Issue Date: April 6, 2003
Meat market
You've power-washed and stained your deck, and now you're dying to break out the grill. But with more spring chores still on the to-do list, who has time to go find the perfect slabs of meat for a great cookout?
I decided to embark on a "Where's the beef" quest into cyberspace, if you will. Turns out, steak is a hot commodity on the Internet, thanks to our nation's carnivorous nature coupled with a bit of laziness. My first stop was omahasteaks.com, the fourth-generation-run mail-order company that has become a behemoth in the online meat delivery market. You can get almost any type of meat: filets, strip steaks, prime rib, even hamburgers. All arrive flash-frozen via UPS within a week. "It keeps the quality intact and guarantees it won't perish," says Bruce Simon, president of Omaha Steaks.
Claim your steak: Buy beef online and have it delivered to your home.
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Then I visited allenbrothers.com, the Chicago distributor that provides meat to luxury steakhouses such as Morton's and Ruth's Chris. At the homepage, click on "shopping" to find a good selection of meats (flash-frozen or fresh); all are rated "prime" -- the top 1% to 2% of meat quality. But before you start sharpening those knives, keep in mind that premium meat also means premium prices.
Newer entrants in the online meat business include smithandwollensky.com (go to the top right and click on "steak to go"), thepalm.com (click "PalmPak" at the bottom) and Lobel's, the famed Madison Avenue butcher, at lobels.com. These sell only prime cuts, some just in orders of four, and their prices are all similar to Allen Brothers'.
Once the meats arrived, it was time for the taste test. I fired up my grill and had my first-ever steak-tasting party. My friends agreed that most of these vendors are comparable. Next up: online dessert!
-- David Lipschultz
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