Stetson’s Chop House and Bar – “The Special Relationship”
THE SETTING:
Jerry Sloan. The Debt Ceiling. Caves in New Hampshire – all topics of conversation as we embarked on Stetson’s Chop House, a new addition to the steak night list and a first visit for everyone.
We were supposed to have a full house of 9, unfortunately, two suspect cancellations by Scotty, I have a big Friday presentation, and Chris, I have a lady in town Holinger, left us with 7 (more on this later).
THE SCENE:
Stetson’s is hidden, or should we say buried in the Hyatt. Walking through a large, convention style hotel does a disservice to the establishment. Unfortunately, because of the location and the nature of the large hotel business, the crowd was sparse and oriented towards the traveler. Still, nice art, warm mahogany and a spacious dining room make the atmosphere welcoming.
THE BAR:
Spicy snack mix and a warm welcome from Deborah, our bar back, proved a nice touch. A talented singer tickling the ivory and the good company of Brad, Brian and Hans made for a pleasant cocktail hour. With Rick arriving promptly at 8 and Mr. Glick and Mr. Cole running behind, we did not feel rushed.
THE SERVICE:
While rather disjointed, everyone was incredibly nice and informative. Our sommlier offered fine wine choices from the ipad list of grapes and our server, Barbara provided a friendly face to match our surroundings.
THE FOOD:
* Appetizers came quickly and were adequate. Calamari was tasty, with a chili sauce accompaniment, seared beef lacked much gusto and the crab cakes were dominated by the lobster sauce they sat in.
* A pause: In a move never seen before, we were offered a lemon sorbet in a mini-cone to cleanse the pallet. Classy.
* Steaks were well received, although several options came over cooked. Numerous offerings around “extras” such blue-cheese crumble and mushroom topping proved a pleasant departure from the standard fare.
* Sides seized the day. Au gratin potatoes, creamed corn, steamed asparagus and a stellar truffle mac and cheese were very good.
* Desserts: In a lavish and meaningful move by the team of servers, we were given a taste of every single dessert. Chocolate covered strawberries the clear favorite.
NEW RULES:
Based on the performance of Mr. Martin and Mr. Holinger, a new rule was passed. If you are to bail, you must do so by responding to the entire list. Further, if you bail within 24 hours of said evening, you are to do a shot of the group’s choosing post dinner.
BOYS BANTER:
Our table at the far end of a long room, with good acoustics provided a forum for tremendous conversation and one of the more enjoyable dialogues in steak night memory.
OVERALL: 6
Fun to go to a new place, fairly good steak, moderately priced. If you are in Chicago for one night, this is not your destination, but for a night out with the boys, it was just what the doctor ordered: It helps when I walked free and enjoyed b-day dinner.
Filed under: General
8 Responses to “Stetson’s Chop House and Bar – “The Special Relationship””
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Wow…well from the writeup, an objective observer would tally this place a dud. Not to say I’m glad I didn’t attend, but certainly it sounds like this place left a lot to be desired.
I did have a presentation to a prospect on Fri Am that was not completed until late Thursday night which, if you are scoring at home, I nailed. Thanks for the support guys. Bad form on me canceling day of but I assure you both it is not because of a chick (Angie or Sienna). I wish I could say the same for Mr. Holinger.
I will make it up to the group by doing the not required as of yet shot next steak night. Will be worth it as a fine man in this group will likely be wearing his big daddy shoes and that alone is worth celebrating. Plus I’m betting we won’t be back at this place next month!
I was pretty excited to embark on this edition of Steak Night with a full boat. Upon my arrival shortly after 7, I made my way through the bevy of tourists and business travelers littering the Hyatt Regency. In the furthest corner of the lobby, is where I found Stetson’s. I was greeted at the bar by Zee German with a beard and a smile. Deborah served up my Oban, post-haste. After the first drink, in the mood for something a little different, I asked for the scotch list. Much to my surprise there was no scotch or drink list at all. This was a first, being at a restaurant bar with no drink list. In what proved to be a strong move, Deborah told me I could make the place my own as she began to pull down each bottle of scotch for me to taste.
