Ray's the Steaks

People were constantly raving to us about this show called "Mad Men". It was on basic cable. We'd never seen it. We weren't especially interested in finding a new show. And then WHAM! We were monster "Mad Men" fans. Holy God how could a show that good be airing every week while we were putzing around trying to find something other than that home building makeover show on a Sunday night. And of course, Mad Men is about all the drinkin' and smokin' and general overindulgence and well a blog is just no place to try to break it all down except to say that walking into Ray's the Steaks was just like that first experience with "Mad Men".

Ray's the Steaks had been getting raves for years. We'd heard of it. Heck, even our friends in Md were raving about the outpost Ray's the Classics there. For Heaven's sake, even the President had been to it's sister restaurant Ray's Hell Burger. The reviews I read were certainly stellar - but there was this offputting vibe in them - "you're certainly not paying for the decor" is actually on the menu, and is repeated in the reviews. The old space, they said, was a bit tight and throughly unadorned. The new space has a minimally-posher reserved area and a casual walk-in dining area. We hadn't gone. We'd kinda meant to but we weren't going out of our way for it or anything.

Then my beloved husband got a well-deserved promotion. I made a 5 p.m. reservation. Yes, I said FIVE P.M.. We are nuts. Actually we are fortunate that Jac gets out of work early and we can beat the rush at good restaurants. Also we are practicing to be elderly. We started with a salad and scallops. I was devouring my salad in such a manner that half way through I pushed it aside determined that it would make a terrific lunch the next day. Jac liked his scallops but is yearning for the crisp caramelized contortions of the bacon-wrapped dates we got at Founding Farmers recently.

When that freaking steak showed up at our table. O-M-G. Let me just say this. I am a former quasi-vegetarian with strong veg-leanings. I am perfectly happy being meatless for whatever period of time. I also bristle about ordering steak in a restaurant because I am not a med-rare/medium gal. I need the thing dead and cooked, not just warmed up a bit. This is a belief deeply frowned upon in fine dining establishments. You SHOULD want your meat mooing at you they think. You are clearly an idiot if you want your food, you know, cooked. So I bowed to peer pressure and went with Medium. It was a calculated guess. Anyway, my marriage brought meat with it and this steak was amazing.

Jac's steak came with a port wine sauce that I would like to bathe in. I would like to cover bread with it. If I put something with nutritional value in it I would eat it as soup. The waiter added a gratis suggestion - a brandy mushroom sauce. Mushrooms are not my favorite vegetable, but again I trusted my instincts and took the two mushrooms he gave me with a single bite of steak. If those had been the first mushrooms I'd ever been given I would have insisted on mushrooms every day of my life. Jac brought the sauce and steak home to make into a sandwich for tomorrow.

Our waiter was a delight. I tipped him either 30 or 50% depending how tipsy I was when I tallied the cash on the table and the part of the tip I put on the credit card. We both had a couple of drinks. The steaks came with heavenly mashed potatoes and creamed spinach to share. Our dinner was $103 (before tipping incident). A frigging bargain for a nice meal in Arlington. We will be back. We will SO be back.