The area where State Street and Mifflin Street converge is home to a growing restaurant empire that consists of the Ivory Room, Capital Tap Haus, Buck and Badger and now Rare Steakhouse. The owners did a beautiful job of renovating the space, as seen by its mahogany interior and atmosphere of elegance without pretentiousness.
All steaks are dry-aged for up to a month in the state’s only in-house dry-aging cooler. I know this because our head waiter during a dinner talked our ear off and went into excruciating detail about everything. Fortunately, that was the only negative aspect of the restaurant.
I was impressed with the selection of appetizers, but the one I want to feature is the PB&J ($20), a plate of foie gras and port black currant jelly in mini jars with a (small) side of French bread. This was a highly decadent dish, with all the ingredients complementing each other’s flavors (salty, sweet and tart)–an excellent way to wake your taste buds.
That brings me to the steaks. I tried both the 6-oz. filet ($23) and the 16-oz bone-in ribeye ($46). As expected, the dry-aging unlocks a different type of meat–much beefier in flavor and of course more tender. While enjoyable, the steaks were a bit under-seasoned.
Other entrees include chicken, lamb and seafood.
All entrees are served a la carte. Sides include duck frites ($8) and twice-baked sweet potato ($10). I recommend the BLT Mac ($12) because of its delicious blend of cheeses and added bacon (no lettuce, luckily).
If you still have room, get the bananas foster ($10) for dessert. It’s prepared table side. The bananas are cut into coins instead of length-wise, which seems to allow them to soak up more flavor.
Rare also serves lunch. The Prime burger ($15), topped with bleu cheese, carmelized onions and horseradish, was super flavorful and juicy. I also was a fan of the lobster roll ($16), with its generous chunks of lobster meat. Meanwhile, the French onion soup ($9) was unexpectedly filling and sweet.
Rare serves dinner Monday-Saturday and lunch Monday-Friday. It also has outdoor seating, which seems a bit out of place.
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See more photos in our Rare Steakhouse Flickr album.
Over at the high-energy and gigantic Red Rock Saloon, it’s amazing how many people can fit inside, yet there are always long lines to get in on the weekend. With the mechanical bull near the entryway and the music stage in the back, the country-themed bar fills a void that was created when the Bean closed.
I’m looking forward to being a “celebrity” judge for the inaugural MadTown Shakedown, a bartending competition taking place at 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 24 at HotelRED.
