NYCReview
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
St Anselm
Included In
The year was 2011. Williamsburg was cool, its residents were called “hipsters,” other people liked to talk about their mustaches and fixed-gears, and a neighborhood steakhouse called St. Anselm opened with a signature steak that cost $15.
Fast forward to now. That steak is $29, Williamsburg is objectively not cool, and mustaches are just mustaches. But St. Anselm is still one of the greatest places to eat a steak in New York City.
That is, if you can get in. It’s a narrow room with maybe eight tables and a long row of seats overlooking the open kitchen, where you can watch your two-pound ax handle being showered with salt and cooked on an open grill. The room is covered in brick and wood, and makes you feel a little bit like a medieval knight in a cabin upstate. Prime-time reservations can be tough to snag, and if you arrive as a walk-in after 7pm—especially on weekends—you will likely end up needing a new dinner plan.
But St. Anselm is worth the effort of arriving early, explaining to your visitors why you’re waiting two hours for steak and mashed potatoes, and getting drunk while you wait for your table (in the backyard of Spuyten Duyvil next door if it’s summer, or at the wine bar Have & Meyer in the winter).
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
If there are only two of you, or if you want a Hall of Fame solo meal, you should request counter seats. St. Anselm feels different from every other steakhouse in large part because the cooking is all out in the open. You don’t have to be someone who uses your kitchen to want to figure out how these people make your steak taste this good.
We suspect it has a lot to do with butter and salt. We’re not totally sure what they do it, but we are sure that you should be ordering the butchers steak, every time. Have they raised the price every year? Yes. Is it still the best steak at St. Anselm? Yes. Even over the more expensive ones? 100%. Feel free to add on other meats, and the mashed potatoes and the creamed spinach and pretty much any other side that appeals, and the chocolate pot de creme for dessert. But the butchers steak is the thing we come back for.
But really, we come back to St. Anselm because there’s no other restaurant like it. In a city where you can find a duplicate, or at least a really good substitute, for just about every spot, there isn’t one for St. Anselm. This place hasn’t just aged better than “Party Rock Anthem,” “The Hangover II,” and most other things that came around in 2011— it’s a real classic.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Butchers Steak
Iceberg & Blue Cheese
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Bib Lettuce
Grilled Bacon
Three Different Eggplants
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Grilled Halloumi
NY Strip Steak
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Pan-Fried Mashed Potatoes
photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Spinach Gratin
Grilled Cauliflower
photo credit: Noah Devereaux