But what further separates it from almost every other restaurant is its long history with meat purveyors. The chef goes to the market on delivery days, examines the newly arrived whole carcasses, and picks those he wants to age and butcher in-house. Almost no restaurants get to do this, and most, even those buying the most expensive Prime beef simply take what distributors give them from what's left after Keens has cherry-picked the best (another historic NYC steakhouse, Peter Lugers, gets the same time-honored privilege). "Steakhouses that they let come down and stamp their sides of beef are very few, but they know we always have been and are always going to be their best customer," explained head chef Bill Rodgers. "Prime only represents 2-4% of available beef, so it is always a scarce commodity, and we get the best of the best." Dry-aging (Keens does it for 21-28 days) adds a concentrated flavor and richness that is unparalleled in steak - along with expense. Keens is definitely not cheap, but the best rarely is.
The steaks, of which porterhouse, T-bones and filet mignon are most popular, are impossibly good and beefy, and also consistent with every bite, from first to last a steak fantasy. But despite this excellence, steak is not Keens' most famous dish. That would be mutton chops. Oversized lamb chops that look just like mutton-chop sideburns was a very popular dish a century ago, but today, Keens claims they are the only restaurant in America with mutton chops on the menu daily (the lamb today is served younger than mutton traditionally was). The standard order is huge: a "saddle of mutton" comprised of two big connected chops, but they also have a one-chop pub portion not on the regular menu that you can order. If you've never been to Keens, the mutton is a must-try, but so is the steak, so don't go alone. There are longtime regular customers who come just for the mutton, which sells as well as the top steaks. "A lot of people love it and are surprised it does not have a gamey taste. We have customers who have had it hundreds of times. Many hundreds." How popular is it? Keens sold its one-millionth mutton chop - in 1935.
Other notable entrees include true Dover Sole, gargantuan Maine lobsters, and short-rib of beef braised with carrots and leeks. Keens also offers classic NYC steakhouse sides and appetizers such as oysters on the half shell, iceberg-wedge salad, shrimp cocktail, creamed spinach and sautéed mushrooms, and all are very good (especially the spinach). But where they shine is their signature offerings. The best appetizers include the delicious and rich jumbo lump-crab cocktail, oysters Rockefeller, and grilled thick-cut bacon, which is simply slabs of steak-like bacon. Unique sides include sautéed escarole and roasted Farmer's Market vegetables. There are five potato options.
Keens has been very popular for 125 years, and still has a loyal following of repeat guests, but with New York's unbelievable proliferation of upscale steakhouses in the last decade, many overlook it. I know many New Yorkers, mostly younger ones, who have not even heard of Keens. To me this is tragic. With its unmatched combination of quintessential New York history and atmosphere with the finest steaks available, if I was an out-of-town visitor with one night, Keens is where I would go.
What regulars say: "I've eaten at Keens dozens of times, and the amazing thing is I have never had a disappointing bite of steak, not a single piece of gristle or a chewy bite, and I can't say that about any other top steakhouses in the world," said Wall Street researcher Pat Gallagher, a man who has eaten as many expensive steaks as anyone I know.
Pilgrimage-worthy?: Yes - the nation's best steaks and mutton chops in a one-of-a-kind setting. World class.
Rating: OMG! (Scale: Blah, OK, Mmmm, Yum!, OMG!)
Price: $$$ ($ cheap, $$ moderate, $$$ expensive)
Details: 72 West 36th Street, New York City; 212-947-3636; keens.com/
Larry Olmsted has been writing about food and travel for more than 15 years. An avid eater and cook, he has attended cooking classes in Italy, judged a BBQ contest and once dined with Julia Child. Follow him on Twitter, @TravelFoodGuy, and if there's a unique American eatery you think he should visit, send him an e-mail at travel@usatoday.com.