Jesse Blanco: I consider myself something of a snob when it comes to steaks. I don’t have a whole lot of trouble admitting that. I’m not a snob about a whole lot of things considering I’ve been tasting and eating food professionally now for a decade and a half. You know, I can be tolerant of a lot of things. Hey, it was good. Hey, it was okay. Yeah, okay. You know, I’m not a Karen that’s going to go running to a keyboard and blowing people up. I’ve never been wired that way even before I was eating for a living.
But when it comes to steaks and freshly baked bread and maybe burgers and maybe ice cream, I can be a bit persnickety. My family will tell you that, the people who know me best will tell you that, especially when it comes to steaks. I consider myself, I’ve always been a steakhouse guy. Those memories go back to my childhood.
When I was four, five, six years old in New York city with my family, we used to go to this place in Times Square called Flame. I think it was Flame Steakhouse. And if you spent any time in New York city in the 70s, you probably knew of it. It was either in Times Square or just off of Times Square. For all I know, it might’ve been a chain, I was five years old, what the hell did I know? But we would go there because my family loved it. And I do remember, right when you walked in the door on the right, there was a big old grill up against the window to the sidewalk, so if you were walking up and down the sidewalk in New York City, you’d see these steaks being grilled and the flames shooting up into the air, and that’s how they pulled people in. And I remember… it’s crazy, 50 years ago, I remember those steaks and I remember how much I liked them…