Pittsburgh Blue - Maple Grove

Rating:

"We don't do 'tiny' very well here," said our server. No kidding.

Everything's plus-size at Pittsburgh Blue, the casual suburban cousin to downtowners Manny's Steakhouse and the Oceanaire Seafood Room -- starting with the sign just inside the door that limits occupancy to a mere 295 people, and carrying through to just about every plate coming out of the kitchen. Rare is the dish that doesn't invoke a startling double-take, as in, "No, I ordered [insert menu item here], not a meal for a family of six."

The ghost of Girarrosto Toscano seems to lurk in PB's vast parking lot. The short-lived restaurant was Parasole partner Phil Roberts' campy Tony Soprano-meets-Iron Range supper club steakhouse in Eden Prairie, and it was a rare Roberts bellyflop (I thought it was a hoot). So when the company refocused its attention on the 'burbs, it left nothing to chance. Girarrosto's clever, inside-baseball sass is definitely out. Pittsburgh Blue is as smooth and test-marketed as a Mitt Romney stump speech.

With more than a dozen choices, steak (far more affordable than Manny's, by the way) is the menu's centerpiece, and they're fine but rarely transcendent. The exceptions are the kitchen's signature, a massive bone-in New York strip, and an even larger rib-eye for two that accomplish everything that sizzling, carefully dry-aged hunks of beef should do, their brawny flavors boosted by salt, flame and a cook with a sixth sense. You know it when you taste it, it's that primal, and a béarnaise sauce, bacon slice, blue cheese crumble or other distracting embellishments aren't required to mask any weaknesses.

Read Full Review »