- So, Nick, thank you so much
for taking me to Peter Luger.
- The pleasure is all mine.
This is one of my favorite places.
I remember my first time.
It was like one of those life-changing experiences.
- Yeah.
- And I think you're love this place.
- It's an icon.
It's been around for a long time.
- It is; it's one of those things that
you could only find in New York.
I think that you really need to eat here
to fully understand the city.
- Yes.
- This place has a massive cult following.
- Live at Peter Luger. - Yeah, we live, baby.
- This (bleep) is just like (bleep) heroin.
And I've done heroin.
- This is a shot that Steve had.
- So Luger opened in 1887.
It's led to many people copying it,
but nobody's imitated how great this place is.
And I guarantee you that once you try this,
if it ever comes up for auction,
you're gonna bid on it.
(laughing)
It's that good; I'm telling you.
- All right, I'm so ready.
Let's do this.
- Okay.
(upbeat music)
- So when did you first come here?
- It has to be the late '80s,
which is betraying my age.
As soon as I got an illicit job working
after-hour clubs, I had a lot of cash
in my hand and I came straight down here.
It was amazing.
I knew to get the porterhouse.
And I took that first bite,
it was literally a life-changing moment.
It's like I'd never tasted anything like that.
The way that they do steak here,
it's totally unique.
It's the genesis of a certain type
of New York City steakhouse.
- Hello, how are you?
Are you ready to order?
- I think, obviously, a porterhouse for two, rare, please.
- Rare, yeah.
- We need some side items though,
so let's do lamb chops, mid-rare on the lamb.
Let's do some bacon for good measure.
- Bacon.
- French fries, let's do a creamed spinach.
Let's do a wedge salad also.
(Serena laughs)
- What is going on here?
- Sizzling hot, don't touch the plates.
- Wow!
- All right.
- Oh, man, it smells amazing.
- Add a little vitamin to your vitamin.
(Serena laughing)
See, here we go, vitamins.
- It's the same old shtick, but it never gets old.
(laughing)
- A little lamb with that.
- Thank you so much. - Thank you so much.
- I would recommend starting with
what is the New York strip,
which is that side right there.
- Okay, all right, cool.
- Only because I find it has a bit more flavor.
It's not quite as tender.
It's pretty unique, right,
because the initial hit is that buttery,
first of all, you feel the butter,
then you taste it, but then that beef comes on.
That redolent, dry-aging flavor, right.
- The beef flavor goes through a lot of ranges.
- Right.
- You can tell that they've done something
really special with it.
Little funky, but super beefy.
And I think a lot of places that do steak poorly,
they really screw up the texture.
But this is that ideal texture, what you want for steak.
- Right, it's just a combination of getting
nailing everything, the temperature,
the exterior char, the flavor itself, right.
The service is spectacular.
I love it when they're serving you, right.
- Yeah.
- Listen to that.
- All right, gents, here we go.
- It's great.
- Just amazing, right.
I love that every time he serves it,
he's like, "About to have the greatest steak in the world."
- You know what, they're the most honest waiters.
They're not lying.
(woman laughs)
Let's talk about the bacon though.
- Yes.
Because this is kind of a cult item in and of itself
- Oh, okay.
- This is like bacon steak basically, right.
A Peter Luger waiter had made himself
some bacon and was eating it on the side.
And a regular customer comes in.
Customer saw that and was like, "I want that."
So he was a regular, they accommodated him.
Well, that led to somebody else saying,
"Hey, I want that."
- Yeah.
- So they ended up putting the bacon on the menu,
and actually I think it's one of the ubiquitous items.
I think everyone orders it.
- Yeah.
- It's a great appetizer.
Look at the char they put on that.
But the flavor is incomparable, right.
- Oh, the flavor's so good.
- It's like nothing else.
Here's a secret, okay.
The lamb chops here are also dry-aged.
- Now, many people dry-age beef.
- Yeah.
- Dry-aged lamb, very rare.
It's very viscous.
It coats your mouth.
You can really feel it here.
In a way that beef is much more rounded in flavor,
this is more earthy, right.
- It is more earthy and a little bit sweet--
- Yes, exactly.
- Because of that, but not explicitly so.
- Right, exactly.
- It's very subtle.
- So I have a collection of these guys.
Here, I think you should take that one as your first.
- Oh, thanks, Nick.
- You can always remember it,
and hopefully you will have a collection
of those one day that will be impressive.
- They're cute.
- I know.
- We just ate this.
I mean, we're here at noon on a weekday.
You think people are working, but this is totally packed.
And people are waiting out there to get a table here.
- This is New York's greatest breakfast bar,
what do you mean?
(woman laughs)
No, it's the place that is literally jam-packed
from when they open at noon til they close
at 11:30 at night.
To me it's just one of those things that
when you're away from New York a bit,
if you think you've lost touch with the city,
you come here and it's like, right back in.
It's like an incubation chamber for, like,
re-acclimate you back into New York life.
- So on a scale from one to ten,
how ethereal was this restaurant?
- I would have to say a ten.
- Was this the platonic ideal for a restaurant?
- The platonic ideal, it would only be a nine
if Cult Following wasn't here,
but because Cult Following's here,
it's a definite ten.
- All right, all right, you're a ham.
Thanks for coming.
- Ham, right here young lady.
- If you liked this episode,
click here to watch more Cult Following.
- And you can definitely tell it's homemade
and that this is not an industrial product.
- You should go for it.
- I'm doin' it.
So good.