Do all those "small plate" restaurants take Maryland's "America in miniature" slogan a little too literally?
Chef Timothy Dean thinks that in this economy, restaurant patrons are looking for value in the form of a big hunk of meat, not a demitasse of soup. And they don't want to have to pay for every side dish, he contends, as is the case at traditional, a la carte steakhouses.
"I don't know how you go and pay 40 bucks or plus for steak on a plate and then they want you to get a side for 8 or 9 bucks," he said. "I decided, that's my niche: I'm not going to charge for the side."
That's the thinking behind Prime Steakhouse, the restaurant filling the Eastern Avenue space once occupied by Timothy Dean Bistro and TD Lounge. It opens Friday, with every entree paired with a side and priced at $30 or less.
In a phone conversation this afternoon, Dean said that after studying different restaurant concepts for the past six months, he noticed that steakhouses seemed to be weathering the economy better than other restaurants.
Dean said the steakhouse venture will allow him to get back to his roots in the restaurant industry and away from the nightlife business he got into when Timothy Dean Bistro turned into TD Lounge.
"I'm tired of the 2, 3 in the morning type thing," he said. "I'm turning 40 next week. I've had enough of that."
So have the neighbors, but that's another story.
Dean will not serve as chef at Prime Steakhouse. His role is consultant to the restaurant, whose ownership is shrouded in mystery for some reason. "It's a group of investors who don't want to be disclosed," was all Dean would say.
Dean was more forthcoming about expansion plans for Prime Steakhouse. He plans to open a second location in the fall in Prince George's County's Woodmore Towne Centre, which, he notes, has a Wegmans. He's been looking at a location in National Harbor, either for another Prime Steakhouse or a bistro.
Longer term, he hopes to expand Prime Steakhouse well beyond the Baltimore-Washington area.
"Emeril and Thomas Keller and Wolfgang are doing it," he said. "Why not me?"
(Baltimore Sun photo of Dean's diver scallops in his bistro days. Now he's into big hunks of meat.)