New Yorkers are searing mad over an absurd bid by Texas to rename the New York strip steak.
The beef between the two states was heating up Monday, with New York meat purveyors getting rubbed the wrong way by the Lone Star State’s proposal to call the steakhouse-favorite beef cut the “Texas strip.”
“Remember the Alamo? What happens to the Alamo will happen to [Texas Lt. Gov.] Dan Patrick if he messes with our steak,” a fired-up Todd Shapiro, owner of War Room steakhouse in Albany told The Post in reference to the Texas lieutenant governor’s meat-headed move.
“I plan on filing a million-dollar lawsuit against the state of Texas if they want to take the New York strip off my menu,” Shapiro said, arguing the proposal, if approved, could have an economic impact since the strip is the restaurant’s top seller.
“You hear ‘don’t mess with Texas’? Well, don’t mess with New York. I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse,” he said, channeling Don Corleone from “The Godfather.”
Alan Rosen, owner of Junior’s Restaurant in Brooklyn, also stepped in to defend the longstanding name for the prime cut of beef — and to rib the lieutenant governor for his impertinence.
“This guy should find something else to do with his free time — we have more pressing issues in our country. Are we going to call New York cheesecake Athens cheesecake now?” Rosen said in a reference to the dessert’s origins in Ancient Greece.
“We have a Texas — I mean New York strip steak at our Las Vegas location. New York has a better ring to it,” he quipped.
The Big Apple-centric name for the flavorful cut of beef from a cow’s short loin, generically called simply strip steak, dates back nearly 200 years to Delmonico’s, a classic New York City steakhouse that first opened its doors in 1837.
The legend goes Delmonico’s dubbed their strip steak the “New York strip” on their menu and the name took off from there, eventually becoming nearly synonymous with the cut, according to Chowhound.
“Our historic restaurant pioneered these cuts of steak, which are still found on menus and in butcher shops across the US,” Delmonico’s said in a statement to The Post, adding they have no plans to change what they call the famous menu item — no matter what Texas does.
“The name pays homage to a culinary tradition that dates back to the 1800s. You can change the name to whatever you want, but there’s a genuine history behind these steaks that we will continue to honor,” the Delmonico’s rep said.
Other meat-slingers were more ambivalent about the proposed change, like Dean Poll, owner of Gallaghers Steakhouse, who told The Post he “couldn’t care less” about Patrick’s bluster, calling the whole thing “meaningless.”
“People call different cuts of meat different things all over the place, so it’s actually meaningless,” he said, noting his famed restaurant calls it “New York sirloin” on their menus.
Gene, manager of Sparks Steak House, said he hadn’t heard about Patrick’s proposal, but that the legendary dining spot calls their New York strip the “prime sirloin steak” anyway.
“Why change it to Texas strip? It wouldn’t really sound good in New York.”
A manager at Empire Steakhouse — which has three New York locations — said no matter what people call the cut of meat in question, the Big Apple does it best.
“We cook the strip steak better than [Texas]. They produce it, but we know what to do with it.”
That sentiment was echoed by Robert D., 47, a diner leaving Keens Steakhouse Monday afternoon when he stopped to weigh in.
“They might be able to change that down in Texas, but no way Jose are they going to get everyday New Yorkers to call a New York strip Texas strip,” he said defiantly.
“We’re some of the most prideful people on Earth. You couldn’t take it from us if you tried.”
Patrick announced on social media this week that the Texas state senate would be filing a resolution to formally change the name of the New York strip steak, arguing that the Lone Star should have first dibs on the name since it has more beef cattle than any other state in the US — at 12.2 million.
“Just because a New York restaurant named Texas beef a New York Strip in the 19th century doesn’t mean we need to keep doing that,” the lieutenant governor said.
“Liberal New York shouldn’t get the credit for our hard-working ranchers,” he whined.
“We promote the Texas brand on everything made or grown in Texas because it benefits our economy and jobs,” Patrick added, noting he hopes to see the new name “catch on across the country and around the globe.”
— Additional reporting by Caitlin McCormack
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