Angie Mar’s Menu: Red Meat and Respect

I understand why this piece was written (and beautifully so, I might add). Now more than ever, we are looking for stories of strong woman leaders in all industries, ones that stand apart from the men who seem to be failing us. I get it and Chef Mar is a provocative heroine - a woman of color making a name in a (white) male-dominated industry and doing so in the even more male-dominated world of meat. While I am not in the restaurant business, I know many who are and have heard her management style described as abusive and toxic. So when I read this piece, I did think it was a little over the top to crown Chef Mar as the saint she is portrayed to be. Indeed, Grub Street reported on this contradiction and the lawsuit against her as a follow up to this profile. (http://www.grubstreet.com/2018/01/beatrice-inn-backlash-angie-mar.html). Look, someone’s tough is another’s toxic but at the end of the day, people who worked for her walked away feeling terrible about it. That’s real and hopefully something that Chef Mar can reflect on as she grows as a leader. And to the food journalists and reporters out there, I urge you to highlight chefs who may not have the marketing budgets and social media savvy, but who are cooking great food while still creating positive working environments for men and women. They are out there - but I fear our obsession with a small group of “rock star” chefs isn’t helping us find them.

“‘The thing that really struck me the first time I ate there was how, the whole time, the staff was talking about how much they loved her,’ said Kat Kinsman . . .” How does a line like this make its way into a chef profile without raising eyebrows and questions? Presumably all of us reading have been out to dinner. I can’t think of a single occasion in which restaurant staff professed love of the chef apropos of nothing, let alone “the whole time.” What’s going on here?

Given that this is a profile of the chef, I am surprised that the article doesn't include the fact that she's just been sued for not paying her employees properly. Frankly it seems more than relevant to this piece.

The food really is great. Too bad the front of the house - especially the host - are so terrible I have never returned since dining there around Christmas a few years ago. The host was rude and condescending - to the point that when we asked him to turn down the music a bit he turned it UP, then said "That's just the way it is." If you're paying that much for the food a little respect from the host shouldn't be a stretch. Alas Beatrice Inn isn't the only place with this attitude. (Just a few blocks away for example, you get the same condescending attitude from Barbuto hostesses.)

I just don't get messing up a fine quality piece of protein. Now if it's poor quality protein, dump what ever on it.

I worked as a chef for over twenty years; in fine dining, as a college instructor and finally doing new product development in manufacturing before moving on to greener pastures (related pun intended). I agree with the comments that point out the issues with red meat, from its health effects to the burden on our environment. I would suggest running a counterpoint article that discusses the US meat industry. Although there has been much coverage in the past, it wouldn't hurt to offer a non-biased look into what's going on with meat processing in the United States.

Thank you for this great profile - it is an antidote to all the bad behavior from chefs and others that has dominated the news of late. You can be nice and excellent too - who knew!?! Chefs you'd like to have dinner with: Angie Mar, and Jacques Pepin top my list, I hope there are more out there. I love Angie's attitude about mentoring. No matter the profession, we magnify our effect and influence through those we mentor.

In response to Dresser's defensive statement, not only is meat production (big ag) the #1 cause of pollution - worse than all the cars, planes, trains combined, but it is also barbaric. Informed people who understand this 'inconvenience', know that a change needs to come. She's not saying to stop eating meat, just that the source should be from farms where the animals haven't been tortured their entire short lives.

Yum. Have to eat there!

“No, Chef.”

When côte de boeuf is served in such large portions, who can eat the whole thing? Presumably, one could not eat anything else for dinner. I am not a vegetarian, but there seems to be little refinement in this sort of gluttony. This is hardly better than a burger with two donuts as a bun. Just because it borrows from the French, we are supposed to fall in love?

$900 for a rib-eye? Well, I'm certainly not living a life I think I should be accustomed to.

Truffle butter and snails with a dry-aged porterhouse? Gilding the lily.

I'm trying to understand how a rack of beef that's been marinating in whiskey has powdery mold on it. Doesn't the whiskey kill off the mold?

Seems like the "respect" doesn't extend to non-white patrons. Yelp reviews reflect lots of negative experiences from people of color.

Lambs and bunny rabbits? Cruelty is not necessary.

Of the 3 featured Food articles, 2 are about beef, one is about poke--made from the overfished tuna populations. We should all be eating more healthful, more delicious plant-based foods like those that shine under the hand of the likes of Yotam Ottolenghi, Ramael Scully, Daphne Cheng to name a few. I wish the Times would get with the times and start publishing chefs who are realistic about the resources required to produce a single cow and show real finesse about cuisine rather than just another way of serving up one or other animal. No slight to Chef Mar, but please, NYT, perhaps you could balance the articles in a way that reflects what the balance should be on one's plate most of the time.

I love what Chef Mar has been doing for the most part, but I really wish she'd get over her obsession with the truffle butter, truffle oil, etc. It's so early-aughts suburban basic. She's smart enough to know none of them are "real" - that every last one of them contains chemical fakery. What a shame. The worst is faux-truffled dishes on which she wastes real truffles by shaving them on top, when they're masked by the awful stink chemical. Use real truffles when they're in season, then hold off until the next year. I understand that to many basic diners the taste of truffle oil/butter/salt is what they associate "truffle" with, and the flavor and arome of actual truffles may come off "light" in comparison. And I can see that the the "truffle fries" are big sellers. So, fine, keep those on the menu. But why ruin an amazing luxury item like a dry-aged steak with nasty 2,4-dithiapentane?

