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 Beef rules the plate at Sheraton's Pittsburgh Rare
Friday, January 25, 2002 By David Templeton Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Much about Pittsburgh Rare is well done, but several problems at the steak emporium that opened last fall left me a bit raw.
The restaurant in the Sheraton Station Square Hotel lobby shows unabashed pride in Pittsburgh with its best tables against windows that reveal a stunning city panorama. Trains flew by feet from the windows three times each night.
Anyone who turns his or her gaze inside won't be disappointed with the industrial motif, including girders bracing the angled ceiling to create the appearance of a train station. The industrial theme continues with heavy metal flatware, a steak knife resembling a Bowie knife and square art deco plates, all accentuated by mikori wood pillars.
People who don't have reservations might find themselves seated in the sunken central dining area where they still can glimpse the skyline while enjoying a moody web of halogen lights and full view of the ceiling that also suggests the underbelly of a Pittsburgh bridge.
It's all part of a $25 million hotel renovation that included creation of Pittsburgh Rare and its partially open stainless steel kitchen.
The restaurant sings the praises of Pittsburgh, and makes no bones about being a meat-eaters' paradise with an emphasis on dishes familiar to the local palate. That includes a proud crock of macaroni and cheese with farfalle (butterfly) noodles, five cheeses with emphasis on sharp Cheddar and a scrumptious crust, and a potato pancake appetizer sinfully rich with cheese and sour cream but unforgivably salty.
At Pittsburgh Rare, steak is the benevolent dictator.
Genuflecting waiters bring trays of steaks and chops in shrink wrap for patrons to inspect and worship before ordering. The steaks are thick, brawny and designed to rule the plate. When prepared to specifications, these steaks bring one's world to a standstill.
Crab cakes, double-cut veal and pork chops, salmon and stuffed shrimp are worthy alternatives.
Although service is formal, attire can be casual. Our weekday server showed potential to be an exceptional waiter with personality and formal air. But on a weekday evening, he couldn't answer questions about herbs used in the BreadWorks baguette (garlic and fine herbs) or how long the meat was aged (a minimum of three weeks). He returned with answers.
On a busier Saturday evening, another waiter gave accurate descriptions and recommendations about wines, steak preparation and appetizers. He warned us the mushroom au gratin appetizer was salty. How true it was.
Standout dishes include carpaccio, an appetizer of wafer-thin rare steak served with a dijonnaise sauce and wild mushrooms. It must be eaten "lion style," as my daughter described it, and is a treat for anyone willing to try steak au natural.
The crab cake appetizer is hopping with jumbo lump crab with a roasted corn and ancho chili sauce. The crab cake entree is a customer favorite.
With five different onions, Gruyere cheese and a floating crouton, the French onion soup was a sweet thrill, as was the spinach salad with spiced walnuts, pickled red onions, feta cheese and tossed with honey and tarragon vinegar dressing. The combination of the sweet dressing and spicy heat of the walnuts created turbulent flavor.
The prime combination of a petite filet mignon with three baked stuffed shrimp was unimpressive. The meat was medium well, not medium rare as ordered. But on another night a bone-in filet mignon with a marinade of tomato horseradish butter and the New York strip steak came from the heavens. The pan-seared double cut pork chop, almost as thick as a Pittsburgh phone book, was cooked to juicy perfection and nicely complemented by apple onion slaw.
For dessert, the one-pound cheese cake loomed like a creamy Gibraltar covered with caramel, while the tiramasu and the cinnamon apple pie had us eating competitively like lions encircling a bagged gnu.
But this protein paradise must overcome startup problems.
The potato pancake was salty and more extravagant than delicious.
Two salads were disappointing. The beefsteak tomato salad with crumbled bleu cheese and balsamic vinaigrette included red and yellow tomatoes, neither of which were beefsteaks, and had the tasteless quality of winter produce shipped from afar. The chopped house green salad consisted of iceberg lettuce, carrots and routine produce that tasted like a salad served at a low-end chain restaurant.
But the biggest setback for Pittsburgh Rare prompted us to use one four-letter word as profanity: salt.
Otherwise delicious mashed potatoes were ruined by salt, as was the mushroom au gratin appetizer that featured wild mushrooms sauteed with fontina cheese over a pastry shell. Salt rendered the succotash served with the brick-baked chicken inedible. It gave us the impression of a chef doing an aerobic workout with a salt shaker.
On a Saturday night, our meal was rushed and the waiter forgot our salads. We took them home for free.
But Pittsburgh Rare's potential looms larger than its problems. Gordon Seaman, the hotel's general manager, said waiters and staff are working daily to refine the food and the service in hopes they will match the restaurant's architectural grandeur.
Until that happens, Pittsburgh Rare can be no better than medium well.
Pittsburgh Rare
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