Politics
N.Y. Tavern Owner Takes on Texas Over Strip Steak
Todd Shapiro, who owns a restaurant where the corned beef sandwich is named for Grover Cleveland, is fighting to protect a steak’s New York name.
Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We’ll take a look at the brouhaha over what to call a New York strip steak. We’ll also talk about a plan to fix Penn Station that calls for moving Madison Square Garden across the street.
Credit…Lucy Hewett for The New York Times
Maybe a rose by any other name really would smell as sweet. But Todd Shapiro says that a New York strip steak by any other name wouldn’t taste as good.
Especially if it had to be called a Texas strip, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas proposed last month.
Now Shapiro, who owns a restaurant in Albany, N.Y., called the War Room Tavern (appropriately, under the circumstances), is firing back at Patrick. He said his lawyer had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the lieutenant governor as a prelude to a lawsuit that claims that changing the name of the familiar marbled and tender boneless short-loin cut would bring economic harm to restaurateurs.
“We’re trying to stop him, in cowboy terms, before the pass,” said Shapiro, who in addition to owning the restaurant is a publicist and is close to both former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City. Patrick’s office did not immediately respond to a telephone call or an email seeking comment.
