IT WAS A PERFECT DAY for a Men’s Club Sunday BBQ so we sent Joe to the Southampton Publick House to pick up beer and the rest of us cruised out to Bryant & Cooper Steakhouse in Roslyn.



At Southampton Publick House, Spencer gave Joe a tour of the brewery and let him pick from a number of award-winning specialty ales and lagers. The Secret Ale was an obvious choice, because of its copper-brown smoothness. Spencer recommended trying something from the single batch list, which boasts their seasonal beers in 22 oz. bottles. The India Pale Ale and Imperial Baltic Porter found their way into Joe’s arms along with a few complimentary pint glasses.



Over in Roslyn, Mike Shocket of Bryant & Cooper Steakhouse showed us the meat locker, giving us flashbacks of Rocky pounding on sides of beef. All the steaks are hand-cut by butchers on the premises and trimmed of unnecessary fat before they are dry-aged for enhanced flavor and buttery texture. The steakhouse features a restaurant and a retail store filled to the brim with top of the line meat. We had a tough time choosing, so we grabbed a little of everything: porterhouse steaks ($29/lb), sirloin ($30/lb), filet mignon ($29/lb), bone-in rib eye ($17/lb), marinated skirt steak ($12/lb), lemon-pepper chicken right off the rotisserie ($4.40/lb) and shrimp cocktail ($4 each) that put the jumbo back in “jumbo shrimp.”



At Joe’s, we fired up the grill, popped open a few Secret Ales and munched on the enormous shrimp and lemon-pepper chicken. “It’s a good thing you guys put it in the trunk or none of it would of made it back here,” Joe said. “These shrimp are as big as lobster tails.”



There were laughs all around while Charles worked the grill and Mike’s cooking recommendations were right on. “Make sure you don’t put sauce on those when you cook ‘em,” Inspector Pete chimed in. “This is first-class beef, we don’t want nothing covering it up.”



“Yeah, I got it,” Charles shot back. “Don’t worry, these are gonna be amazing.”
When the steaks were done, we added some of B&C’s Famous Homemade Steak Sauce for dipping (it’s free with any order). The taste of the beef spoke for itself and while we liked the zesty flavor of the sauce, it was definitely not needed.



The porterhouse was the first thing off the grill and is pretty much two steaks in one: a distinctive T-bone with hearty sirloin on one side and on the other, a large portion of tenderloin (where filet mignon comes from). Bob said it best, “It’s as soft as butter.”
There was a hint of cheese flavoring in the marinated skirt steak that had us licking our fingers. With it, we tried the India Pale Ale. This beer is classic English style amber ale with an American twist that was well balanced and hoppy.



We drooled in anticipation for the rib eye and filet mignon, which came out so tender we could cut it with a fork. Everybody’s plates were cleaned and we moved on to the Publick House’s Imperial Baltic Porter, which is a stronger version of their English Porter. Lenny thought it looked like black coffee and it turned out to be a great after-dinner beer. We could taste traces of chocolate, toffee and caramel and its 7.2% alcohol content and rich, dark flavor combined with all the great steak had us loosening our belts.



Charles put it together: “I thought all the beer was good and I’m a wine drinker.” And he’s right. We look forward to trying more of the microbrews from our friends at the Publick House. And in the meantime, we’ll be picking up the Southampton Secret Ale at the store. It’s a great malty ale, like the Germans, with a little bitterness, but not too much.



We can’t wait to dine at Bryant & Cooper’s Restaurant to see if their chef can cook as well as our grill master Charles. All in all, it was a great BBQ with good weather, unbelievable steak, tasty microbrews, lots of laughs and plenty of stories not fit to print in this column.



Bryant & Cooper Steakhouse & Butcher are at 2 Middleneck Road, Roslyn. Call them at 888-57-PRIME. Or, go to their website—you can order steaks right there—www.bryantandcooper.com.


Southampton Secret Ale is available at King Kullen, Stop ‘n Shop, Key Food, Waldbaum’s, 7-11 and many, many other grocers, bars and restaurants across Suffolk and Nassau. Find out where to get yours at www.southamptonpublickhouse.com