Grub StreetNew York

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Every time we read about fantastic food events in faraway places (like, say, Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey), we fume at the fact that we are only reading about them. Why must we be, like Mr. Duffy in James Joyce’s A Painful Case, “outcast from life’s feast”? Such was our mood when reading Wednesday of the bacchanalian “beefsteak” banquets being held in New Jersey, but then, toward the end, we were reminded that New York has its own beefsteak coming up. It’s Beacon’s Beefsteak, of course.

Chef Waldy Malouf spares no expense in trying to re-create the heedless frivolity of the meals that enlivened nights in late-nineteenth-century New York. The key then as now is dry-aged beef, hamburgers, lamb chops, plenty of beer, and no knives or forks. (Beacon supplies these implements, but tradition frowns on them.) The Beacon Beefsteak is set for February 5 and costs $115 per person (plus tax and tip), plus a $30 donation to a charity for, um, animal-assisted therapy for children. Truly the perfect charity for an event like this, and well worth the price for the steak alone.

Gluttonous Rite Survives Without Silverware [NYT]