Where’s the beef? At Fred and Steve’s Steakhouse
01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, May 3, 2007
LINCOLN — One is most inclined to believe that Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie were actively involved in creating the restaurant that bears their names at Twin River. All you have to do is sit in the enormously oversized booths, lift the hefty silverware and steak knives, or order the smaller of the prime ribs and see that it feeds two.
On a recent Friday night at Fred and Steve’s Steakhouse, our party of four eased in to a booth that could have easily fit another three friends. We had loads of room on the large table for the many plates of food we would enjoy and for all the wine glasses chosen specifically for each wine varietal. The carpeted floor and dining room design allowed us to speak without shouting or straining. A team of servers was at the ready when we needed them.
Yes, Fred and Steve’s Steakhouse is a restaurant for those who love to eat and want to do so in total comfort. In other words, these two retired NFL players and active sports broadcasters helped create a place at which they wanted to dine.
They can design a restaurant for me anytime.
The food is elegant, from the bread basket with a blue cheese bread and cranberry-pecan slices to the sides served in adorable small pots with cozies on the handles, to the rich and lovely desserts. But here, on a football player’s home turf, the steaks have to be good too. And they are. Darn good.
When the succulent New York sirloin ($34) arrived at our table grilled with a crispy exterior, the aroma was dizzying. Inside, it was moist and juicy and sublimely tender.
But it wasn’t as delectable as the prime rib. The last time I had a prime rib this wonderful, it was roasted over a spit for hours and hours at the Salem Cross Inn, a Colonial-style restaurant in West Brookfield in central Massachusetts that does meat like that only for special occasions. At Fred and Steve’s, the seasoning blend on the rib soaks into the meat and adds tons of flavor. My dining companions couldn’t keep their forks off the meat. But it was plenty big enough to share, even though it was the regular cut ($27; $39 for the double bone-in size). It filled the large plate. It also didn’t dry out or overcook beyond its medium rare status while we ate it, as happens with this cut of meat all too often. The au jus lasted to the final bite which melted like butter in the mouth, just like the first one.
A bone-in rib eye, the Cowboy Steak ($40), arrived overcooked at medium but a new one, cooked rare as requested arrived promptly after reporting the problem. It too had the zing that comes with a wonderful seasoning rub.
Beyond the meat, other dishes excelled as well. The stuffed shrimp entrée ($28) offered four large butterflied shrimp chock full of crabmeat stuffing with the buttery texture from Ritz Crackers.
Sides of creamed spinach ($7.95), creamed corn ($7) and a crab soufflé ($8) were comfort food at their best. The soufflé had tones of crab and despite its denseness, had a lightness about it. It could be an entrée for seafood lovers.
Talking to DeOssie after the visit, he said once he tasted the creamed corn, he wanted to take home a bucket-full. That’s perfectly understandable what with the sweetness of the corn balanced with the cream and a touch of saltiness from pancetta.
DeOssie and Smerlas said they did indeed taste and approve the food coming out of chef Mark Collins’ kitchen as well as spend three visits selecting the best steak knives. They are responsible for offerings like Fred and Steve’s Porterhouse for two ($72), served with a portabella confit.
DeOssie said diners can expect to find him and Smerlas in the restaurant. He said he makes it there three times a week or more. His family is grown, he said, with the youngest of his three children graduating from college. Son Zak from Brown University was just drafted into the NFL Saturday by the New York Giants, one of his father’s old teams. DeOssie won a Super Bowl with the Giants and his jersey from that game hangs as one piece of memorabilia adorning the booths.
Planning the restaurant was also a family affair. Smerlas’s 15-year-old daughter Katie did the logo design for the restaurant. It intertwines their names with the numbers as players. She won’t follow her father and be named to the Pro-Bowl five times but she designed a poster’s worth of lovely logos which hang in the back dining room amid all the helmets which define the walls of that room. A chef’s table sits under dramatic pendant lighting and a wine room is set off with two sets of French doors for private dining.
The lounge offers several plasma televisions for watching sports in one of the oversized couches or comfortably padded and roomy bar stools.
All this makes it comfortable to enjoy dinner and take time for dessert. The bananas Foster cheesecake is big like everything else at Fred and Steve’s and actually two desserts in one. A large slice of cheesecake is light and fruity. It sits in a pool of butter and liqueur caramelized with the bananas. A little cheesecake for some, a little bananas Foster for others makes for a perfect final note.
The partnership between Smerlas and DeOssie and BLB Investors, owners of Twin River, is a match made in steakhouse heaven.
The best way to arrive at the second-floor restaurant, and the only way with diners under 18, is to park at the south entrance of Twin River and take the elevator up. This also avoids all the smoke around the first-floor slot machines.
A dinner for two at Fred and Steve’s might look like this:
2 glasses Castle Rock Pinot Noir…$20
Crab soufflé…$8
Creamed corn…$7
Prime rib regular cut…$27
Cowboy steak…$40
Bananas Foster cheesecake…$8
Total food and drink…$110
Tip…$22
Tax…$8.80
Total…$140.80
Fred and Steve’s Steakhouse, Twin River, 100 Twin River Rd., Lincoln, (401) 475-8400. Upscale. Reservations. Wheelchair accessible. Highchairs. Free parking lot. AE, D, MC, V. Serving dinner Wednesday through Sunday 5 p.m. until 11, lounge open later. Appetizers$7-$15; entrees $19 to $72 with most in the $30-$40 range; sides $5 to $8; desserts $6-$8. Extensive wine list including nearly 30 by the glass, $8 to $18.
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