Charlie Palmer Steak

We needed a little R&R so we headed up to Reno for a short over night stay. The Grand Sierra Resort, formerly the Reno Hilton has totally been redone and it is beautiful. They now have Charlie Palmer Steak and Charlie Palmer Fin Fish. We had dinner reservations at Steak Friday night.

There is a joint bar area between Fish and Steak, very clean lines, comfy chairs and low tables. We were there early and after gambling a bit and not winning (as usual) we thought we would try to get in a little earlier. They were running pretty true to their reservation times so we had about an hour to wait. We sat at one of the tables in the bar area and decided to check out the Lounge Menu. The Menu consists of Cold sea foods, Sliders, Crispy, Tastings and Roasted/Grilled. We decided to try the Bone Marrow from the Roasted section.. We were brought a huge bones that had been roasted and split in half to expose the marrow. It was served with caramelized onions and golden raisins and crostini. It was good (I thought), the marrow was like fat but very rich tasting that we spread on the crostini. Charlie wasn't thrilled with it. After a couple of drinks our table was ready.

Once seated they brought the basket of rolls.. the rolls were nothing special but the butter was out of this world. How often do you notice the butter other than if it is salted or not. This butter was so good I had to ask the server what kind it was. He came back and said the kitchen told him it was Vermont slightly salted European style butter. For Appetizers,of course I had the Foie Gras. Roasted and it sat on what tasted like cornbread but with more of a cake texture along with peach marmalade.. Yum! Charlie had the Arugula and frisee with goat cheese and beets. The greens were way too salty but when eaten with the goat cheese it was perfect. Entrees were of course steak. Charlie had the bone in New York cooked black and blue and the Sauteed mushrooms, I had the Kansas City Ribeye-rare. The steaks came with a trio of sauces, Bearnaise, Charlie Palmer steak sauce, Cilantro butter. All the sauces were good but I love Bearnaise sauce with steak. Now usually to me steak is steak I can't tell if one tastes different from another but this one was different.. Excellent! I almost ate the whole thing.. Charlie said it was a very good steak that he had. Desert.. yes, what we tried was the Meyer Lemon tart, basically a lemon bar and Charlie had the berries and cream.

As we rolled out of there we said we would try Fin Fish the next time we are in Reno. It is exciting to see a renowned chef bringing his restaurant to Reno.. hopefully others will follow.

When we got back to our hotel (Siena) we found 2 little pastries had been set out for us.. a little raspberry tart and a mandarin orange tart.. but that would have to wait until morning with coffee.