Walking up to the Gold Coast’s soaring One Chicago building, which houses the handsome new steakhouse The Alston, I caught the aroma of charring beef. I was surprised to find not one but two steakhouses in the same building. The delicious smells emanated from suburban import Sophia Steak, which opened on the ground floor in March. I headed to The Alston on Floor 3, where I had plans for a rib eye.
Open since May, The Alston is a French nouvelle-inspired steakhouse from chef Jenner Tomaska of the Michelin-starred Esmé and the Fifty/50 Group’s Scott Weiner and Greg Mohr. We veered past the 350-seat dining room to the gold-accented bar edged in plush green booths. While we noshed on overcooked prawns with two pleasant sauces, we watched diners in their finery saunter past our table, en route to the private members’ club and terrace behind a door marked with a keyhole-embellished “A.”
The fatty, 24-ounce, bone-in American rib eye ($125) sported a tender, slightly shaggy interior and a gentle nuttiness, thanks to 30 days of dry aging. Grilled over cherry wood coals until charred, its surface glistened from a swipe of charcoal-clarified butter. Another $10 got us a small crock of server-recommended house Peppercorn Mélange sauce, a veal stock -and cognac reduction that hinted of posh A1 with too few peppercorns. Though cooked well enough, the steak didn’t feel worth its steep price, especially knowing another steakhouse with a $71 rib eye sat two floors below.
No matter that beef prices keep climbing: Fresh waves of (increasingly massive) steakhouses wash over the city every few years like peppered cognac sauce on singed beef. Aside from One Chicago’s meaty new residents, the past year brought us the easygoing British import Hawksmoor; opulent, Italian-style Tre Dita; Perilla Korean American Steakhouse; European steakhouse and supper club Divan; and New York brasserie import La Grande Boucherie.
Just last week, prolific restaurateur Stephen Sandoval debuted Latin steakhouse Trino in the West Loop, just over a quarter of a mile from “Top Chef” alum Soo Ahn’s imminent 370-seat, “globally inspired” steakhouse, Adalina Prime.
“I don’t think steakhouse openings come in waves,” said Stephen Lombardo III, CEO of the stalwart Gibson’s Bar & Steakhouse, correcting me. “I think they’re just constant.”
When Lombardo’s father Steve debuted Gibson’s with his partner Hugo Ralli in 1989, Chicago housed just six steakhouses, Lombardo told me. As of 2019, Lombardo counted around 60. Yet the latest crush of newcomers hasn’t noticeably impacted Gibson’s numbers. Sales for the year are up at all three locations — “a little surprising, given the overall state of the economy,” Lombardo said. He attributed this partly to Gibson’s value proposition, claiming it hasn’t raised prices as dramatically as its competitors. More importantly, though, “Americans love beef,” he said.
The U.S. leads global beef consumption, averaging 58 pounds per person each year, according to USDA data. A 2023 study revealed that just 12% of Americans account for half of that: men and people between the ages of 50 and 65. Might we start aging out of the category, as climate researchers implore given its environmental impact, or will temples to beef keep coming?
Some notable steakhouse closures marked the past few years, due largely to the pandemic. Decade-old III Forks cited lost profits due to COVID-19 when it closed in 2021, as did Lawry’s The Prime Rib when it shuttered its Chicago location in 2020 after 46 years. (It also blamed civil unrest and an expiring lease.) GT Prime closed last year when chef-partner Giuseppe Tentori left Boka Restaurant Group; so did the inventive Asian steakhouse Holu near Chinatown early this year, though Holu didn’t give an official reason.
Older Americans love beef, but they also value genuine hospitality, an increasing rarity in an era of QR-code menus and counter service. Survival in the crowded steakhouse category all but demands it: “Service is the most important thing,” said John Manion, executive chef and owner of the 88-seat El Che Steakhouse & Bar in the West Loop. “You’ve gotta be really f – – – ing good at it to survive.”
But that’s always been the case for this big-ticket model with its sky-high food costs. “You enter a contract that this wedge salad is gonna cost too much, but I’m going to be treated like a king,” Manion said.
Che represents a niche, as a South American and Midwestern restaurant whose spiritual and literal focal point is a huge, glowing asado grill. I’ve gravitated here as much for grilled prawns and charred broccolini with romesco as I have for hangar steak frites. Likewise, I love bellying up to the bar for lemony scallops, toothsome pasta e ceci and Kansas City strip at the decade-old Boeufhaus in West Town, a diminutive 34-seater that vibes like a European restaurant — which happens to serve mind-bogglingly good beef.
As spots like these demonstrate, creative stretching beyond the steakhouse’s carnivorous nexus is indeed possible, but “you’ve got to have a point of view,” Manion said. “It’s got to be personal.”
From the get-go, Chicagoans loved Hawksmoor’s Sunday roast, a Sunday afternoon meat-and-potatoes feast ($42 per person) homaging the centuries-old British tradition. Even so, it took the beloved London brand’s Chicago outpost a few months to lean more into its Britishness, which, turns out, is a compelling differentiator for a city awash in steakhouses.
“Whenever we open a restaurant, we really want it to feel like it is of and for the city it’s in,” Hawksmoor’s co-founder Huw Gott said. “In retrospect, by doing that in Chicago, we moved ourselves a little away from some of the Britishness we’ve always had, because that’s our heritage. And from talking to people, we kind of learned that that was the bit that they really liked. So, we have been leaning into that side of things more.”
Additions like prime rib roast, raw oysters topped with Caruso Provisions giardiniera and mini Yorkshire pudding sloppy joes with wine- and Worcestershire-spiked beef mince playfully marry U.K. and Midwestern nostalgia.
Like the friendly burger with its infinite interpretations, the steakhouse offers an on-ramp to less familiar cuisines — all the better if you’re in a historically touristy area like The Loop. Thomas Oh and chef Andrew Lim, co-founders of the West Loop’s modern Korean grill Perilla, sought to reach a different clientele when they spun off Perilla Korean American Steakhouse last summer.
“The steakhouse was more of a vehicle for us than a destination point,” said Oh, Perilla Steakhouse’s co-founder and general manager. “The reality is that as Korean Americans, our goal is to continue to introduce this food and get people to see how delicious it is. The steakhouse framework gets people to feel a little more comfortable.”
Case in point: Perilla’s popular steakhouse sets, single portions of prime and Wagyu beef from less traditional cuts (picanha and rib eye cap) allow for sampling, accompanied by crisp ssam (lettuce wraps) and Korean banchan. “It’s one of the highlights and foundations of our menu,” Oh said.
But with more steakhouse openings on the horizon, executive chef and co-founder Andrew Lim wonders if the city is teetering on saturation.
“I worry for the restaurants,” he said. “Are there enough people to fill all these seats? With the state of the economy right now, it’s a tough game for restaurants in general.”
Lombardo told me that barring a convention in town, locals are the ones who sustain Gibson’s during the week, some coming as often as three times per week for a burger and beer.
So far, memberships at The Alston are exceeding initial goals, and there are plans to add sliding-scale pricing options. Indeed, when I peeked in the dining room on my way out, it was nearly full — impressive for a Monday night in sticky midsummer. Back downstairs, Sophia Steak’s patio hummed too, the smell of beef still thick in the air, as the city was poised to break another record for days above 90.
Correction: Restaurateur Stephen Sandoval debuted the Latin steakhouse Trino last week in the West Loop.
Maggie Hennessy is a Chicago-based food and drink writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Bon Appetit and Food & Wine. Follow her on Instagram.