With much less than a full house gathered for cocktails Cart, Hans, Drunk Idiot, Thorzeen and me were shown to our seats. As is now customary, Cole and Glick were an hour late – better than a last second email cancellation which is hugely gay. Regardless, the group was in good spirits and witty banter commenced.
We had a decent table – they put us next to Jerry Sloan (or someone that looked nothing like him). The service was disjointed and the house put an undue amount of responsibility on our server Barbara, who I think did a nice job given the circumstances. The apps were not much to speak of – over done calamari, fishy crab cakes and beef with little taste; I was looking forward to my steak. I have to give credit where credit is due…. the sorbet palette cleanser between courses was a nice touch.
I ordered my steak with the mushroom and truffle oil topping. The topping, while heavy on the garlic, was pretty good. My “Cowboy Cut” rib eye however was not the finest cut of meat and was way over cooked; a heavy medium instead of medium rare. Stetson’s did well on the sides with the cream corn being the highlight. I still think Joe’s owns the city when it comes to cream corn – but Stetson’s gave it a run in that department. Mac and Cheese and Mashy P’s all delivered. I was left wanting more without any creamed spinach on the menu.
Dessert was a nice sampling although nothing blew my hair back too much. When it came time to pay Don Cole pulled an unbelievable and desperate move – yes, he dropped the race card! Emphatically telling Barbara she needed to hook him up because they “are in the same family” (or something to that effect). A funny moment in what was a great night.
Stetson’s was a fun time and the guys were in high spirits. However, I would be remiss if I did not implore the group to stop searching for the hidden gem. They are just not out there.
5
Where to begin when following such eloquent writeups? Perhaps I start with the required bash on Scotty and Holingwa? No, that seems to be well covered. Perhaps I start with the maze of conventioneers I navigated through to find this reclusive eatery? Also, a waste of words. Deborah opened the evening and closed the evening with probably the only decent service in this outing. She was welcoming to yours truly when arriving on time which inevitably resulted in being there alone. She had some witty banter and was quick with the Basil Haydens. Always an enjoyable hour with Chicago’s finest gents and then off to our table situated as far back as possible. Walking through a essentially empty restaurant set the meal off to a questionable start. I agree with Poppa Ray on the appetizers, all in all completely disappointing. The filet was cooked perfectly and was a decent cut. I was oversold on the “Madagascar Sauce” by Barbara. First of all, I must recap my personal belief that Madagascar doesnt exist, it is a man made weapons storage area solely for USA deployment. It was largely unknown until it was placed on the map in the board game RISK. Now onto the sauce itself. Barbara hyped it to be essentially liquid love. It was about as far from that as humanly possible. It was a medium thick beef gravy that was devoid of flavor and in the end rather ruined my filet. I was fortunate to have decided to split the strip with 4, which was quite good in fact. The assorted desert platter was a nice touch, not quite as nice as the lemon sorbet interlude, but still good. I thought each dessert was lacking in some aspect and did not find a true favorite.
For once in a long time the gentlemen decided to embark on a post dinner drink. The Public House was selected by Mr. Glick. A newly opened establishment that had a solid Thursday night crowd. It proved to be relatively hard to get settled in and within a round it was time to leave.
Looking forward to Scotty Markets talking on the Prairie Fire at the conclusion of August’s Steak Night!
Final rating = 5
Another Thursday with Chicago’s finest gentlemen and another fine evening, however the fine evening had everything to do with the company and nothing to do with the meal. Stetson’s is sub par in almost every aspect.
Hidden way in the back of the Hyatt you certainly are not going to stumble upon Stetson’s by accident. I arrived at 7:45, enough time for one pre dinner drink and for the group to inform me that Scotty and Holinger both bailed last second. Thumbs up for the drink, thumbs down for the last second cancellations. The cancellations and the fact that it was now after 8:00 and Glick and Cole were nowhere to be seen lead to the obligatory integrity of steak night conversation that we have every month.
