Peter Luger Steak House

Peter Luger Steak House is a steakhouse located in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York City, with a second location in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island. It was named to the James Beard Foundation's list of "America's Classics" in 2002[1] and is the third oldest operating steakhouse in New York City, after Keens and Old Homestead Steakhouse[2].

Peter Luger Steak House
The exterior of the Brooklyn establishment
Restaurant information
Established1887 (1887)
Owner(s)Amy Rubenstein
Marilyn Spiera
Previous owner(s)Peter Luger
Frederick Luger
Sol Forman
Food typeSteakhouse
Rating (Michelin Guide)
Street address178 Broadway
CityBrooklyn and Great Neck
CountryUnited States
Websitewww.peterluger.com

The Brooklyn location is known for its long wooden bar, and the "dining rooms have a Teutonic air, with exposed wooden beams, burnished oak wainscoting, brass chandeliers and weathered beer-hall tables".[3][4]

In 2019, New York Times restaurant critic Pete Wells gave the restaurant a scathing, zero-star review,[5] a decline from Frank Bruni's 2007 two-star review,[6] a three-star review in 1995 by Ruth Reichl,[7] and a four-star review in 1968 by Craig Claiborne.[8]

History

The Brooklyn location was established in 1887 as "Carl Luger's Café, Billiards and Bowling Alley" in the then-predominantly German neighborhood that would shortly thereafter be in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge.[9][10] German-born Peter Luger (1866–1941) was the owner, and nephew Carl was the chef.[11] When Peter died in 1941, his son Frederick took over and the restaurant declined.[12]

In 1950, Frederick shut the restaurant and put it up for auction. Bernard and Lester Magrill, local auctioneers and frequent patrons, conducted the auction. Sol Forman, and Seymour Sloyer who owned a metal giftware factory across the street,[13] bought it as partners for a "whimsically low" bid. According to Lester Magrill, the purchase price was $35,000, which included the building as well as the restaurant. According to one history, "the neighborhood was declining, filling up with Hasidic Jews, whose kosher rules forbade the eating of Luger's hindquarters. Both Forman and Sloyer had been eating at Luger for twenty-five years, and they needed a place to take their clients. They were the only bidders during the auction. In 1968, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times gave a four star review of the steakhouse, under the new ownership.[8]

In 1968, Forman and Sloyer opened a Great Neck, New York location. It was closed in 1984 after a severe fire, and reopened a year and a half later in 1986.[14]

Seymour Sloyer died in 2001 at the age of 85. Sol Forman died in 2001 at the age of 98.[13][15] Ownership of the restaurant passed to Sol's daughters and Seymour's wife and children[16]

In July 2009, while having dinner at Peter Luger, New York Governor David Paterson had Richard Ravitch secretly sworn in as Lieutenant Governor to oversee the stalemate-stricken State Senate.[17]

Steak for 4, served medium rare at Peter Luger
After dessert, Peter Luger serves each diner a complimentary chocolate coin.

The menu at Peter Luger is sparse, with the focal point being a porterhouse steak sized for two to four.[18][3]


  • On Broadway, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
  • The interior bar section of the Brooklyn establishment
  • Great Neck location
  • Peter Luger bacon
  • Steak served at Peter Luger

See also

References
  1. "America's Classics Award Winners | James Beard Foundation". www.jamesbeard.org. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  2. Kral, Georgia; Levy, Nicole (2018-07-06). "NYC's oldest restaurants will take you back in time". am New York. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
  3. "The Special Is Steak, and More Steak". New York Times. February 14, 1993. Retrieved 2010-10-27. The main dining room, with its wood floors, scrubbed-wood tables, dark ceiling beams, large wrought-iron chandelier and stucco walls, says steakhouse. Other rooms are more gentrified, with carpeting, tablecloths, red-leather banquettes and brass Williamsburg-style chandeliers. ... The menu is extremely limited, even for a steakhouse. Steaks are not listed by cut, only as steak for one, two, three or four. It turns out that that steak is a porterhouse cooked precisely to order, flavorful, tender and the pick of the menu.
  4. "Restaurants". New York Times. April 23, 1993. Retrieved 2010-10-28. The main dining rooms have a Teutonic air, with exposed wooden beams, burnished oak wainscoting, brass chandeliers and weathered beer-hall tables. ... Choices are limited to broiled porterhouse steaks in portions serving one to four, thick double lamb chops, prime rib (an occasional special) and broiled fish.
  5. Pete Wells, Peter Luger Used to Sizzle. Now It Sputters., The New York Times, October 29, 2019.
  6. Bruni, Frank (2007-09-19). "Peter Luger Steak House - NYC - Restaurant Review". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-30.
  7. Reichl, Ruth (May 26, 1995). "Restaurants". The New York Times. p. C22. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  8. Everybody Eats There: Inside The World's Legendary Restaurants by William Stadiem & Mara Gibbs Artisan: 2007. ISBN 1-57965-322-7. p. 28
  9. Our Story, Peter Lugers Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine
  10. Bernardo, Leonard and Jennifer Weiss. Brooklyn by Name:How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names. New York. NYU Press:2006.
  11. Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names by Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss. NYU Press: 2006. ISBN 0-8147-9946-9 pgs 27 – 28
  12. William Stadiem and Mara Gibbs Artisan (2007). Everybody Eats There: Inside The World's Legendary Restaurants. p. 28. ISBN 1-57965-322-7.
  13. Raising Steaks: The Life and Times of American Beef by Betty Fussell. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: 2008. ISBN 0-15-101202-4. p. 286.
  14. "Where the Steak Reigns Supreme". New York Times. May 11, 1986. Retrieved 2010-10-27. The restaurant reopened about two months ago after having been shuttered for a year and a half following a fire.
  15. "Steakhouse Owner Sol Forman Dies At 98". New York Daily News. November 28, 2001. Retrieved 2010-10-28. Sol Forman, who put the sizzle back in the landmark Peter Luger steakhouse, died last Thursday at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn. He was 98.
  16. Neuman, William (2001-11-27). "PETER LUGER OWNER SOL FORMAN DIES". New York Post. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  17. Parker, Billy (July 9, 2009). "Ravitch Was Secretly Sworn In At Peter Luger's". Gothamist. Archived from the original on July 14, 2009.
  18. Alan Richman (September 27, 2006). "Where's the Welcome? Peter Luger's Hostile Hash". Bloomberg News. Retrieved 2010-10-28. The porterhouse steak can be ordered for two, three or four. Also available is a single steak and a small single steak. ... The burger, assembled from steak trimmings and chuck, can indeed be breathtaking, but it's available only at lunch.
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