The long-awaited opening of Gallaghers Steakhouse in Boca Raton happened this week—and the reservation lines are heating up. This venerable chop house has been in Manhattan’s Theater District for more than 90 years, founded by Helen Gallagher, a Ziegfeld Follies dancer. It is known for its celebrity clientele, its flawless steaks grilled over hickory coals, its glass-encased aged meat locker, its on-site butcher and more.
I got to dine at “our” Gallaghers this week; I am not our food critic and I rarely go to steakhouses (sadly) but all I kept thinking was, “This is perfect.” A perfectly medium rare smoky New York sirloin (sliced), Lyonnaise potatoes, bright green broccoli with a little crunch, a Caesar salad done the right way. The only way.
There was a nice clubby vibe there, lots of vintage pictures and drawings on the wall of the famous and infamous, and a U-shaped bar that practically screams single malt. In talking to the Gallaghers owner (since 2013) Dean Poll, I got a sense of Gallaghers’ legacy of hospitality—the attention to detail and quality, the old-fashioned adherence to sublime service standards. All of which is being duplicated here.
My only beef (sorry) is that it is very, very loud, hard-to-have-a-conversation loud—and that’s not from me in my dotage; my much younger fellow diners said exactly the same. Which is too bad, because if there is any place you’d want to sip a martini and have a long chat, it is right here. Having said that, Gallaghers will be packing them in, decibel levels be damned, because it’s good, good, good, it’s special, and it feels like dining when dining was a real event. Here’s to a great new addition to our dining scene.
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