restaurant

High steaks dining at Gallagher's

Channelside benefits from a place where locals and tourists meat and greet, sip perfect cocktails and top it all off with chocolate.

By Laura Reiley, Times Food Critic
Published July 5, 2007

A 20-ounce dry-aged prime New York strip sells for $37, while 11/2 pounds of steamed Alaskan king crab legs retail for $45, at Gallagher's, a Channelside newcomer.
	[Times photo: Carrie Pratt]

TAMPA

Over in the corner are Fred Astaire and his sister Adele, deep in conversation with Ira Gershwin about some detail of Funny Face. The year is 1927, and a new restaurant named Gallagher's is about to become a landmark.

Skip forward some decades and the simple room with its wood-paneled walls and red-checked tablecloths plays host to Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Muhammad Ali, maybe Jackie Mason or a big gaggle of New York Giants.

Gallagher's has always been casual, inviting, without all the pomp and circumstance of other hallowed steak houses.

Take away the celebrities, the checked tablecloths, the aura of history and the bulk of the photos, and what you're left with is notable but no-nonsense prime rib, ribeyes and porterhouses, etc.

Which is still an accomplishment.

Gallagher's Steak House in Channelside, which opened in March, is the fifth franchise that pays tribute to the historic New York flagship steak emporium. The space was inherited from the short-lived Signature Room itself an homage to the original, at the top of Chicago's Hancock Building, a pleasant be-windowed corner spot with a spare, masculine aesthetic.

Construction issues delayed the opening by a few weeks, which left extra time for staff training. It shows. Servers are expertly versed in the menu, steeped in the arcana that surround aged prime and Angus beef.

It's the kind of place where cocktails are de rigueur. Maybe a Manhattan or a Gibson. We opted for the girlie end of the spectrum with an appletini and a lemon drop (both $9), each icy cold and reflecting careful mixologist calculations.

Unlike so many steak houses, the single-page menus are not oversized, easy to wield with a martini glass in one hand. It doesn't take long to decide among a dozen meat options, lobsters and crab legs. Vegetarians must resort to an assemblage of side dishes.

About side dishes, it's hard to make a pronouncement. The tiny French string beans ($7) are perfect, with the right snap, a dab of butter, a little salt and pepper. The creamed spinach ($8) comes sinfully sumptuous; Gallagher's signature potatoes ($7) are fabulous, like a baked potato meeting a french fry halfway (big fried wedges, but fluffy in the middle).

The salads, though, suffer from inferior product. A tomato and onion salad ($8) features those tasteless beefsteaks (why no Ugly Ripes? no heirlooms?), and a Caesar salad ($8) contains slightly limp romaine and a dressing without a lot of punch.

Still, feeling virtuous after consuming greenery, we had no compunction about launching into the prime rib (the "queen" cut $30, king is $35). Thick cut, well marbled and bloody rare (that's how I ordered it), even the smaller cut is a challenging amount of prime rib to dispatch.

Plates contain precious few superfluous knickknacks and doodads: the meat and nothing but the meat. On the side, a horseradish cream provides an invigorating contrapuntal note to the velvety meat.

An 8-ounce filet ($29) was every bit as good, with the fork-tender texture of corn-fed beef.

Not surprisingly, the wine list is weighted to big cabs to accommodate the steaks, and a heap of pinot noirs to appeal to current tastes. And after the booze and the rare meat? Then comes the chocolate.

Desserts are a lot like the rest of the menu, no bells and whistles, no Pacific Rim touches or wacky garnishes, just good old American classics. There's apple pie with a streusel topping, New York cheesecake or, the obvious choice, a chocolate mousse tucked into an Oreo crust. If you eat all that rich chocolate on the heels of prime rib, you should win a kewpie doll or have a free tableside angiogram.

Laura Reiley dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for review or the assessment. Reiley can be reached at (727) 892-2293 or lreiley@sptimes.com.

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Review

Gallagher's Steak House

615 Channelside Drive, No. 203, Tampa

(813) 229-8000

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday to Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday

Details: AE, V, MC; reservations suggested; full liquor.

Prices: Appetizers $7-$18, entrees $30-$47

[Last modified July 3, 2007, 13:31:51]