Uncle Jack’s is a bit of a time machine in NYC, a restaurant that brings you back to a time where the drinks were single-malt scotches all around, the nightly special a 48-ounce dry-aged porterhouse for two and the waiters part of a super attentive staff dedicated solely to making your dining experience a memorable one.
The Midtown location is a lavish, bold, unabashed, fantastic old school steakhouse at its finest. We love a good quail egg salad with cucumber foam with a nitrogen iced cocktail for lunch as much as the next guy, but it’s really nice to go back to what good food should really be about—the highest quality ingredients, cooked simply and to perfection.
The beef is hand chosen by owner Willie Degel, who works directly with ranches in Nebraska & Omaha to the cattle to Uncle Jack’s exact specifications. On site the beef is aged for 28-35 days, depending on size, for optimum flavor & moisture.
Willie is a bartender turned chef who wanted to create a space that rivaled the beefy Manhattan competition of Luger and Benjamin…so naturally, Uncle Jack’s features a 24-foot mahogany bar, twenty-five types of single-malt scotch, and an “El Presidente Suite,” a.k.a., the Giuliani room. Willie said, “I saw my taste in what I liked, people with class and money, who liked the finer things, and they tended to gravitate around what I was doing. I analyzed that.
That’s why I started Uncle Jack’s. I wanted to design a place where people who liked the finer things in life, and got catered to and serviced, would go. I started it small, built a loyal following. I socialized with nothing but lawyers and business people and entrepreneurs and politicians and union leaders and that’s what filled the place, I catered to them and branched out from there.”
He did a pretty spot-on job. Knowledgeable tuxedo clad waiters and an Authentic Japanese Kobe-exclusive beef make for a pretty perfect steak dinner in this balconied restaurant with heavy drapes, fringed lamps and plush velour chairs. Don’t skip the sides—while you won’t get through every plate, it’s worth it to experiment with the steak wedges and every sauce imaginable. The steak doesn’t need it, but we couldn’t get enough of the chipotle baconaise on every fry. A creative s’more mousse for dessert comes with the campfire scent on the side—freshly toasted rosemary adds to the charcoal s’more-ness that leaves you licking your spoon and wondering if you could get away with licking your bowl too.
You seriously can’t go wrong with any of the meat on the menu— all steaks are cooked to 1800-degree infrared broilers that provide a great char while searing in all the juices. The wine list is pretty extensive, focusing on small production, cult and ultra-premium California Cabernet Sauvignon based wines (we’re pretty partial to them too). Uncle Jack’s is one of the best in NYC—inviting and old school without the extreme pomp and pretense. Pop in for a bottle of Opus One and a Filet Mignon, you won’t be disappointed.
