Bowery Meat Company – The New Meating Place

When I heard the name Bowery Meat Company, I pictured a building similar to what used to exist in the Meatpacking District (before the short skirts & Loubs), and not a trendy, modern restaurant in a newer development on Bowery. Once I heard Josh Capon was the chef behind the project, I further realized that for the reigning King of Burger Bash, this restaurant was going to be his holy mecca of meat. My group of girlfriends decided to descend upon Bowery Meat Company for a 30th Birthday celebration (not mine – yet), and while we know Chef Capon loves tables of adoring ladies (especially ones who post on Instagram), we were the only table in the restaurant that he didn’t bring his raw meat presentation/showcase out to. Besides the show, it probably would have cleared up our questions on which steaks we should order for 5; our waiter was less than helpful and only concerned with upselling us, but we painfully figured it out on our own, and then toasted with a yummy red on a cold and bitter rain/snow-type of night. The first thing to come out was a plate with some salami (or maybe a sexier meat, but looked at tasted like salami), bacon stuffed focaccia, and short rib arancini. As the only girl who actually ate the bread, I thought it was delish with the hunks of bacon encased in the lighter focaccia, and the arancini were tasty, but mostly because I was starving.  Next out came a good – but forgettable – salad, along with a Pants Fave – the Deviled Eggs with Caviar from Lure! They disappeared from the brunch menu when we were at Lure a few weeks ago, but make a strong debut here, and were as good as ever.

The best part of the appetizers, however, had to be the Spaghetti Aglio e Olio – Capon elevated this classic with jalapeños, breadcrumbs, and lemon ricotta cheese, and although the pasta filled me up, I was hungry to try the other pastas on the menu since this was such a home run….hmm, could a pasta palace be Capon’s next venture? Just throwing that one out there….

Our entrees took forever to come out… You know that waiter I was less than enthusiastic about before? Well, he could clearly care less, and took more of the “avoid at all costs” approach instead of a more hospitable one. The daggers I was throwing from my eyes finally hit him, and since he was forced to come over and acknowledge the delay, my friend asked why we were the only table that Chef Capon didn’t come over to,to which there was no reasonable reply. The next thing we knew, out came Chef Capon with our entrees in tow, and our waiter following behind like a puppy with comp side of the potatoes he previously tried to upsell us. We did appreciate the attention, along with the meat we waited so long for… Going to steakhouses with chicks usually means ordering filet because that’s always the smallest cut – I’ve even witnessed two girls splitting an 8oz filet, but since I don’t want you to judge who I am friends with, I won’t elaborate. This crew had a few legit eaters, so we got the Bone-in Filet Au Poivre (everybody wins here, the carnivores and the anos), the Bowery Steak (I can’t even relay how our waiter described it because it made zero sense, but my husband had it the night before and liked it), and of course a communal cheeseburger (when in Rome). We also got some sides, none of which were memorable (even the fondant potato). The filet had a lot more flavor than filet traditionally does, which I’m attributing to the bone and the tart, peppery au poivre sauce:

The Bowery Steak was quite small for its $47 price tag (husband was unhappy about this, but again, I was with all girls who cut a bite and moved on), but however it was done – ribeye with the part closest to the bone wrapped around it? Again, details were unclear – worked out nicely. It had a lot of flavor and the salsa verde and whipped potatoes were a perfect compliment to the perfectly charred meat.

The cheeseburger was, of course, delicious and served with griddled onions and fries (sorry the pic doesn’t do it justice):

We had to order dessert, not because anyone at the table particularly wanted it after picking the burger off the bun, but because more it was a birthday celebration. I am blanking on what we actually ordered, because to our surprise, Chef Capon magically appeared from the kitchen holding a baking dish that contained the best chocolate banana bread pudding I have ever had in my life. No, I am not being dramatic! He did ask me not to take pictures because this dish isn’t on the menu, but sorry Chef – the cat’s out of the bag! This undoubtedly did the trick and made us feel significant, and I don’t think anyone said a word after singing “Happy Birthday” because we were too busy devouring this cripsy, yet creamy, chocolatey and sweet amazingness.

If I’m craving steak, I will still probably stick to Strip House or Luger’s to fill my iron-deficient void, however as long as I’m not sitting in the same section as that awful waiter, I will definitely be back at Bowery Meat Company. Just like Lure, it has a great variety of dishes to please everyone, the food is solid and delicious, and the atmosphere, minus some loud trendy parents on their weeknight out, was sleek and fun.