Knight’s Downtown

It’s hard to assess the offshoot of a popular local institution without comparisons. So here’s the short version: the new Knight’s Downtown Steakhouse is better-looking than its Dexter Ave. parent, but the menu is pretty similar, and the portions–both food and drink–remain ranch-size. It’s a classy but comfortable, just barely modern rendition of a traditional American steakhouse.

Take a seat by the front windows, where Borders’ magazine racks used to be. In the plentiful natural light, you’ll actually see the intricate marbling and grain in your favorite huge Knight’s steak. Yes, the crispy brown potato chips with your burger do look different here–that’s because they’re cooked in house for the downtown crowd, unlike the packaged chips at the cave-like, thoroughly carpeted original. But you’ll recognize the quality meat–the late paterfamilias Ray Knight first made his name as a butcher–and, like their west-side counterparts, the bartenders here pour a drink liberal enough to make Limbaugh or Hannity sputter. (Knight’s Twitter handle is @strongdrinks.) Longtime customers smile and sigh in relief at first swallow, but I imagine the puzzlement of campus-area newbies, as they sip, lip-smack, sip again, and head-tilt to ask: “Is that a double shot in my gin and tonic?” (or martini, Negroni, or “Man’shattan,” as they call them here on Liberty).

For beer drinkers, there are a dozen well-chosen brews on tap, both micro and macro. Forty kinds of bottles run from mundane Miller High Life to tough-to-pronounce Houblon Chouffe Dobbelen IPA Tripel from Belgium (9 percent alcohol!). Wine drinkers will find limited choices by the glass, more by the bottle.

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The decor is as masculine as a big-windowed room can be. With dark-brown wood booths and paneling, and beige trim and upholstery, the color in the room comes mainly from a few high-mounted televisions (with baseball on during all three of my visits).

Heavy on meat yet robust in choices, the menu starts with a half-dozen appetizers. I was most intrigued by the Scallops Rockefeller, offered only at dinner and in a clocklike circular tin. Ours came striated boldly with spinach and parmesan cheese and oven-baked to a garlicky perfection. The bay-sized “Nantucket” scallops were almost lost under the cheesy layer, but it’s a successful preparation nonetheless. Share them with a companion to be lightly sated, leaving room for rich food to come. Even the salads are hearty, with the classic wedge dressed up as good as iceberg gets with thin red onion, tomato bits, plentiful bacon and bleu cheese crumbles, and more bleu cheese in the dressing.

Blackened Canadian salmon was a satisfying fish entree, with a wonderful buttery crisped top yet still tender and flaky inside. The pineapple mango salsa was OK, though not as flavorful as it looked to be. Avocado and red onion come with the same salmon preparation on a sandwich. There’s a catfish Po’Boy plus four other fish platters (perch, whitefish, fried shrimp, and Alaskan king crab legs), and a black bean burger, but otherwise nothing but meat.

We had to try a seven-ounce, eight-buck All-American burger (swapping out American cheese for Swiss), and it didn’t disappoint in flavor, freshness, or texture. With plentiful add-on fixin’s, burgers predominate in the lunch menu, but we also tried a soft hoagie roll of French dip roast beef. They slice it to order, and the lovely au jus broth is nicely defatted, with no canned or chemical taste, lingering instead with almost an umami or mushroom-like earthiness. Jimmy, one of three friendly and professional servers I encountered, packed up the uneaten half of my sandwich with a new serving of au jus, well wrapped for the road. Also, the pickle spear was fresh and almost crunched at each bite. The little things go a long way.

At both lunch and dinner, steaks claim a quarter of the menu; you could come close to putting a cow back together with all the different cuts. Delectable filet mignon is butterflied if you order it medium; enhanced with mushrooms, onions, or Dijon brandy demi-glace, or just in its own juices, it’s a treat of a meal. Even my “petite” filet cut seemed larger than its listed six to seven ounces. An order of prime rib was disappointing, with an awful lot of fat to sort through. New York strip, rib eye, sirloin, and porterhouse are among other choices available, and there are abundant potato options (the au gratin representing cheese heaven). I also liked the “Ray’s Favorite” dry-rubbed baby back ribs, which are baked until tender with a cherry barbecue sauce.

There were laughs around the table at the menu’s description of a “vegetable garnish” with dinners, but what arrived was a respectable cluster of carrots and asparagus. You also get a small house salad or soup with every entree and fresh bread, providing a sense of value. There’s quite a range of pricing. You can be out the door with a decent meal here for barely ten bucks at lunch or twenty at dinner–or you can spend more than $60 on surf-and-turf porterhouse or filet topped with crab legs.

If you manage to save room for dessert, there’s more class in the offing, including a tiramisu interpretation with homemade ladyfinger-like pastry dolled up with lots of subtle coffee whipped cream. Key lime pie and cheesecake tempted, but our second-choice winner was homemade “Knight and Day” pie, with a generous white and dark chocolate cream filling in a cookie crumb crust.

There’s a lot to admire here–and plenty to peruse, discuss, and digest. A visit to Knight’s Downtown is like flipping through the channels, landing on an episode of Mad Men, and getting pulled in by the quality and classiness–but with good food, prepared with attention to detail, lots of butter, and nearly zero hipster pretense.

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Knight’s Downtown Steakhouse

knightsrestaurants.com/downtownsteakhouse.html

Appetizers $6-$14, salads and sandwiches $7.25-$13.50, dinner entrees $19-$41.95, desserts $5.50.

Daily 11 a.m.-midnight.

Wheelchair accessible.