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Chronicle Food Writer Creates--and Receives--Some Negative Buzz

Written by Administrator on 2008-04-17 09:46:24
Michael Bauer, restaurant critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, recently published his annual list of the

“Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants.” In it, four Sonoma County restaurants were proclaimed to be the tops in these parts. These include the Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant in Forestville, Cyrus in Healdsburg, Cafe La Haye in Sonoma and Rosso Pizzeria and Wine Bar in Santa Rosa.

One restaurant that didn’t make the list was Stark’s Steakhouse, which is the newest venture by the husband-and-wife-team who brought us Willi's Wine Bar, Willi's Seafood & Raw Bar, and Monti’s Rotisserie & Grill. It seems Mr. Bauer visited the steakhouse not long before he came out with his top 100 list. He wrote about the visit in his blog:

“Recently I went to Stark's Steakhouse in Santa Rosa, and the waiter proudly informed me that their meat was "wet aged" for 35 days."What is that?" I asked.

"It's aged in Cryovac, so that all the juices stay inside and make it moister and taste better," he said.

My father's voice came through loud and clear. A meat cutter by profession, he sold his store when all his suppliers started selling meat that was wrapped in plastic and boxed, and he couldn't get whole sides: "You can't age in Cryovac; the meat only putrefies…"

Mr. Bauer's comments created quite a bit of negative buzz in the Sonoma County foodie community. But most of the buzz was about Mr. Bauer and not about Stark’s. It turns out that the vast majority (some put it at 90%) of steaks served in restaurants these days are aged using the wet method. And when they are dry-aged, the restaurant makes sure to point that out because the price is much higher due to moisture loss (hence meat shrinkage/lower weight) during the process. This all means that there’s a mighty good chance that Mr. Bauer has eaten plenty of wet-aged beef without realizing it. But, because the folks at Stark’s Steakhouse did their homework and decided to take the extra time to age their meat for 35 days instead of the typical two or three weeks, they got dinged for pointing out their extra effort.

So, what it comes down to is, if you like good steak, you’ll love Stark’s. They offer wet-aged beef. They offer dry-aged beef. And there’s not a putrefied steak in the bunch.

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