Eric Wareheim wants to feed you steak

For three years, Eric Wareheim ate a lot of steak.

We're talking three steakhouse meals a day, complete with sides and sauces. Towers of onion rings piled high, bone-in ribeyes, bubbling pots of lobster mac and cheese, fries and meat drowning in au poivre. Part of his mission in traveling the country was to figure out how to define the “uniquely American” institution that is the focus of his new cookbook, “Steak House: The People, The Places, The Recipes.”

The comedian and director, who is famous for the TV series “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!” made a name. has entered the wine trade in recent years as co-founder of Las Jaras and founded a plant art company. But of all his ventures and hobbies, “Steak House” proved to be the most challenging – and one of the most rewarding.

“I dug deep and I have no regrets,” he said from a red leather booth at the Smoke House in Burbank.

Wareheim, co-author Gabe Ulla, and photographer Marcus Nilsson originally planned to document the country's 10 “best” steakhouses, but ended up visiting more than 70 restaurants—and going so over budget that Wareheim began funding her research herself. It had been a long time, he said, since he had felt this deep passion and conviction for a project.

“I can honestly say that this project was more labor intensive and longer than any other project I've done, any film or TV show I've written,” Wareheim said. “Because I really care about people, it was more than just vanity. It was important that I got it right.”

Preparation of a steak expert

During Wareheim's travels in entertainment, wine and food, he dined at some of the best restaurants in the world. But he never forgot his childhood steakhouse, which wasn't so much a classic interpretation as a place called Seafood Shanty, located in the largest shopping center in Pennsylvania. He fell in love with the large booths, the high air conditioning, the seafood and the steak.

He later learned to eat ribeye in a tuxedo as co-host of the long-running Beefsteak, an annual steak-themed fundraiser at Neal Fraser's Vibiana in the spirit of the 1930s utensil-free meat festivals described in a classic story by Joseph Mitchell.

But it's not just the steak that Wareheim loves. The comfort and dignity of a carpeted, well-worn dining room and a menu that rarely changes are also essential to Seafood Shanty and steakhouses across the country.

“I think that’s the bigger story of this book: the joy that these places provide,” he said. “It's their job. It's not their job to get a Michelin star. It's not their job to publish a blog or make a new dish to wow a hipster. It's to make the same, consistent food for a person who's been coming here for 50 years.”

And at a time when the country feels more fragmented than ever, Wareheim sees it as a kind of connective tissue. “Everyone,” he said, “loves a steakhouse.”

The son of a German immigrant, Wareheim set out to understand the web of cultural influences that contribute to the modern American steakhouse: David Chang's interpretation is illuminated at LA's Majordomo, where pita bread – or bing – replaces traditional rolls and prime rib is rubbed with shio koji. Was there a fully Vietnamese version of the steakhouse? How about a Mexican version?

“There are parts of this country that still feel like the Wild West, in a good way,” Wareheim said. “You can experiment, you can be anyone and open a steakhouse. You can just do your own thing.”

He believes the steakhouses in Los Angeles and Las Vegas are reminiscent of the Rat Pack era with red leather booths and huge shrimp cocktails. But steakhouses definitely don't have to go this route or any other.

first-class cuts

“Steak House” is 200 pages of pure Americana and a piece of quickly disappearing history.

The establishments “were closing or being acquired by restaurant groups literally a week after we visited,” Wareheim said. When he arrived at Cattlemen's in Dallas, half of it had already been demolished to make way for more modern renovations. “Steak House” arrived in time to capture some of the best mom and pop establishments in the country.

He was looking for inspiration and didn't know how to follow his best-selling 2021 cookbook, Foodheim.

While filming a commercial with his longtime creative partner Tim Heidecker surrounded by large corporate chains in North Carolina, Wareheim set about researching nearby restaurants: a pastime while traveling to each gig.

“That’s all that matters,” he said. “The job doesn't matter. It's like, 'Where do we eat?'”

Wareheim's reputation as a restaurant curator was at stake: Beef 'N Bottle, which he had found on Google, was an hour from their hotel and he was the only one who wanted to make the drive.

“We get there and it’s just perfect,” he said. “It was like a photo of William Eggleston. And then we met Jerome [Williams]and he welcomed us with open arms and said, “Are you guys having a great time tonight, I'm your waiter and your bartender, what kind of martini do you want?” And these three things? “I get goosebumps just telling you.”

Williams and the other faces and roles that make up the charm and hospitality of a steakhouse are featured throughout, adding context and personality to a tome that offers recipes and history as well as a behind-the-scenes look. There's the “cellar rat” who became a sommelier and worked at Bern's in Tampa for over three decades. There's the Durpetti family from Chicago, who serve Italian and steakhouse classics and employ a valet who might even offer you cigarettes from their own supply. There's “Legend” Katrina, a dancer and bartender at Portland's famous strip club and steakhouse Acropolis.

“It was a joy to meet the people who make these places run and how passionate they were, just as passionate as I was,” Wareheim said.

To find these places and people, Wareheim researched restaurants online and asked chefs and entertainment friends for their personal favorites. (The resounding winner? The Golden Steer in Las Vegas.)

He was given rare, complete access to Peter Luger in New York City and recipe advice from the likes of Sean Brock, Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo and Fraser. When restaurants couldn't reveal their secret recipes, some attempts required complete reverse engineering to figure them out—a specialty of LA-based recipe developer and food stylist Jasmyn Crawford. Many of her own recipes, Wareheim said, turned out better than those of the creators.

He and his team accumulated so much material that they had to cut dozens of profiles and recipes from the final product, a process Wareheim described as torturous.

“It was brutal,” he said. “It was more difficult than any film I’ve edited, any video, any text.”

What remained at the Steak House were Wareheim's prime cuts. T-Pain presents his favorite spot in Atlanta. In LA, at Taylor's in LA, Wareheim sits down with Bob Odenkirk, Heidecker and John C. Reilly and they discuss previous jobs in restaurants. (Notably, the book does not mention that as a teenager, Wareheim flipped burgers, made six for himself, and then ate them while hiding in the bathroom; a co-worker was arrested and he was fired.)

Wareheim is as interested in rumination as he is in recipes.

What makes a steakhouse? Do you need to pay attention to marbling and dry aging? Does it have to be served with creamed spinach? Could it be Seafood Shanty, hidden in a sprawling strip mall in southeastern Pennsylvania? The train of thought is derailed when the waiter at the Smoke House presents a large silver tray on which slices of cake are layered and the cakes are decorated with ice cream.

An enthusiastic one “Oh wow!” escapes Wareheim's lips before ordering the coconut cake. Why even bother ranking the steakhouse when you can just love it?