 BEEF:
It's What's For Dinner
AGAIN
By JANIS TURK
Photography COURTESY OF:
ALEX EIDSON
CORPORATE PORTRAITS
GERRY LAIR
TEXAS BEEF COUNCIL
As long as man is alive, man will
always crave beef,” said Ruth
Fertel back in 1969. As the original
owner/founder of Ruth’s Chris Steak
House, Fertel not only knew her steaks,
she knew human nature.
As it turns out, nearly 40 years later, she
was right: Beef is still the best thing on the
menu for fine dining. And though everything
from frog legs to rabbit may taste “just like chicken,” and white meat is still
the norm,there’s always going to come a
night when only a steak will do.
As popular as steak is these days, it’s
hard to fathom why beef has gotten a
bad rap. In the 1970s, as Americans grew
more health and calorie-conscious, fish
became the craze, and beef took a back
burner. Not everyone embraced seafood,
though, so chicken crossed the road, and
baked chicken breasts dominated diets in
the ‘80s and ‘90s, while today pork is
labeled the “new white meat.”
Beef lovers say that’s all well and
good, but they’ll still take a T-bone over a
chicken wing any day. The public is learning
what many Texans have sensed all
along — beef is not only tasty and tempting,
it’s good for you. Nutritious, lean, full of
protein, iron and other nutrients, beef is a
delicious Texas tradition.
Although chicken became the rage
20 years ago as folks sought to forgo fat
and cholesterol-laden foods, dietitians
now tell us that beef may not be the bad
guy after all. In fact, in many ways, beef
may be better for us than chicken ever
was. (Think about it: How good is chicken
for you,anyway, if it’s battered and fried?)
Those in the know will tell you that
beef is making a big comeback.“People
continue to enjoy the great taste of beef,
as seen in the resurgence of steak houses
in San Antonio, and beef continues to
be the No. 1 protein sold in food service,”
says Richard Wortham, executive vice
president of the Texas Beef Council.
According to the 2007 Cattlemen's
Beef Board and National Cattlemen's
Beef Association, beef provides more
nutrients than you may think. In fact, one
three-ounce serving of lean beef has just
one more gram of saturated fat than a
three-ounce serving of skinless chicken
breast and is a good source of nine
essential nutrients. Beef is also a great
way to fuel your body. In the American
diet, beef is the No. 1 contributor of protein,
zinc and vitamin B12 and an important
source of vitamin B6, iron and niacin.
Because it supplies a nutrient bundle in
every bite, eating beef is a great way to
make your calories count. A three-ounce
serving of lean beef contributes less than
10 percent of the calories in a 2,000-calorie
diet but supplies more than 10 percent
of the Daily Values for these nutrients.
 Lance Byrd, the general manager of
the Palm Restaurant, just across from the
Majestic Theatre on Houston Street, has
noticed a revival in those who order
steak, in part because people have
come to think of beef as being central to
their diet when losing weight.
“The Atkins Diet really changed the
way people began to view beef,” says
Byrd. Since Atkins became popular, diners’
eyes were opened to how healthful
beef really is and how it can be central to
a well-thought-out, nutritious weight-loss
regimen. “When someone is on Atkins,
they won’t have bread with dinner, but
they will order a steak. That shows how
views are changing,” says Byrd.
“The surf and turf combination is
extremely popular these days,” he says. “Whether it is a steak with a lobster tail, or a
steak served with fresh crab legs we’ve just
flown in from Boston, people are crazy
about the combination. We serve only
prime beef from cattle fed on corn and
grain combination, and we cook it at 900
degrees to seal in the juices.We use a little
olive oil and salt and pepper and let the
flavor of the meat speak for itself.We also
serve one of the only dry-aged steaks in
town, and people come in just for that.”
 Lana Duke, owner and president of
Ruth’s Chris Steak Houses in San Antonio,
agrees that the quality of beef and how it
is prepared make all the difference in the
taste of a fine steak. She learned that
important lesson from mentor and friend
Ruth Fertel. When Fertel bought the popular
Chris’ Steak House in New Orleans in 1965,
she had a physics and chemistry degree
but no restaurant hospitality experience. This turned out to be a very good thing, as
her scientific expertise came in handy
when she had an oven built that would
cook steaks at 1,800 degrees, the highest
temperature possible to seal in the juices
just right. Then she made sure that each
steak was served on a 500-degree plate
topped with an ounce of butter, creating a
method that the scientist in her believed to
be the best for cooking and the food lover
in her knew would be the best for eating.
Duke explains, “Ruth taught me that if
you buy the very best, people will appreciate
it. So we still buy the very finest beef
that we possibly can get. Our beef comes
from cattle that are fed corn, not grain,
which is much more expensive, but that
gives the meat a lot more marbling and a
lot more flavor. Then we cook it Ruth’s way
and serve it sizzling. Once you’ve heard
that sizzle, once you’ve had that steak,
once you’ve whiffed that aroma, you’ll
come back again and again.”
There are now 105 Ruth’s Chris Steak
Houses in the world. San Antonio’s first
one was No. 36, and the downtown location
was No. 79.
 Steak is still hot all over. Even New
Braunfels, just north of Bexar County, is finding
that people will drive from miles around
to Myron’s Prime Steakhouse. Housed in
what was once a historic downtown movie
house, Myron’s has an upscale atmosphere
and a small-town approach to service.
Owner Bill Been says, “In upper-end steak
houses,we’ve learned that baby boomers’
children have reached an age where they
want quality, and they can afford to buy
the best. So quality, service and atmosphere
are what we’re all about.”
Been has been in the steak house
business since 1977, back when he says
there was a lot of negativity toward beef
in people’s minds. He recalls, “Still, that
never really affected the prime beef
steak houses because beef is what people
want when they go for a really great
dinner or a special occasion.”
 Celebrating a special occasion all its
own — 40 years on the River Walk this
year — the Little Rhein Steak House has
long been known as one of San Antonio’s
best-loved restaurants, and beef is still
one of the most popular items on the
menu. General manager and president
Moe Lazri believes that’s because steak
will always be about “celebration.”
He goes on to say, “Steak is all about
comfort; it’s about celebrating a special
event or entertaining for a business deal.
There’s just a comfort element to a good
steak dinner. It’s hard to go wrong with a
steak if it’s quality beef that’s well prepared.
What we’ve seen is there is a bigger
demand for quality steaks — prime beef.”
Lazri says, “Steak is a great American
tradition — especially in this part of the
country,where the cattlemen have always
lived.This town was built on the cattle trails,
and Texas is known for its steaks. They’ll
always be popular here.” Little Rhein steaks
are cooked over an open grill with the
flames searing the beef.
While a prime beef steak is admittedly
expensive (the demand is high and the
supply is low because only 2 to 3 percent
of all beef is graded as “prime”), it’s clear
that beef is back in a big way in San
Antonio, and steak is here to stay.
Beef: It’s what’s for dinner — again.
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