Nick & Stef’s Takes Steakhouse Concept to the 12th Degree

Open a steakhouse and the city’s die-hard carnivores are sure to make a beeline there. Last week, though barely 2 weeks old, Joachim and Christine Splichal’s new Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse was already packed. On a Tuesday night in downtown L.A. no less.

That’s good news for Joachim, Patina’s founder and chef, who named his latest venture after his twin toddlers. Nick & Stef’s is a good-looking place that doesn’t cut any slack for vegetarians. The hyper-modern restaurant features a glass-walled aging room where beef is dry-aged on shelf after shelf, each tagged with the date and weight. Just past that is the kitchen, where you can view steaks, chops and lobsters sizzling over hardwood.

Stepping away from the French-California cuisine of Patina and the various Pinots, Splichal gives the all-American steakhouse a new twist. He is, after all, L.A.’s resident potato meister, and here he offers 12 kinds of potatoes, including a skillet cake for two and a rich gratin oozing cream and butter. Everything, in fact, on the menu comes in twelves. A dozen starters and salads. A dozen vegetables. And once you choose your steak, chop or grilled item, any of 12 sauces to go with it, including a red wine reduction with bone marrow.

The starters, for example, are better versions of the usual ho-hum steakhouse appetizers. Tomato and onion salad is made with juicy beefsteak tomatoes stacked high with sweet red onion slices. Caesar is made the old-fashioned way, table-side. And our waiter had a particularly good sense of how it should taste, busily adding anchovies and garlic to the base of eggs and lime, then grated Parmesan, and tossing it all together with a practiced eye. I’d return just for that.

New York strip is dry-aged in-house, as is the big 14-ounce rib-eye. There’s a 1-pound beef tenderloin served table-side for two, and, for petite appetites, a dainty 6-ounce filet mignon. Aside from beef, you can get double-cut lamb or pork chops, a free-range chicken, and one of those grilled Maine lobsters.

Come dessert, well, you’ve got nine or 10 choices too, which is about a half dozen more than most steakhouses offer, including homemade ice cream in vanilla or chocolate flavors. L.A. cheesecake, however, is not yet ready to take on New York’s finest. A better suggestion: Why not go whole hog and order the coconut cream pie with vanilla bean sauce? Or at least one to share for the table.

BE THERE

Nick & Stef’s Steakhouse, Wells Fargo Building, 330 S. Hope St., downtown L.A. (213) 680-0330. Open for lunch Monday through Friday, and dinner Monday through Saturday. Dinner appetizers, $6 to $15; main courses, $19 to $29. Valet parking free with validation.