“I’m so full I’m about to pop,” a man said. “Push those kidneys a little nearer, if you don’t mind.”
Such is the eating-too-much essence of the Beefsteak experience, as captured candidly by the New Yorker’s Joseph Mitchell in his 1939 article “All You Can Hold for Five Bucks.” Detailing the various spins that Manhattanites put on a tradition dating back to the 19th century, Mitchell enshrined this gluttonous affair for future generations to enjoy, even as the all-you-can-eat and -drink bacchanal faded from most memories by World War II.
In 2011, Chef Neal Fraser dusted off Mitchell’s prose as a template for hosting his own Beefsteak at Redbird in Los Angeles, where it was greeted with glitzy and greasy arms. The meat-and-booze party became an annual fundraiser every year through 2019 before being derailed by the pandemic, although it appears Beefsteak IX will occur in 2022 , at least for those already on the invite list.