Grub StreetNew York

• New York
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Chicago
• Philadelphia
• Boston

Jeffrey Chodorow has been pretty tight-lipped about his new steakhouse in the Empire Hotel (and given what happened with his last steakhouse, who can blame him?). But General Chod got to chewing the fat with us recently, and let us in on one of the basic concepts of the place. “It will be a classic New York steakhouse, but with one improvement: The whole menu will come in small and large portions,” he says. “Everybody doesn’t want to eat immense portions, especially in a neighborhood restaurant. I’ll have half a lobster, a twelve-ounce sirloin, and I can maintain the quality and at the same time bring the price point down.”

Chodorow maintains, however, that under no circumstances will he call his small steak a Lady’s Cut. “I order the half-portion, and I’m not a lady,” he says. “I order the half-portion of steak at Kobe Club! Seriously, if you’re going to Lincoln Center afterwards, nobody wants to eat a 28-ounce steak and a giant plate of hash browns. And it’s not even about going to the opera; if people were served smaller portions, they would eat less.” The logic is irrefutable on that one. But we might still try to disprove it.