I have a confession to make. I love steak. And steakhouses. I love them both more than I should. In fact, steakhouses are my second favorite form of food (after French bistros), and I could pretty much eat in one every night of the week if my cardiologist, my wife and my waistline didn’t stop me. Continue reading “Memorializing Steakhouses”
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only. – A Tale of Two Cities
In short, late 18th Century France wasn’t that different from today. Superlatives are everywhere, no matter how good or evil something is, be it a Reign of Terror, a beheading here or a Donald Trump there, Whatever “comparisons” are being made — by “noisy authorities these days” — are made not to educate, but to sell.
Like a few other time-worn and treasured eateries, Delmonico has been around so long we tend to take it for granted. (Eating Las Vegas is gruntled by the fact that our food revolution has now been going on for so long that we actually have excellent restaurants that can be considered gastronomic treasures. When we moved back to Vegas in September 1990, the town’s idea of a gourmet landmark was Piero’s and the Alpine Village Inn.)