Bite of the Week - 8/31/2009 - The French Dip at Rutherford Grill

Eager Eaters!

Obviously this travel-packed summer has made it difficult to post as frequently and as usually as I do, or would like. Out of town weddings and extended weekends at the Shore have, in recent weeks, left me with no energy to actually write about what I've been eating. It's frustrating and I don't like it.

The goods news, of course, is that this upcoming weekend in Chicago will mark the end of this crazy, unpredictably inclement summer, thus allowing me to refocus my time and energy on posting as much as I can. Nevermind the fact that I'm getting a 14 week old puppy in a few days.

This is mind, I wanted to kick-start the Fall 2009 Ubereating season with the re-launch of the Bite of the Week series, a weekly installment that will feature delicious morsels offered all over the City - bites of deliciousness you should know about and should be eating, no questions asked.

In honor of the Summer of 2009 where most of my ubereating was done outside of New York City, I want to shed some light on the French Dip at Rutherford Grill in Rutherford, CA, a vibrant epicurean community that thrives in famed Napa Valley wine country.

The long and short of it is, as far as French Dips go, this was the best I've ever had in my life, period. Today's French Dip landscape is pretty bleak - you don't find it on too many menus any more, and if you do, it's usually an insult to not only to the art of roast beef, but the very bread it's sitting on.

That said, Rutherford Grill's is a perfect specimen. A heaping stack of house-roasted prime rib of beef, cooked rare, and sliced thin, grappled on top and bottom by a thick, dense baguette, the upper cap of which enjoys a light schmear of horseradish-mayo. Everything about this sandwich is on point - the tender, juicy meat that loves the throat-clearing kick of the horseradish, and of course the bread, which sops up the accompanying Jus as if it were some sort of edible Shamwow.

Wow is right.


Owned and operated by the Hillstone Restaurant Group, known in these parts as the people behind Houston's, whose menu, not surprisingly, offers a French Dip as well, we were pleased to learn we could get this prized plethora of meat right here in NYC. Having tried it after returning home, I have to say, while definitely enjoyable, it isn't nearly as dynamic as RG's version, which is bigger, fuller, and more flavorful in general. In Napa, $18 gets you this handsome sandwich, and a side of Very Wild Rice, another RG conconction that will blow your mind. I'll save this for another BoTW.

You're just going to have to go to Napa to get it.

Just an awesome display of sandwichdom...


Rutherford Grill (map it)