While stealing sips of my husband’s cocktail — a smoky chipotle-infused mescal concoction — I lay out the ground rules for dinner ahead at 117 Prime, Chef Ryan Trimm’s new downtown steakhouse on Union Avenue. “You’re on your own for drinks,” I explain to my friends about the upcoming check. “And no one can order the porterhouse. It’s too expensive.”
The porterhouse steak with roasted bone marrow. Photographs by Justin Fox Burks.
We have arrived early for our Saturday evening reservation to investigate Belle Tavern, tucked behind 117 Prime off Barboro Alley. The neighborhood speakeasy shares a kitchen with Prime, and the stopover provides time to study the steakhouse menu. For us, it’s the stuff of dreams: beef tartare, iceberg wedge, lobster corn chowder, jumbo lump crab cakes, oysters from three coasts, and surf and turf with names like the Duke, a choice of prime cut topped with maître d’butter, house-made Worcestershire, and four large grilled shrimp.
By the time we sit at our table with a view of Prime’s busy kitchen, we are ready with our appetizer order: smoked salmon, traditionally prepared and served in thin, translucent slices with grilled marbled rye, and lobster remoulade, an impeccable version of the 1960s classic. The remoulade — thick with lobster knuckle and tail — tastes luscious but not heavy. “We use some creole mustard to give it moisture without all the oil,” Trimm explains.
Chef Ryan Trimm
We pass around the appetizers, and I ask our server about the porterhouse (I can’t stop myself).She explains: 28 ounces, dry-aged 61 days, tenderloin on one side, New York strip on the other. Three oven-roasted marrow bones seasoned with cracked pepper also share the plate. “The bones are an added bonus for ordering the $84 steak,” she says, and without hesitation, I jump in. “Tony and I will take that,” I proclaim, with a sheepish grin. (Make the rule, break the bank.)
Truth be told, I’ve never ordered a porterhouse at a restaurant, and when the colossal steak arrives, I feel a little breathless. It is everything I imagined: seasoned with salt, pepper, and olive oil; flame-grilled over oak; charred a little on the outside, but rosy in the middle like the blush of rosé. Other dishes appear as well, and we share everything: grilled sourdough; King salmon with lemon parmesan risotto; a tower of buttermilk fried onion rings; oyster mushrooms from Bluff City Fungi, sautéed with thyme, parsley, sherry, and sage; and that creamy bone marrow, which melts into our luscious steaks like an unexpected magic trick.
Opened since early May, 117 Prime is a collaboration from Across the Board Restaurant Group, composed of Trimm and Central BBQ’s Craig Blondis and Roger Sapp. The collective skill set of the three restaurateurs is integral to Prime’s success, Trimm says: “It’s amazing what we can do together.”
From the start, the group focused on steaks in a classic fine dining setting, a restaurant void they saw downtown. “An American steakhouse is that thing that goes across generations,” Trimm says. “I wanted no frills, just the traditional things we’ve been eating since the Fifties.”
A varied selection of dishes at 117 Prime includes buttermilk-fried onion rings, harissa-rubbed carrots, porterhouse steak, grilled eggplant and local squash, tomatoes with basil, goat cheese, and olive oil, and classic surf and turf.
A mid-century veneer does pervade 117 Prime with its stately bar, tufted banquettes, and captain’s chairs on casters. Steaks and their accoutrements also abound: six different prime cuts, classic toppings such as béarnaise with asparagus and lump crab, and many dipping sauces ranging from demi-glace to gribiche, a mayonnaise-style French classic with a briny kick. But the kitchen, led by sous chefs Alex Switzer, Gregg Strope, and Jose Reyes, also excels with seafood and updated seasonal vegetables, like young heirloom carrots, rubbed with harissa, roasted, and served with pesto and yogurt.
Overall, the menu at 117 Prime is lighter and brighter than its traditional models, and Trimm’s love for Southern soul food, cooking he explains as heartfelt and reminiscent, shines through.
Dinner is expensive, but no more so than other top-quality steakhouses. Lunch, by contrast, is not. I’ve eaten lunch at Prime several times, and ignoring the Draper, the restaurant’s lunchtime special, is not easy for me. I like the tip, tax, and vodka martini included in the Draper’s $16 price and the spontaneity of entrees that change every day. But on my most recent visit, I push pass my proclivity to order favorites and happily embrace peaches, the leading lady of summertime fruit.
I start with chilled peach soup, puréed with coconut milk and flecked with amber from saffron, turmeric, and peaches, diced into teeny cubes. More peaches, caramelized on a grill to a cheery sweetness, direct my entrée of grilled quail, which peeks out from a tumble of arugula, fennel slices, and cherry tomatoes. The quail is diminutive in size but feisty in flavor, thanks to a coffee-based barbecue sauce called Black Jack.
My husband orders fragrant French onion soup. On top, melted Jarlsburg hugs sourdough garlic croutons, plumped up from veal stock, and inside the bowl, enough caramelized onions to fill every spoonful. A black and bleu salad comes next, a mix of greens — iceberg, romaine, and spinach — grilled peppers and crispy onions tossed with Stilton bleu cheese dressing. Generous slices of coullote steak straddle the salad, like a protective trellis of protein. The cut is new to us, and we are impressed. The steak is tender like filet mignon, but its robust flavor aligns more with New York strip.
For dessert, we skip key lime pie, citrus vanilla cheesecake, and raspberry sorbet for crème brulee. We scoot the ramekin back and forth, reluctant to share, finish our tea, and marvel at the affordable price of lunch. Trimm explains: “If we get people out the door for $15 or $16, then maybe we can change perceptions of what a healthy lunch can be.”
