Eric Wareheim wants to feed you steak

For 3 years, Eric Wareheim ate a batch of steak.

We’re talking 3 steakhouse meals a day, implicit with sides and sauces. Towers of bulb rings stacked high, bone-in rib-eyes, bubbling pots of lobster mac and cheese, fries and meats drowning successful au poivre. His ngo successful traversing the state was, successful part, figuring retired however to specify the “uniquely American” instauration astatine the halfway of his caller cookbook, “Steak House: The People, The Places, The Recipes.”

The comedian and manager who made his sanction with the TV bid “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” has, successful caller years, dipped into the vino commercialized arsenic a co-founder of Las Jaras and launched a plant-art business. But of each his enterprises and hobbies, “Steak House” proved the astir demanding — and 1 of the astir rewarding.

“I went heavy and I don’t regret it,” helium said from a reddish leather booth astatine the Smoke House successful Burbank.

Eric Wareheim’s caller cookbook, “Steak House,” surrounded by a classical dispersed from Smoke House.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

Wareheim, co-author Gabe Ulla and lensman Marcus Nilsson primitively acceptable retired to papers the country’s 10 “best” steakhouses, but ended up visiting much than 70 restaurants — and went truthful acold implicit fund that Wareheim began financing their probe himself. It‘s been a agelong time, helium said, since he’s felt that heavy passionateness and condemnation for a project.

“I could honestly accidental this task was much work-intensive and longer than immoderate task I’ve done, immoderate movie oregon TV amusement I wrote,” Wareheim said. “Because I truly attraction astir the people, it was bigger than conscionable vanity. It was important that I did it right.”

Making of a steak maven

Through Wareheim’s travels successful entertainment, vino and food, he’s dined astatine immoderate of the finest restaurants successful the world. But he‘s ne'er forgotten the steakhouse of his childhood, which wasn’t truthful overmuch a classical mentation but a spot called Seafood Shanty, located successful the largest promenade successful Pennsylvania. He fell successful emotion with the ample booths, the AC cranked up high, the seafood and the steak.

While Wareheim loves a martini (gin, stirred and garnished with bluish food olives, ideally), “Steak House” devotes a section to pairing wines with steak. His winery, Las Jaras, conscionable released a Steak House Cabernet Sauvignon for the occasion.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

Later, helium learned his mode astir eating rib-eye successful a tuxedo arsenic co-host of the long-running Beefsteak — an yearly steak-centered fundraiser astatine Neal Fraser’s Vibiana successful the tone of the 1930s-era utensil-less nutrient feasts described successful a classical Joseph Mitchell story.

But it’s not conscionable the steak that Wareheim loves. The comfortableness and gravitas of a carpeted, worn eating country and a paper that seldom changes are besides indispensable to Seafood Shanty and steakhouses crossed the country.

“I deliberation that’s the bigger communicative of this book: the giving of joyousness that these places do,” helium said. “It is their job. It isn’t their occupation to get a Michelin star. It isn’t their occupation to get connected a blog oregon marque immoderate caller crockery to wow immoderate hipster. It’s to marque the aforesaid accordant nutrient for a idiosyncratic that’s been coming present for 50 years.”

And successful a clip erstwhile the state feels much fragmented than ever, Wareheim sees it arsenic a benignant of connective tissue. “Everyone,” helium said, “loves a steakhouse.”

The lad of a German immigrant, Wareheim acceptable retired to recognize the web of taste influences that lend to the modern American steakhouse: There are spotlights connected David Chang’s mentation astatine L.A.’s Majordomo, wherever flatbread — oregon bing — regenerate accepted meal rolls and the premier rib features a shio koji rub. Did a afloat Vietnamese mentation of the steakhouse exist? What astir a Mexican iteration?

“There are parts of this state that inactive consciousness similar the Wild West, successful a bully way,” Wareheim said. “You tin experiment, you tin beryllium anyone and unfastened up a steakhouse. You tin conscionable bash your ain thing.”

Los Angeles and Las Vegas steakhouses, helium believes, thin into the Rat Pack epoch of reddish leather booths and monolithic shrimp cocktails. But by nary means bash steakhouses request to travel that path, oregon immoderate other.

Prime cuts

“Steak House” is 200 pages of sheer Americana, and a portion of quick-disappearing history.

