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Anyone who pays attention to what John Howie does (executive chef at Palisade for 10 years, owner of Seastar Restaurant & Raw Bar in Bellevue and Seattle, Sport Restaurant) expects interesting, high-quality food; a high-end environment; and total attention paid to details. In September 2009, he opened John Howie Steak at The Bravern in Bellevue. Just walking through The Bravern’s retail area, you feel like you’re having a grand ‘Rodeo Drive’ experience. Entering John Howie Steak, you know you’re in for a good time.

John always has some new concepts floating around in his brain. The chef-driven steakhouse idea started well over five years ago. "What I mean by chef-driven is that no compromises are made in quality or preparation," John explains. "We make our own breads in-house and serve four different types in our table baskets. All desserts are made in-house, except the sorbets which we get from Olympic Mountain. We have a cheese platter with seven-nine varieties available, served with honeycomb, Marcona almonds, dried apricots, our house-made cherry/fig compote and walnut baguette. We serve an amuse bouche every day and change it often. We’ve done halibut ceviche, butternut squash soup with sage brown butter top, cheesy polenta on pork Bolognese, even a mini American Wagyu burger on our pretzel bread." When this much attention is paid to the amuse bouche, you can imagine the focus on entrées and sides.

Being a steak house, their emphasis is on the best beef. USDA prime 28 day custom aged beef is the low end of what they offer; they also have 42 day custom aged corn-fed beef. Both come from Omaha, Nebraska. The next jump up is to American Wagyu from Snake River Farms in Idaho. On top of that they offer true Japanese Kobe beef. As a quick primer, there is no actual "Kobe" beef. Japanese Wagyu cattle are processed in Kobe, Japan, hence the name. "Kobe" beef is simply Wagyu cattle. American Wagyu is a cross breed of Japanese Wagyu and American Angus and is richer than prime but not nearly as rich as 100% Japanese Wagyu. Taste the difference by ordering one of the steak combos: compare prime filet and Wagyu filet, American and Japanese Wagyu, or all three.

Photo above: filet oscar courtesy of John Howie Steak

Steaks eight ounces and above are grilled over live mesquite charcoal (no gas). "Mesquite burns hotter and has a mineral smoke flavor that works really well for steaks," says John. "You can’t really correctly cook anything smaller than that over mesquite and feel good about it. That’s why we pan sear our four ounce steaks. We also have a live apple wood grill for our seafood, pork and poultry. Apple wood imparts a sweeter smoke flavor."

Their menu covers more ground than the typical steakhouse. The bar menu is quite large (as is the happy hour menu) and includes items like a ½ pound of spicy habanjero butter shrimp that is a meal by itself. Sides change often and have included fire grilled corn sautéed with chipotle honey butter and cilantro, and sugar snap peas with almondine butter. There is always a sautéed wild mushroom—whatever is fresh. Their lobster mashed potatoes take it to the next level with two ounces of fresh Maine lobster put into a lobster cream-based stock and poured over the potatoes. Sandwiches include meat loaf and turkey. The meatloaf is made from prime beef and their house-made chicken pate is used as a spread for a much richer sandwich. Turkey is brined, roasted and smoked in-house. Potato chips are made fresh every morning. Fries are cut, soaked for a full day, blanched and cooled, then cooked to order. The potato salad recipe comes straight from John’s mom.

"Our tempura fried bacon is amazing," says John. "We serve it with a maple sambal ponzu dipping sauce. We’re also playing around with the idea of beef jerky. There are some cuts of beef we won’t use for steaks, but would work for different jerkies: maple sambal, pepper or plain smoked. Nothing is an after-thought for us. This may be a steak house, but we put as much effort into every snack and non-steak item as we do the steaks. We recently had a butternut squash ravioli on the menu that sold so much I started thinking about changing the restaurant name to ‘John Howie Ravioli.’ Even though we are a steak house, we take care of our vegetarian customers too."

You should expect to pay the price for top quality beef, tableside service (warm spinach salad with Kurobuta bacon, Marcona almonds, quail eggs, all prepared in front of you, and Bananas Foster based on the original recipe from Brennan’s in New Orleans), the comprehensive, three-layer service—Captains, Servers, Server Assistants—and the beautiful surroundings. On top of that, you have a full menu beyond steaks with seafood, poultry, pork. However, if you’re not looking for a special occasion spot and want to drop in for a casual lunch or a cocktail and snack, you can do so at very affordable prices. Lunches include a vegetable and starch (dinner is a la carte).

Photo above: intimate hallway booths between lounge and dining room

Watch for part 2 of the John Howie Steak story coming in January. Learn about their wine program and management team.

Connie Adams/December 2009

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