Doing a steakhouse well in 2024 is not easy. Since the foodie wave of the late 2000s, those for whom food is as much a hobby as it is nourishment have yearned for newer, bigger, more photogenic and more exotic (whatever that means).
A steakhouse isn’t any of that. We’ve all endured enough tough cuts, mediocre mashed potatoes and environmental drudgery to get too excited over a new steakhouse. We’d rather try foreign street food, beer-infused doughnuts or trendy small plates than return, again, to the tired American classic.
That means, if you’re going to do a steakhouse in 2024, you better make it damn good — impeccable even — which is exactly what restaurateur Doug Petkovic has done with Heritage Steak & Whiskey, this year’s reader-voted Silver Spoon Award winner for Best New Restaurant.
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Petkovic spent two meticulous years turning the former Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse at Eton Chagrin Boulevard into a modern temple to meat, seafood and bourbon.
“Those blue walls were painted 12 different times because I wasn’t happy with the color of blue that came out,” Petkovic says. “If you’re going to do something like this, you want it to be pretty special.”
With 166 total seats, the restaurant splits into two rooms: a casual front barroom and a contemporary, elegant dining room. Tables and booths serve as many as six, but the best seats in the house are the four two-person, C-shaped banquet tables, which give both diners a view of the dining room action (and a chance to cuddle up).
Speaking of action, the servers jolt and the crowd buzzes. The open kitchen brings the drama. Steak and seafood are prepared tableside, including the 32-ounce tomahawk ($125) and the 40-ounce porterhouse for two ($165), which are carved from and reassembled on the bone, and the Dover sole ($85), which is filleted deboned right in front of you. Even the creme brulee ($12) is flamed tableside.
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A rare, curated selection of eight cuts is cooked over a hardwood with lump charcoal. The cap steak ($85), for example, is a juicy, flavorful steak that comes from the outer rim of a ribeye and is rolled into a wheel. Still, don’t let the price push you from the menu’s cheapest steak, the American wagyu hanger ($45). Served with a side of bone marrow (ask for bread to spread it on), the long, thin, well-marbled cut is perfect for the high-heat treatment of the live-fire grill, which provides a crispy outer char that descends in rings to a pink center.
“You can have a Chevy or a Lamborghini — there are different levels in life,” says Petkovic. “We get the best possible product we can and cook it over live fire, which, I think, is the best way to cook a steak.”
Sides such as the French onion twice-baked potato ($14) turn the familiar on its head with Emmenthaler, a rich raw cow’s milk cheese with a sweet, nutty flavor and caramelized onions. But don’t overlook the seafood dishes, which are more abundant than the beef options. In the scampi romesco ($20), grilled shrimp lies in a creamy romesco sauce, sprinkled with fatty and buttery Marcona almonds, that you’ll want to lick off the plate. The seared Maine diver scallops ($43) sit atop long, flat tagliatelle pasta and a slightly spicy, creamy roasted red pepper sauce.
If you forgot that whiskey is in Heritage’s name, the wall of more than 400 bottles is a good reminder. The bourbon-centric menu also offers other American types as well as Irish, Japanese and Canadian whiskeys. Splurge on the 20-year Pappy Van Winkle ($350) or the 128-proof Willet Family Estate 8 Year Bourbon OHLQ Single Barrel ($225), or save a few with the perfectly respectable Wild Turkey 101 ($10) or the wheated Weller Antique ($19). Cocktail drinkers should trade the old-fashioned for the vieux carre ($17), which pairs Old Forester 100 rye with cognac, sweet vermouth, Peychaud’s and angostura bitters for a savory and complex sipper.
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“We used our knowledge and experience to put together some interesting whiskeys that wouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg, and then you could pay more for something that you could never get before,” says Petkovic. “We wanted to create an experience.”
The knowledge and experience that Petkovic, a longtime partner with Michael Symon on the former Lola Bistro, has earned over his nearly 40 years in the industry oozes out of every one of Heritage’s pores. Trendy is great. We’re constantly on the lookout for what’s next. But Heritage Steak & Whiskey proves that quality beats trends, every time.
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