By: Tammy Lynne Stoner | October 04 2011
Posted in Portland - Find It - Portland

Pretty but too tough, St Jack’s Steak Frites. Photos by: Tammy Lynne Stoner

With so many restaurants to choose from that serve similiar fare, The Local Dish has decided to start a "Showdown" series to determine which places have the best eats. Please join us as we pick dueling dishes, put them through strenuous tastebud testing, and pick a winner!

St. Jack Vs. Laurelhurst Market

After reading that the newly opened, French-inspired restaurant St. Jack in the Clinton-Division area was awarded Rising Star of 2011 by the Oregonian, we thought it might be interesting to pit St. Jack’s against the young-but-established, steakhouse-inspired brasserie, Laurelhurst Market, deemed by Bon Appetit Magazine to  be one of the Top Ten New Restaurants of 2010. For this Portland Showdown, we put each restaurant's steak frites to the test.

All Steak Frites are not created equal – winner: Laurelhurst Market!

St. Jack is all about the French – from its black, yellow, and grey café colors to the shelves of wine along the wall. Laurelhurst Market is all about the meat. It shares space with the Butcher Shop and features an image of a segmented steer on its restaurant wall to highlight each day's available cuts. Who would produce the better steak frites?

Both served their steak with equally crisp, decent handcut fries. The difference was in the steak. Laurelhurst Market presented a Piedmontese Rib Eye with Marchand de Vin (their daily selection), while St. Jack served Onglet with Shallot and Red Wine Demi-Glace. The Piedmontese Rib Eye is a tender shoulder-cut, similar to a filet; the Onglet is a flavorful hangar steak taken from the diaphram. After one bite, the winner was clear.

Laurelhurst’s steak frites was perfectly, pepperly seared and served with a rich and delicate, slow cooked sauce. The sauce supported the flavors on either side of the beef by holding down the low, meaty notes and the high, zingy notes. A friend described the meal as, “Scrumdillyicious.” We couldn’t agree more.

St. Jack put up a good fight, presenting a passable steak frites, but the cut was tough and the sauce was too reserved. Pardon, St. Jack, mais le gagnant est – Sorry, St. Jack, but the winner is…Laurelhurst Market!

Catch up on all TLD's Portland Showdowns here, then visit the winners and tell us what you've been enjoying!

Tammy Lynne Stoner has written for HGTV, Food Network, and Fine Living, among others. She is a novelist, Law & Order junkie and Fiction Editor for Gertrude Press. Her websites are TammyLynneStoner.com and StonerWrites.com.

 

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