Glick did nothing to redeem himself after showing up an hour late and then immediately claiming Jerry Sloan was sitting at the table behind us. The worst call since Don Denkinger in the 1985 World Series, the guy looked nothing like Sloan.
Not a lot of positive things to say about the food, the apps were bland. I ordered my steak medium rare and it was not even in the vicinity of medium rare, it lacked any true flavor. I ordered the Madagascar on the side but this didn’t help the steak either, it was just salty. The au gratin potatoes were disappointing. The mac and cheese would be the highlight if you could call it a highlight, more like the hottest in a group of ugly chicks.
Our server was pleasant but seemed overwhelmed by not having any help. The place was empty, the atmosphere can best be summed up by the guy I saw eating by himself and reading a book, clearly in town alone on business and staying at the Hyatt. I did like the sorbet palette cleanser, something we have never experienced and a nice touch.
During credit card roulette Mr. Cole dropped the “keep it in the family Barbara” comment. A comment sure to go down in steak night lore in the same vain as “Walk us thru our sides”. Well played Cole.
Over to Public House for a post dinner cocktail, the place was crawling with cute ladies. Note to the group let’s get our collective asses back there.
Put simply, we need to stop looking for diamonds in the rough, they don’t exist. There is a reason we have been doing this for three plus years and have not gone to Stetson’s yet. There are too many great steak places in Chicago to go to the Stetson’s of the world, many of which we have only been to once or have not been to in over a year. Let’s focus on these places where there is potential for a great meal.
Stetson’s, although enjoyable, would not warrant a return visit in the eyes of this attendee. Not to say that the place is bad, or I disliked my meal, it just didn’t have that jolt that some establishments give you. A bit bland may be an acceptable description.
Cocktail hour was lacking in attendance, but not in heart. Brad, Hans and myself carried on some pleasant conversation while waiting for the rest of the group to arrive. Rick and Jevon were not far behind, and news of Holinger and Martin’s last minute cancellations provided the evening with some deep conversation on how to sustain a long standing tradition in the wake of life’s constantly changing priorities. The answer was, more rules, but more on that later.
Upon being seated, it was noticed that we were in very near proximity to Jerry Sloan’s doppelganger. Han’s showed off his iPad skills and ordered a nice vintage to carry us into the first course. Crab Cakes, calamari and tenderloin strips were the chosen cuisine. Although all were fairly typical in presentation and taste, they were wonderful none the less. I followed this with an extremely underwhelming wedge salad that was disappointing to say the least.
For my main course I choose the grass fed new york strip. It was prepared to perfection, and certainly a highlight of the night. Hans and i decided to split our meat (no gay) which was a nice way to sample more of what Stetson’s has to offer. The sides were acceptable but nothing to write home about. All in all, a nice meal to say the least.
The meal ended with some heavy discussion of rules and repercussions. From now on it is mandated that if you commit and need to cancel the day of, you must do it in an email reply to all members. This makes it easier for everyone to begin bashing you right away, as opposed to the next day with a hangover. Rule 2 serves as an addendum to the previous rule, stating that if you cancel within 24 hours, you must take a shot of the groups choosing at the end of the next gathering.
My review may be lackluster, but I did have a very enjoyable night. It was nice to grab a few beers after dinner at one of Glick’s local hunting grounds. I look forward to the next night out, hopefully we will have a full roster.
Good night, and good luck…
* This post was not edited before posting. I’m lazy.
Final rating = 6
Fitting that I post this on the last possible moment as there were lots of rules being thrown about. For the record I did not vote in favor of the new rules.
Points to Jevon for throwing something new in the mix…but unfortunately Chicago has found that resturants located in hotels do not have to focus on insuring repeat customer visits. Stetson’s did not do much to buck this trend. Steak was way overcooked, sides were ok…about the only thing that kept this above the pettrino’s line was the jerry sloan sighting.
Sounds like we may be in line for some expansion going further. As long as they stand for less government involvement in steak night I’m all for them. This will have to be determined at their mandatory interviews. Brilliant addition Mr. Ray.
Overal: 5.5