New Steakhouse in Town

I was recently invited to have dinner with a few friends at the new steakhouse in town. Being a small town, they are not known for their fine dining capabilities. In fact, aside from a few authentic Mexican restaurants, our town tends to steer more towards the bland, mediocre fare that you see at a value buffet. A few spots for 'down-home-cooking' mix it up nicely, but there's only so much chicken fried steak & mashed potatoes one person can tolerate. Needless to say, I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new steakhouse with much anticipation. 'Hasler Bros. Steakhouse' was in small bold letters on a brick building in historic downtown Bastrop. The front of house had a very welcoming ambiance. A well lit bar area catered to patrons awaiting there reservations, and a few lonely housewives. A piano player set the mood with a baby grand, a brandy glass full of tips, and some soft jazz. My first reaction was 'wow'. They had spared no expense to make it the premier steakhouse in town. The decor of dark woods and earthy tones reminded me of something you might find in a larger metropolitan city. The high ceilings, old school-high backed booths and white tablecloths set the stage for the dining room. The staff were all dressed to a 'T' and standing at attention. We were promptly seated with menus and wine lists to look over. That is where it started to go down hill...

I must first tell you, that the meal was excellent. Nothing but the freshest ingredients and choicest cuts of meats were used to prepare our feast, and the kitchen did not miss one beat. The service however, was a different story. Our waitress was very nervous and inexperienced. As she awkwardly attempted small talk, I reviewed the wine list with a few glances. Checking which wines were by bottle, and which were served by the glass. The list was quite substantial, and even had one of my favorite wines. (Jordan Cabernet '04) After taking our order for appetizers, she vanished for a short time. A small boy would pop up from around the corner to keep our waters filled and to bring us bread. (which he forgot to do.) I learned it was a soft opening, so I had expected a few hiccups, and didn't pay much mind to the grand opening jitters that most new staff seemed to be experiencing.

For the appetizer we decided on the crab cakes. Every good steakhouse must have a good crab cake, and Hasler Bros. was no exception. Light and creamy with just the right hint of lemon aioli to the plate. The only thing I would have added is more crab...but who doesn't want more crab?
After our appetizer, we placed our main course order and paired it with the wine. I also ordered a 'Beefsteak Tomato Salad w/ Roquefort Blue Cheese'. One of my favorite salads of all time...
Sadly, our wine arrived later than we would have liked. Well...she forgot about it. Again, I attributed this and most other blunders to the 'soft opening' they were having that evening.

Our salads came and everyone seemed to enjoy them. The Roquefort cheese was exceptionally fresh and tasted delicious. The 'beefsteak' however, was just your garden variety slicing tomato, and was prepared in a very...unique way. They had decided to scoop out the center of the tomato, and stuff it with bits of lettuce, celery, red onion, basil and of course the cheese. Besides being difficult to cut and eat, they had ruined a favorite steakhouse staple of mine. The flavors were there, (with the exception of the beefsteak) but the presentation was pretentious and the design was a mess to eat. I was disappointed, but still very optimistic about my steak.

I had chosen the ribeye. My own personal test of a steakhouse is to see how well they can prepare a ribeye steak. Hasler Bros. passed with flying colors. The steak was well marbled and had a rich beef flavor. Seasoned perfectly, and prepared to exactly medium-rare. A near perfect steak! I was blown away and ready to forgive all of the shortcomings, until I realized another giant blunder...our beautiful waitress had forgotten to place one of our orders. While the rest of the table enjoyed their dinner, Jeff (or 'el hefe') had to wait 10 minutes while they prepared his fillet. Needless to say, he was not very happy.

Despite the poor service and lack of food, we did enjoy ourselves. Overall, the pricing is on the higher end, but still reasonable for the quality of food. I hope the restaurant is here to stay. I will return to Hasler Bros. in the future, and hopefully they will have all of their staff fully trained and ready to go.