Foodservice News presents the upper Midwest foodservice industry the tapas (small bites) of its community.

In every issue you'll find the expected—new openings, human resources and training articles, profiles on movers and shakers and advice on how to run your business better, but you'll also discover a pinch of lagniappe—a Cajun culinary term for an unexpected something extra.

Chef Paul Lynch, top, offers dry-aged pork on the FireLake Grill House menu, and Chef Mike Phillips presents the Craftsman Restaurant’s charcuterie plate.

Meat on the menu
By Mike Mitchelson

Not that it’s any surprise, but a look at restaurant menus of late shows that meat—no matter the economic or social trend—remains the fixture at the center of the American plate. The difference, perhaps, from the recent past is there is a greater attention to cost, and therefore more interest in proteins and cuts that were normally taken for granted. Example: Roast chicken, half or quarter birds, are becoming commonplace menu items in restaurants from brewpubs to upscale bistros, as are flank and hanger steaks.

The trend is moving along so much that the Minnesota Beef Council is promoting cuts from the less prestigious chuck roll of the cow, several that offer similar qualities to the in-demand middle meats, such as sirloin. The Denver steak from the chuck roll is the fourth-most tender muscle in a beef carcass, said Amy Halverson, director of nutrition and consumer information for the Beef Council, and the “sierra” cut resembles a flank steak in appearance, texture, taste and cooking method.

Exact cost savings aren’t in because the cuts aren’t yet getting much play in retail, Halverson said. “But, some of the pricing that has been done for the sierra cut, we’re talking two to three dollars less per pound than a flank steak, and it will act like a flank steak.” Restaurants are already using chuck roll cuts, including FireLake Grill House in Minneapolis.

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