Lawry’s new rib-eye, first addition to menu in more than 20 years

As part of its 75th-anniversary celebration, Lawry’s the Prime Rib is adding a rib-eye steak to the menu. It’s the family-run restaurant’s first new menu item in more than 20 years.

The rib-eyes will be available at the Beverly Hills location Aug. 6 and will roll out at the resturant’s Chicago, Dallas and Las Vegas locations later this summer.

“We saw it as an opportunity to continue our tradition with our prime rib, but finish it another way,” said Richard R. Frank, chief executive of Lawry’s Restaurants Inc. “We don’t make changes to the menu very often and oftentimes when we do, it’s not without a fight.”

The rib-eye steaks follow the same prepping process as the restaurant’s famous prime rib. The meat is aged for 28 days before it reaches the restaurant, then aged an additional three to five days in house. It is then coated with a mixture of Lawry’s seasoning salt and table salt and left to rest overnight.

The meat is slow cooked over a bed of rock salt, cooled overnight and cut into 1¼-inch steaks using a band saw. The steaks are each seasoned with a Montreal seasoning (black pepper, dried garlic, onion, chili flakes, salt and seasoning salt) and grilled on grates at 725 to 750 degrees.

The steaks are basted with equal parts butter and rendered prime rib fat, au jus and Worcestershire sauce, then finished in the oven and rebasted before serving.

“It helps give a braise on the rib-eye and an extra little bump of beefiness,” said Ryan Wilson, the restaurant chain’s executive chef and nephew of Frank, the CEO.

The item will be served either as a 24-ounce bone-in or 12-ounce boneless steak, along with the famous spinning bowl salad, creamy scallop potatoes and crispy fried onions.

The restaurant has been hesitant to add new items, operating under the motto that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Among the rare additions to the menu in recent decades, Frank’s father added crumbled bacon to the baked potato more than 30 years ago. Frank helped add sour cream to the baked potato a couple years later, despite his grandfather’s protests.

Fresh seafood was the last addition to make the menu more than 20 years ago.

“Change has come slowly on our menu and frankly, my view has always been that if the basic meal is as popular as ever, why change?” said Frank.

Lawry’s also celebrated its 75th anniversary earlier this year by offering guests its traditional prime rib dinner for the original price of $1.25.

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