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Saratoga Steakhouse owners know steak, but that's all
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Published: May 21, 2009
ADVANCE - The owners of Saratoga Steakhouse in Advance have been doing steaks the right way for a long time.
Dennis Shea bought Putters Patio and Grill off University Parkway in 1999, then opened a second steakhouse on Stratford Road before selling the University Parkway location, closing the Stratford Road branch and building his own restaurant in Advance.
What's been consistent is the devotion to a good steak -- crusty and caramelized on the outside, a mineral tang within. Shea dry-ages his steaks, an old-fashioned craft. The easier way to age steaks is the wet way, in vacuum-sealed packs. With dry-aging, water in the meat evaporates, and the steaks lose weight. It's a pricier, more time-consuming process. But meat is muscle, and the aging helps concentrate the flavor and break down proteins into a more tender steak.
Oh, and yes, the steak here is good, especially ordered on the very rare side. Should you like your steak cooked through, you might as well order a hamburger -- so says Saratoga's menu. Cheeky, and true.
If you favor flavor over tenderness in your meat, go with the Kansas City strip (or next time, I'll try the rib-eye). It was a more delicious, meatier piece of meat than the New York strip.
Saratoga nails other steakhouse classics, such as plump shrimp cocktail on ice with mild cocktail sauce. The shredded iceberg salads are dressed with a lip-puckering vinaigrette and handfuls of salty, fragrant Gorgonzola, a little too much, maybe, but such is the abundant nature of restaurants dedicated to meat, fire and fat.
Others are left completely off the menu. I have a soft spot for creamed spinach, or spinach of any kind next to steak. Saratoga's sides are potato-heavy -- of the mashed, fried, stuffed, baked variety. There are even "golf balls," fancifully named fried new potatoes and a holdover from the old Putters days. I'm in love with the Saratoga chips, hot and fresh potato chips. Next to a steak, they're a divine thing. So are the onion rings. Perhaps it's the new steak frites.
Advance is so close that it really feels like Forsyth County. It's just a jog over the Yadkin River, and that's plenty close enough to go when you get a craving for serious protein.
Saratoga is in a new-ish looking suburban strip mall, not the most promising location for a good steak. Inside, the restaurant feels masculine, but happily, has little of the cocoon-like atmosphere that's so pervasive among steakhouses (lights so dim you can barely see your knife, booths so deep you need ladders to crawl out of them). The original Putters was short on atmosphere. This place is still casual, but cleaner, fresher, with high ceilings and long, large windows curving around bare brick and horse-racing artifacts -- jockey silks and winner's-circle photos. If there is nostalgia here, it's kept to a minimum.
But how's this for a genteel touch? Servers hover by your table as you cut into your steak, waiting to see if it's cooked not too little, not too much, just right. More restaurants should adopt this gesture, and it's a courtesy that's particularly appealing at a steakhouse.
The service gets a little shakier at other times -- missing bread, bringing cabernet instead of chardonnay -- but to the staff's credit, they seem to notice mistakes and make up for them -- the wine got corrected on the receipt.
On a repeat trip, we dutifully strayed away from the steak. We needed to check out the rest of the menu. But we missed the meat. Kansas City strip, will you have us back?
Instead, we picked at a bowl of baked crab dip (oddly, too fishy -- was the crab fresh?). We pushed around plates of grilled bay scallops on rice pilaf, with a ho-hum cilantro-lime butter sauce on the side. But scallops are too delicate for gas grills. Any sweetness was overwhelmed by a gassy, petroleum aftertaste. Linguine with shrimp and a tomato-chili cream sauce was better, but … so-so. We could have had sandwiches or burgers. We could have had "the Doctor's Orders," chicken breast with a baked potato and green beans.
When a restaurant is a steakhouse, should you really go there expecting finger-licking vittles of a less meaty sort? I'd argue a good restaurant is a good restaurant. They don't need to have a diner-sized menu, but you expect a decent steakhouse to present a fair spread of food that doesn't moo -- maybe some good seafood?
And all I could think about were the steaks. The steaks we were not eating. Dessert -- key lime pie, a cheesecake-like chocolate chip "shortcake," a creamy blueberry tart -- of the usual fast-casual caliber didn't make us feel better.
Ah, but the steaks. The steaks we will be eating again real soon.
The Scoop
Saratoga Steakhouse
Address: 190 N.C. 801, Advance.
Phone: 998-4400.
Website: www.saratogasteakhouse.com.
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday; 4-9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 4-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Reservations: Accepted.
Type of cuisine: Meat and potatoes, plus.
Alcohol: Full bar.
Smoking: There is a separate dining room for smokers.
Price range: Appetizers: $6.25-$9.75; Soups and salads: $3.75-$13.75; Steaks: $16.25-$29.50; Entrees: $12.50- $19.75; Sandwiches: $8.25-$9.75; Dessert: $5.75.
Health-department rating: 95 percent.
Credit cards: American Express, MasterCard, Visa, Discover.
Atmosphere: Casual steakhouse, leaning toward the sports-bar variety.
The wait: None.
Be sure to try: Steaks! Steaks! Steaks! New England clam chowder (it's spicy); shrimp cocktail; Saratoga chips; onion rings.
Stay away from: Crab dip; scallops with cilantro-lime butter; desserts.
Will I go back? After about a week of just eating raw spinach.
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