Right now more than ever, we all can use a little luxury. Whether you feel comfortable dining only outdoors, or are looking for a night at a restaurant to help you escape the house, Benjamin Steakhouse is serving up delectable meals, along with more than a bit of pampering thanks to their five-star service. Take a mini road trip right next door to Benjamin Steakhouse’s Westchester location, where you’ll find a goldmine of dry-aged meats, seafood, and more for both indoor, outdoor and take-out dining. If you find yourself in the city, stop in at Benjamin Prime’s 40th Street location for atmospheric dining al fresco and now you can even bring their curated cuts home with their new Benjamin Steakhouse at Home delivery concept. We chatted with Benjamin Prelvukaj, the co-owner of Benjamin Restaurant Group, about why they’re a cut above the rest and just why once you try dry-aged steaks you’ll never look back.
What safety precautions do you have in place for guests during COVID?
We’re following all of the NY state safety guidelines for indoor and outdoor dining. All of our tables are at least six feet apart from one another, all our employees are required to wear a mask throughout their whole shift, and we ask that all guests wear a mask when not seated. We updated the filtration system at all of our restaurants to the MERV 13 enhanced filtration system. We laminated our menus so they can easily be sanitized after each use. We also temperature check all of our employees at the beginning of their shifts and require they stay home if they don’t feel well.
What is the benefit of dry-aging your Porterhouse, sirloin, rib-eye, and filet mignon steaks?
The dry-aging process enhances the flavor of the steak over time, as moisture evaporates from within the beef and also tenderizes it. The key effect of the dry-aging process is the concentration of flavor – if you have tried our sizzling steaks, it’s a flavor you’ll never forget! At Benjamin Steakhouse, only the best USDA prime beef is used, and every cut is carefully dry-aged in specially handcrafted aging boxes in-house for a minimum of 28 days.
What options are there for guests who don’t enjoy red meat?
We also operate The Sea Fire Grill, where our same mastery of the steakhouse experience extends to seafood. We use the knowledge we gained there to craft extraordinary seafood dishes at Benjamin Steakhouses, too. Our chef recommends the rich and buttery Chilean sea bass as well as the grilled Norwegian salmon, with its mild and delicate flavor. Another favorite is our pan-seared yellowfin tuna, which is dusted with coriander seeds, white pepper, pink peppercorn, mustard seed, fennel seed, and served with wasabi cream and soy ginger sauce. Diners are also passionate about the extravagant seafood platter, which consists of fresh oysters on the half shell, jumbo shrimp, half-lobsters and juicy lump crabmeat. We also get rave reviews of our 2-pound Maine lobster, which is stuffed with crab meat and finished off with a classic béarnaise sauce.
What is your new outdoor dining experience like?
We expanded our outdoor dining area at our Westchester location to provide more space for our customers to feel safer when dining with us. Our outdoor area now includes our normal patio around the restaurant as well as a covered tent in our parking lot. We also installed fans in the tent to provide more air flow and also outdoor heaters for the cooler months. We made sure to extend our fine dining ambiance, including soft lighting, into the tent to provide that same romantic feeling as our indoor dining.
What is the Benjamin Steakhouse at Home concept?
Benjamin at Home is the easiest way to get your steakhouse favorites delivered right to your front door. Our website allows you to choose from a variety of cuts, including our infamous dry-aged steaks. We also sell our specialty blend of dry-aged burgers and our classic steak sauce. Since our steaks are dry aged, most of the work is already done because the flavor is already there. All the meat needs is just a little salt before grilling and then the Benjamin Steakhouse experience is now in your home!