Meat Me in the Village: Greenwich Steakhouse

It feels a little like stepping through the looking glass, walking up to the unassuming doors off Greenwich Avenue in the heart of New York City.

The street is lively with Greenwich Village fervor, small chef centered farm-to-table joints dot the streets, hip dive bars welcome their people, record-stores-turned-coffee shops brew up pots of joe. However, as you step through those doors into Greenwich Steakhouse, you enter another world. It's a world you'd least expect; one of sleek opulence, enormous meaty steaks, classic seafood towers and cocktails with no sense of irony whatsoever.

The three-story converted townhouse opened by Chef Victor Chavez (Smith & Wollensky) and Frank Gocaj, houses three dining rooms, each with a slightly different feel, although all are dripping with Upper East Side posh in spite of its downtown locale. The ground floor, mostly consumed by the bar, is the most bustling part of the newly opened restaurant, although raucous it is not. On a recent visit bar customers were mild-mannered, mostly interested in their carnivore meal to come rather than carousing.

Upstairs, the main dining room is bright but serene. Ample cobalt velvet chairs set off the sleek white table clothes and colorful yet slightly muted murals. Far from the first-floor kitchen, the bustle here is all of the guests' doing – no clanging nor energy from the kitchen below. Finally perched on top, the third floor boasts a chairman of the board-style large, long table surrounded by burgundy-hued chairs. The grandiose table is flanked by built-in wine cellars, bottles gleaming. The decor, while brighter and more graceful than typical steakhouse mahogany and iron, speaks to the old New York City steakhouse feel of luxury and decadence.

The food at Greenwich Steakhouse is precisely that: quintessential steakhouse. The cuts of meat – dry-aged in house – are expertly charred and cooked to perfection. Sides represent the classics: creamed spinach, perennial grilled asparagus (unlike its neighbors, seasonal/local sourcing not so much a thing here) and truffle fries.

For high-ticket starters, the Greenwich Petit for Two or Plateau Royale for Four offers requisite lobster, clams, shrimp, crabmeat and oysters. Diners will also recognize the familiar wedge salad, thick glazed bacon and crab cakes. It's all there for the taking, high-quality ingredients presented with consistency.

Are there any surprises? There are a few more chicken dishes on the menu than you'd expect and a double-cut veal parmigiana. Among the classic sauces, diners can also dip into a south-of-the-border chimichurri. Greenwich Steakhouse checks all the boxes. The decor drips with opulence. The staff is attentive and thorough (and for the most part male... hmm). The steaks are perfection and the sides wholly represented and realized.

Perhaps the most alluring thing about Greenwich Steakhouse is its locale. Ideal for the moment you want all that a New York City steakhouse has to offer (and those gifts are many and nothing to be ashamed of), its romanticism is grounded in tradition. Merely blocks away, diners can visit the site of the historic Stonewall riots, which will commemorate its 50th anniversary in June 2019. Have a nightcap at The Stonewall Inn where a post-meat meeting offers the perfect ending to a night in the Village.

Greenwich Steakhouse
62 Greenwich Avenue, NYC
212-553-5000