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Seattle chef experiments with espresso-laced steak
Jack Broom
The Seattle Times
Call it the espresso shot heard 'round the world.
When sous-chef Allison Jester first coated a 12-ounce filet mignon with ground espresso before grilling it, it was an experiment. She wasn't even sure her bosses at Rippe's steak house at Pier 70 would put it on the menu.
And she certainly didn't envision the attention the entree has drawn this week.
"We've had calls from Arkansas, Southern California, Florida," Jester said recently. Radio stations want to do live interviews about it, the Web is buzzing with it, people around the country are asking for the recipe, and "Good Morning America" planned to cook one on television.
This wide spotlight on a mere piece of meat came after a Reuters news-service reporter dined at Rippe's and wrote a brief that circulated internationally - noting that the steak, coated in Starbucks espresso, emerged in coffee-crazy Seattle even while concerns over mad-cow disease are steering some consumers away from beef.
Chad Mackay, Rippe's owner and manager, said the $29.95 "Seattle's Signature Steak" has become a hot item at Rippe's, but he's surprised at the level of curiosity from outside the area.
A radio station in Nagoya, Japan, calling to set up an interview, "wanted to talk all about the steak and Starbucks and Ichiro and all that Seattle stuff," Mackay said.
"And, of course, there are all of the coffee jokes," Mackay said. "People want to know if it gives you the jitters."
Rippe's, which opened in April, is part of the Seattle-based Mackay Restaurant Group, whose six Northwest holdings include three El Gaucho steak houses.
The dish started out as a daily special on the blackboard, but quickly became one of the most-requested dinners. Three weeks ago, it was put on the regular printed menu, and Mackay is considering adding a 5-ounce version to the lunch menu.
He said mad-cow developments are adding to media interest in the steak, but he doesn't think they are deterring customers who seek a quality cut of beef.
Jester said she and a waitress got the idea to try this one Sunday evening: "Sunday is my night to experiment, because the managers aren't around."
In preparing the steak, Jester spreads a coating of medium-ground Starbucks espresso roast on an oval-shaped plate and presses each side of the steak into it; the meat picks up roughly the amount of coffee used in a single shot of espresso. Then she pats on the restaurant's seasoning mix, which includes salt, garlic, onion, black pepper and other spices.
Once grilled, the finished steak has a black char and a thin crust, slightly less coarse than that of a traditional pepper steak. It has a smoky flavor and a moderate coffee taste, and it doesn't carry the bitterness one might associate with eating coffee grounds.
Other chefs have used coffee as a marinade or coating. Putting coffee in a recipe was a natural for Jester, a self-confessed java junkie who starts each day with a triple iced mocha and has straight shots of espresso later in the day.
"I'm here for 15 hours a day," Jester said. "So I've got to have something to keep me going."
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