Places “were closing, literally, a week aft we were there, oregon bought up by edifice groups,” Wareheim said. By the clip he’d made it to Cattlemen’s, successful Dallas, fractional of it was already demolished to marque mode for much modern renovations. “Steak House” arrived close connected clip to seizure immoderate of the country’s champion mom-and-pop operations.

He’d been searching for inspiration, unsure however to travel his 2021 bestselling cookbook, “Foodheim.”

While shooting a commercialized with his longtime originative spouse Tim Heidecker, surrounded by ample firm chains successful North Carolina, Wareheim took to researching adjacent restaurants: a pastime portion connected the roadworthy for each gig.

“That’s each that matters,” helium said. “The occupation doesn’t matter. It’s like, ‘Where are we eating?’”

Wareheim’s restaurant-curator estimation was connected the line: Beef ’N Bottle, which he’d recovered connected Google, was an hr from their edifice and helium was the lone 1 who wanted to marque the drive.

“We get there, and it’s conscionable perfection,” helium said. “It was similar a William Eggleston photo. And past we met Jerome [Williams], and helium greeted america with unfastened arms and said, ‘You guys person a large clip tonight, I’m your server and your bartender, what benignant of martini bash you want?’ And those 3 things? I get goosebumps conscionable telling you.”

Williams and the different faces and roles that supply the charm and hospitality of a steakhouse are featured throughout, adding discourse and property to a tome that provides recipes and past arsenic good arsenic a glimpse down the curtain. There’s the “cellar rat” turned sommelier who worked astatine Tampa’s Bern’s for implicit 3 decades. There’s Chicago’s Durpetti family, who’ve been serving Italian and steakhouse classics and employment a valet who mightiness adjacent connection you cigarettes from his ain stash. There’s the “legend” Katrina, a dancer and bartender astatine Portland’s celebrated portion club-cum-steakhouse, Acropolis.

“Meeting the radical who marque these places tally was a joy, and however passionate they were is arsenic passionate arsenic I am,” Wareheim said.

Wareheim’s caller cookbook, “Steak House,” dives deeper than recipes, with portraits and profiles of the chefs, servers and cleaning unit who marque steakhouses run.

(Gabriella Angotti-Jones / For The Times)

To find these places and people, Wareheim researched restaurants online and asked cook and amusement friends their idiosyncratic favorites. (The resounding winner? The Golden Steer successful Las Vegas.)

He received rare, afloat entree to Peter Luger successful New York City and look guidance from the likes of Sean Brock, Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Fraser. When restaurants couldn’t divulge their concealed recipes, immoderate attempts required a afloat reverse-engineering to fig them retired — a specialty of L.A.-based look developer and nutrient stylist Jasmyn Crawford. A batch of their ain recipes, Wareheim said, turned retired amended than the originators.

He and his squad accumulated truthful overmuch worldly that they had to chopped dozens of profiles and recipes from the last product, a process that Wareheim called excruciating.

“It was brutal,” helium said. “It was harder than immoderate movie I’ve cut, immoderate video, immoderate portion of writing.”

What remained successful “Steak House” were Wareheim’s premier cuts. T-Pain shows disconnected his favourite haunt successful Atlanta. In L.A., At Taylor’s successful L.A., Wareheim sits down with Bob Odenkirk, Heidecker and John C. Reilly, and they sermon past jobs moving successful restaurants. (Notably omitted from the publication is the information that arsenic a teen, Wareheim utilized to flip burgers and would marque six for himself, past devour them portion hiding successful the bathroom; a co-worker narced and helium was fired.)

Wareheim is conscionable arsenic funny successful rumination arsenic recipe.

What makes a steakhouse? Does it necessitate attraction to marbling and adust aging? Must it service creamed spinach? Can it beryllium Seafood Shanty, tucked into a sprawling promenade successful Southeast Pennsylvania? The bid of thought derails arsenic soon arsenic the server astatine Smoke House presents a ample metallic tray, its show slices of cakes layered and its pies adorned with crystal cream.

An enthusiastic “Oh wow!” escapes Wareheim’s lips earlier helium orders the coconut cake. Why fuss classifying the steakhouse astatine each erstwhile you tin simply beryllium wowed by it?