Steak and Yeast Rolls for the "Sex and the City" and "Mad Men" Sets, STK

By Laura Medina

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/Tj_WW1-4QeOwplwrkhREvQ

Chef Robert Liberato, the head chef at STK, was kind enough to sit down with this steak-loving scribe and chat.

For a man who mastered the art of steak, we casually chatted about what he can do with the yummy and satisfying stuffed twice-baked potatoes.

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Being the creative guy that he is, Chef Robert was brainstorming about what he can do to revamp those creamy stuffed twice-baked potatoes.  He was thinking scooping out the baked potatoes, stuffing them with scrambled eggs then topping them with the same toppings: cheese and bacon then serving them for brunch.

This scribe joked, if he did, this scribe wondered if he can named them "Laura's Stuffed Potatoes."  Sounds scrumptious.

This scribe casually mentioned this scribe covered Jay-Z's "Made In America" Music Festival in Downtown Los Angeles.   He really impressed this scribe when he said STK was the hidden but official VIP on-site restaurant for the headliners at the festival.  While the general public had to make do with fleets of food trucks, the headliners pop in, discreetly, into STK pop-up restaurant.  It wasn't underground.  It was nestled among the palatial government where Chef Robert can watch the concert and the crowd in a safe distance.

Even though the STK pop-up restaurant was protected within the walls of Los Angeles' City Hall, we both commented how frustrating it was for vendors, food truckers and STK's suppliers, to get in and out transporting ingredients and supplies but he enjoyed watching how the city's first major music festival unfolded over the weekend.

Okay, we're done with the potatoes.  Let's get on to the meat, the 10 oz. Filet topped with Crab "Louie."

The Crab "Louie" was one of the nine toppings for your choice of steak cut from the list of eleven steak cuts.

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Chef Robert and this scribe semi-joked that the Filet topped with Crab "Louie" is "surf & turf" for people, such as this scribe, who can't make up their minds and want the best of both worlds.

For this scribe, it was a "two-in-one" meal.  The lumps of crab drenched in creamy sauce was enough to savor as one dish but the iron-rich filet was classically mouth-watering in its own right but dunking hunky bits of filet into the rich peppercorn sauce was satisfying too.

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This scribe is more of a classical Joan Hollaway from "Mad Men" than "Sex and the City," in that, this scribe cherishes the classics...the 1950's classics that this scribe was raised on by this scribe's chef dad.

This is why this scribe was so thrilled to see a "Mad Men" classic, Cherry Jubliee, on STK's dessert menu, gotta order it.

Good deal this scribe did because Chef Robert said he's planning to revamp the dessert menu; and he might remove it soon, grab it while you can.

STK's Cherry Jubliee was more of a cake sandwich with cherry ice cream and a cherry jam sandwiched between two slices of moist cake, can't complain.

 

https://www.tastemade.com/@the_arriviste/Tj_WW1-4QeOwplwrkhREvQ

There is one classic that is easily forgotten and taken for granted at STK, the puffy, buttery yeast rolls.

This scribe literally spoiled her appetite when the server mentioned, "yeast rolls."

The rolls they used to serve in proper steakhouses in years gone by but are now on the nearly-extinct food list.

Thank god for STK for saving it and serving it.

The crunchy crust glisten in garlic butter glaze but the interior was so puffy, the yeast rolls were more like popovers...another bread on the food extinction list...that this scribe had to gobble them up before they disappear into the forgotten food grave.

Sure the interior decor, the soundtrack, and the mature but sexy clientele speaks "Sex and the City," specifically it caters to powerful, established but sexy and trendy career women like Sam Jones, but the dishes yearn back to the sexy career women who paved the way for Sam Jones, the Joan Hollaways from the 1950's "Mad Men" era.  The professional women who drank and ate like men because it's grown-up food for adults,  nourishing, protein and iron-enriched dishes satisfying adult palates.

For this Joan Hollaway making it in a "Sex and the City" environ over-run with grains and green tea where women want to be girls, STK is a refueling station and escape for women with appetites, who want to be fed like adult women.