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Review
Durant’s
2611 N. Central Ave.
Phoenix, AZ
602-264-5967
The hours: Lunch, Monday through
Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 4
to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. to midnight.
The lowdown:
Opening in July of 1950,
Jack Durant's namesake restaurant was the place to down a few
martinis and sup with Phoenix’s movers and shakers, politicos
and sports personalities. Today, as in the past, Durant’s still
packs in everyday diners and Valley personalities. It’s
where to experience beef at its best and expertly delivered
dining service. And if you don’t want to be pegged as a
newcomer, enter Durant’s through the kitchen door just off the
back parking lot.
The menu:
You'll find everyday dishes
enjoyed when TV’s The Ed Sullivan Show was in its heyday
— shrimp cocktail, oysters Rockefeller, sautéed chicken livers
and calf’s liver with bacon and onions. There are steaks galore
and several surf ‘n turf selections. Entrees come with soup,
salad, bread, potato choice and veggies du jour.
The scene: The dimly lit dining room
with charbroiled-scented air sports dark mahogany paneling,
tufted burgundy leather banquettes and booths, thick carpeting
and red-flocked wall paper. It’s
a dining adventure everyone
should experience.
The damage:
Though the dishes may be
dated, prices reflect the present and plastic will be
dented: appetizers are $4.95 to $20.95 and up; menu entrees
start at $13.95 and can go as high as $49.95 for a 48-ounce
porterhouse. One night’s 3 1/2-pound lobster fetched $35 per
pound.
The recommendation: Start a
regressive repast
relishing the relish tray, a dated pre-meal dish of carrot and
celery sticks, radishes and black olives, iced to ensure chilly
contents.
Since Durant’s has been dishing dinners
(lunches, too) for nearly five decades, it’s a good bet
well-prepared food will find your table. Though it’s tough to
find fault with Durant’s, I do have a complaint concerning an
unclear explanation by waiter about the stone crab claws. The
claws, incidentally, arrive regularly from Joe’s Stone Crab in
Florida. Waiter presented a plate with nicely displayed claws,
six to be exact, on green leaf lettuce. While extolling the
colorful claws, he conveyed that an entrée portion was also
available. Believing what he was holding was the appetizer
portion, with a price tag of $16.50, we ordered the claws
without hesitation. What he neglected to mention (but it
appeared on the bill) was that the six claws on the plate
totaled a pound and the price was $33 — $16.50 per half-pound.
In spite of the
price tag, the claws were deliciously sweet and succulent.
However, had I known each claw was priced at five bucks plus, I
would have ordered less and spent a lot more time with each. The
presentation was misleading.
Entrees come with a
soup or salad option, or you can upgrade to a Caesar salad for
$1.95. If you’re a Caesar fan, get it. It’s good ‘n garlicky and
strewn with house-made croutons, no doubt fashioned from the
marvelous, round bread loaves drenched with basil-parsley-garlic
butter.
While the plates of seafood
on nearby tables were attractive, I figure when you come to
Durant’s you’re looking for meat, a sizable, thick juicy steak
that would make your cardiologist faint. The usual cuts are
available, even an old-fashioned Delmonico, named for the famed
New York eatery. It’s a 20-ounce hunk of beef that’s cooked on
the bone to retain the meat’s juicy richness. The grill guy in
the kitchen really knows his steak cookery. The flavorful
Delmonico arrives not a shade past the ordered medium. He does a
superb job with a 14-ounce New York strip steak as well: Same
careful cooking and excellent flavor. Go-withs include the
veggies du jour, a somewhat standard sautéed melange of zucchini
and yellow squash, which are served sans seeds. Spud choices
include crispy fries, roasted garlic mashed (not shy on garlic;
I like ‘em) or baked.
If you manage to make it to the
dessert course and still have space, sweetly end dinner with
crème brûlée or bread pudding.
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