This month’s Steak Night brought us to a new locale for myself. According to Mr. Useless Knowledge Rick Ray, the group had been here before, but it had been quite a while.

The night started off with us finding out I made the reservation for the wrong night. Luckily Mr. Fedderke and his German charm had the hostess secure us a table anyway. The bar situation wasn’t ideal but we got a couple of couches and cube chairs and made the best of it. Kid Ray gave the waitress a hard time for not specifying how many cubes of ice she was going to put in his scotch. She definitely spit in his 3rd glass. Some of us made it to opening day for the Cubs and were already nicely lathered when we got there. Glick showed up at 8PM. I guess all you can say is at least it wasn’t 8:15.

The wine selection consisted of some luxurious Willamette Valley selections. Maybe my favorite selections to date. The waiter definitely up-sold me on one of the bottles but he was spot on. The Adelsheim is one to revisit again.

When bacon is listed as an appetizer, you get it. No questions asked. It’s there for a reason and it was the shining star of the selections. Small, salty, peppery bites. Delicious. The Kobe Corn Dogs sounded better on paper. It didn’t stop me from wolfing them down but I’d give them no higher than a B Minus. Lastly the Octopus, which is turning into one of my favorite dishes in general, was good, but we all felt like it should have been served warm. It was a cold, salad-like dish.

On to the namesake of the group. The waiter tried to sell everyone on their signature dish, the 55 day dry aged ribeye. I think almost everyone went a few days lower and got the 40 day. The longer the aging, the “gamier” a steak can be, as the fat tends to disappear. More on this later. My steak was done to an exact medium rare, with a perfect charred crust. I ate the whole thing in about 2 minutes. I’d give it a solid 9.0.

The sides left a lot to be desired. The potato pancake was a travesty. The green beans I could have made myself, and much better I might add. The obligatory creamed spinach was definitely the best of the bunch but no where near the best.

During the standard pre-dessert cigarette with Mr. Glick, we informed the hostess that it was Mr. Market’s birthday. Apparently while we were gone, someone else informed them it was my birthday. So it was a double celebration. We had donuts you could with inject jelly or vanilla cream, and carrot cake which was supposedly pretty bad. I didn’t try any myself. Carrot cake? Now why is that a cake? You don’t make carrots into a cake. I’m sorry.

Now to the greatest part of the evening. While chatting with one of the managers, we inquired about the dry aging process. He actually offered to take us down to the dry aging room which was basically a huge walk-in fridge, and give us the skinny. It was awesome. The manager coughed a few times so I’d say wait about 60 days before going back to Mr. Burke’s. Anyway, it was great icing on the cake of steak night, and something to be remembered.

I hope Mr Burke catches wind of the reviews on his sides. They need some work there. Like Cubs fans say….maybe next year.

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