Sunday, May 28, 2006

Steaks on the Grand Strand -NY Prime in Myrtle Beach, SC

We arrived here in Myrtle Beach, SC for a week's vacation on the beach last Saturday, and our first meal out was Sunday. It was a tough decision between the half dozen or so HOOTER's locations up and down the Grand Strand, the many miles stretch of beach island that goes 1/3 of the way along the South Carolina coast, and the dozens of WAFFLE HOUSES (where we stopped for lunch in Virginia on the drive down and almost got asphyxiated from the smokers filling up the place--down here they have NO SMOKING zones which cover three tables if you are lucky!).

Ultimately, our host for the evening, my ex-brother in law, who lives here, chose one of the few places open on a Sunday, NEW YORK PRIME (www.NewYorkPrime.com) at 405 28th Avenue North in Myrtle Beach. It's a nice place, with an open kitchen and a casual feel, as everyplace IS casual here. The menu is simple and we all opted for the PETITE FILETs as we knew every other choice would be daunting (think 3 to 18 pound lobsters!).

We started with a refreshing ADELSHEIM PINOT GRIS 2004 to go with our appetizers. It was a good choice with the wide varieties of salads (which several of us split) and my delicious if monstrous-sized OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER. I never thought four huge oysters could be smothered with so much spinach, cheese and bacon to make them nearly an entree--and they were delicious!

The red wine I chose was a superb PINE RIDGE Carneros Creek 2002 MERLOT that we all just oohed and aahed over while it tasted; a great wine with the tender and superb filets that were offered up with bearnaise, barbecue, horseradish or any other sauce you could desire. The sides were huge (what a surprise) and satisfying with the excellent CREAMED SPINACH (though not as good as OLD HOMESTEAD's in Bethesda, or even SMITH & WOLLENSKY's), yummy LYONNAISE POTATOES, and in first place the crunchy gargantuan sized ONION RINGS.

Dessert can be considered if one has ANY space left, so I simply tasted the creamy NY CHEESECAKE which is flown in from CARNEGIE DELI, and the decent APPLE CRUMBLE.

I was quite shocked that a $20-something dessert could exist and simply be called CHOCOLATE CAKE, but we were warned it was quite huge and can feed an entire table; alas, we never found out.

Tonight, we will see what one of Myrtle Beach's finest offers at the LIBRARY.