Great to get with the fine fellas of Chicago again and hit an historic spot when it came to Steak Night lore and was good to see this night was no different.  Judging from the picture above, though, clearly this place has taken some measures to make sure every diner looks their best when getting insulted or tossed from a group dinner.  I mean, what good is it if you can’t wear a stylish cap that may or may not be covering up some shame underneath?  Local jerseys only on game day?  Huh?  Is this Chicago or Indianapolis?

That all said, reading this sign upon entering the establishment got the group fired up and ready for battle.  Props to a few members who arrived quite early and ready to go with Steverino the bartender dishing out the most honest of pours for about an hour and a half prior to dinner.  As usual with places in the area, the bar felt largely touristy and a little lacking on the overall atmosphere of a happening restaurant.

We got seated at our table near the restroom and proceeded to meet our waiter and his staff (or lack there of) who sure was aiming to please but likely to come up short at some point.  Dude was about 5’6″.   Heard about some specials we all didn’t want, got the cocktail orders and wine in and settled on a group portion of spicy lobster, calamari, osso buco ravioli and barbecued shrimp.  Curiously, much like the sign out front, Ruth and Chris are not taking shit from anyone and therefore weren’t adjusting portion sizes.  5 Raviolis in the order only means 5 come out, don’t even bother of asking for an extra because you might throw off their company earnings.  Same went for the lobster which either was too small in portion size for the group or taken down largely by one member of our dining crew, as that didn’t make it all the way around either.  Calamari was good, and the shrimp was, well, shrimp.

Upon putting our steak orders in, we got a nice rendition of the complete order from the waiter, which nobody paid attention to, and off he went again to the playground to grab some more loose balls.  Intermittently his staff would come over and splash some water around but it was nothing really to write home about here from a service standpoint.  Steaks came out sizzling (as you see in the commercial) and on plates hotter than a damn forest fire.  Cutting into our steaks, some of them looked amazing and others up to snuff, so none were sent back and the meat review from all seemed to be that the fare was quite tasty.  Sides were pretty solid with a Carmichael’s throw back to “tempure-a” onion rings, crazily creamed spinach and a potatoes au gratin which makes a very usual appearance.  Solid steak accompaniments in my book and RC and our waiter scored a goal with those ones.

Rick Ray was celebrating his birthday, as was another diner in the restaurant who stopped by to wish him well, but had no offensive language on his t-shirt.  Cizzle walked free somehow again as CC roulette was almost botched by one of the guys who was splashing water and not pouring our wine (we did that ourselves) most of the night.  A round of coffees later and some debate about putting on some local team jerseys that may or may not have the number 69 on them (Jared Allen), and off the crew went into the Chicago night.

NOTE: Motion was raised to enforce rule that host of steak night has requirement to post recap within a week of steak night occurring, with attendees to post within a week after that period has elapsed.  Motion carried by a unanimous vote.

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