Nothing of interest in this restaurant. It is not cooking it is now the personality of the chef.

I rarely get back to NYC, but I will plan on dining at the Beatrice. I am not surprised at Ms. Mar's success - she was a fierce and innovative competitor on the Food Channel's Chopped Grill Masters.

I lived across the street in the 1970's when it was a family Italian place and I loved it. As a newcomer to the city, I relished the sights and sounds of New York and relished its vast choices of foods and flavors. Coming from a country that celebrates steak and sausages and grilling I was in heaven. The sabayòn at Beatrice Inn was a combination of flavors I hadn't experienced. I was disappointed when it became a "dining club" for self absorbed Wall Street types. It has now returned to a place that evokes cooking as an act of love. As for all these PETA types: Go away. Don't eat at this restaurant. I can't wait to go there next time I'm in NYC. Thanks for this article.

Very nice write up about an engaging chef. I enjoyed going to the Beatrice Inn in his club days (run by Paul Sevigny) and have difficulties imagining it as an upscale restaurant but this article inspires me to give it a try - if I can find a tasty non meat option on the menu: Ms. Mar's attention to the seafood plateau is a good sign! In my meat eating days I enjoyed Les Halles on Park Avenue South - it was before "butcher" was a hip trend in NY (or hipster trend) with places such as Marlow & Sons where Ms. Mar trained. I love how she describes cherries: “And the ones from Yakima, when you bite into them, they’re almost steaklike. The skins are snappy, like sausage casing.” I never thought of such a steak/fruit parallel but it is very evocative. Please more writings like this in the food section that portray the personality of the chef and give insight into their approach to food.

Took me a second to do the math but $14 per ounce by 32 ounces for a nice steak for two clocks in at about $550 including tax and tip. Good to know that I can't afford it before I really get to invested in going.

I find it surprising that this article doesn't mention prices. When I lived across the street, I ate there quite a bit for the moderate priced Italian. Now, a survey of articles about the restaurant all mention prices: Shellfish platter: $485, Rib-eye with truffles: $900, Lobster: $120, Truffle burger: $105. I find it irresponsible of The Times not to be straight forward about the price tag.

"with some steaks weighing in around 350 ounces..." Really? More than 20 pounds?

I am now a vegetarian, and I don't usually relish images of sides of beef -- but the cuts of steak and Ms. Mar's stories of her father's cooking, reminded me viscerally (and positively) of so many of my meals growing up in Texas. After witnessing so many toxic workplaces, it is a pleasure to read about Ms. Mar's approach to her employees and kitchen culture. (Sadly, but one example in the sea of toxicity, inequality, and lack of trust that pervades nearly every industry I've worked in or with.) But actually I'm writing because...surely there are no 350 oz steaks! Typo? And -- while we readers can do the math, I think it's disingenuous not to come right out with the price you're talking about here. Allow her to try to defend it, ok, but make it immediately clear, since you're bringing it up.

One can force imagining a 21.875-pound, 350 oz., steak, but one who has dined on steaks from Manhattan to Kansas City has never seen such large steak served for $4,900, at her $14/oz. price. I would have asked Ms. Mar how often she sells humongous steaks. I would ask the interviewer if he found out and at whose request he decided not to spill the beans. A reader is curious how often diners develop vast hunger, or might they be wheeling home custom-sized doggy-bags, or both. There is no chance of losing sight of who they are.

Wow, what an inspiration and a class act Ms. Mar is! I believe the old saying goes, you get more bees with honey than with vinegar and her attitude is living proof. Passionate and professional, she would certainly make Ms. Child proud!

Meat & Mar. Love it.

Nice write up.

I would never have thought that a story featuring moldy meat could be so thrilling and filled with human interest. How inspiring to young chefs. Well done (yes, intended)!

And yet her menu is full of non-compassionate choices that not only defy current science on diet and environmental damage, but cause sentient beings to be bred and slaughtered at young ages and in violent manners. When are people going to include traditionally farmed animals in their circle of compassion and rights?

One day... One day I will eat here. And it will be magnificent.

In this country, where inconsideration, rudeness, and even outright hostility seems to be sadly commonplace, it is truly refreshing to read about a workplace were civility is the norm. I wonder how much of this is due to the fact that the chef is a woman.

As an alternative to a $4,900 steak, may I suggest buying an entire cow and soaking a few cuts in whiskey for about half the price of this one meal? Though the menu may consist of delicious sounding dishes ranging widely in price, the fact that someone could not only afford but actually choose to spend that kind of money on a single meal speaks volumes about our country.

Wonderful. A joy to read; serious people, at the top of their craft, and passing it on.

She sounds like an amazing chef and a wonderful boss. However I have read reviews that have kept me from this place containing accounts of relentless up selling by the service staff. That's not the kind of hospitality I seek for a dinner out. I guess Chef Mar's considerable artistry is only accessible to the one percent,an unfortunate trend we can hope to see less of in 2018. But in the current political and social climate, that's not likely.

While I think the food at Beatrice Inn is very solid the fact that the wait staff are not transparent unless asked on the per ounce and total costs of ordering the 160 day-aged tomahawk rib-eye special leaves many customers with sticker shop and and a bad experience. I fortunately have read the food blogs that highlighted this "pricing trap" and ordered other reasonably priced menu items.