Morton's, Bethesda MD

I'd had a hard day and plopping myself at
the bar asked for a soothing cocktail; the
bartender might have read me wrong, because
what I was served was on the unsmooth side
and on the sweet side: it was made with
Bulleit, honey, Ancho Reyes liqueur, a
splash of sour mix, and as this mess was too
sweet, a tot of lemon juice. It was okay, but
not for $16 or 18. Live and learn. For dinner
I had a 16-oz wet-aged strip rare; it came
barely seared, cool outside, raw and fridge
temperature inside, in a slightly sour jus.
I didn't mind the doneness but didn't care
for the lack of warmth anywhere on the plate.
The meat was of decent quality, nothing to
write home about; it was supposed to be USDA
Prime, and it might have been, having decent
marbling, but there was some resiliency there
and a bit more sinew in the meat than I am
accustomed to at these prices. Oh, also, I
asked for a piece with a good fat cap: what
I got had just a whisper of fat around the
edges, a bit of a disappointment.

Not wanting to break into three figures, I
said no to dessert. When I got out of there,
I'd missed the last bus and had to take a
taxi, so I ended up spending the money anyhow.

Classified, Newark NJ

This is the private back room of Saison in the Newark
airport, affiliated in some way to United. You get
checked in by the host, who leads you down a dog-
legged corridor to the secret door, and there it
is, your oasis.

A glass of Murphy-Goode Cabernet, which was
pleasant, better than your standard restaurant
pour, started off the meal right.

A 16-oz dry-aged strip was really first-rate meat,
so the fact that it came medium-rare instead of
the rare ordered (you cannot order extra rare,
because your only interaction with the staff is
by iPad) was not painful. It was about 18 oz
but bone-in, which the online menu didn't
bother to mention, so about 14 oz of meat. One
could taste a bit of funk around the edge - I
imagine this was a 30-day aged moldy steak, not
quite completely trimmed. The guy bringing the
food expressed modest surprise that I hadn't
ordered a sauce or garnish, but a fancy liquid
isn't going to do a proper piece of meat any good,
and a slice of foie gras, which might have done
so, was not available at lunchtime (it's an
upcharge of $18 at night). The steak had been
sprinkled with smoked salt, which was weird.
On the side, a sizable wad of stemmy raw
watercress and a small pitcher of Catalina-like
dressing (a garlic red French, the likes of which
I hadn't encountered since the early 1960s).

For my side, I got creamed spinach with sunchoke
- slightly undercooked and also stemmy baby
spinach, maybe 10 oz cooked. topped with plenty
of decent Parmesan. The sunchoke cream was good
enough for me to drink it plain, so I left part
of the stringy greens.

As you get the bill by e-mail, it wasn't until a
day after that I found they'd overcharged me $5
over the already extortionate price for the wine.
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