The hottest take of my food writing career: Dallas' steakhouse scene is cooked
Over the last year, I visited 35 steakhouses (and more non-steakhouses that serve steaks) to identify Dallas' best for D Magazine. I spent $16,958 of D's money, no free meals or pay-for-play.
Judging 35 steakhouses sounds like a dream job, but it was a year of quantity over quality. I counted at least 60 contenders, and couldn't visit them all because I want to live to age 40. But Dallas doesn't have enough ideas. Many live on '90s nostalgia or are bland, corporate new chains with identical menus. Nowhere does Dallas' mythmaking diverge from reality so dramatically as with our civic pride in our steakhouses. We've wet aged ourselves.
Today we're publishing the results.
The Dallas Steakhouse Is Cooked - narrative essay about the state of the scene.
Some reasons our steak scene has fallen behind cities like Chicago, NYC, even Austin:
The decline of Texas beef. This is outside steakhouses' control, obviously, but a lot of Texas ranches are selling to big corporate concerns or simply closing. Drought, inflation, younger people aren't as interested in being ranch workers.
The current economic environment of inequality and high rent is creating a wave of new steakhouses, but they're mostly identical big pricey chains.
A lack of the eclectic/diverse ideas you can see at steakhouses in other markets.
Here is a list of local steakhouses that get some or all their beef from the exact same supply company: Al Biernat's, Brass Ram, Dakota's, Dee Lincoln Prime, Del Frisco's, Delilah, Evelyn, Hillstone, Nick & Sam's, Palladino's, SĒR, Stillwell's, Tango Room, The Mexican, Town Hearth, Winsome Prime
The Top 8 Steakhouses in Dallas - based on my meals, these are the best places right now. It's not a list that will surprise you, tbh. Nuri, Town Hearth, Tango Room, Pappas...a lot of known suspects. The big upset is Palladino's, which opened earlier this year. Joseph Palladino was a co-founder of Nick & Sam's, but don't worry, the new spot is for grown-ups.
I'll be chilling in the comments for a while today and probably a while tomorrow too.