Currently on Twitter, there are seven accounts for RPM Steak, the carnecentric analogue to nearby RPM Italian. Among them are @RPMSteakChicago, @RPMSteakDC, @RPMSteakVegas, @RPMSteakNYC, and @RPMSteakLA. No one has tweeted from any of these accounts yet, and on a couple of them there’s even a forceful ALL CAPPED command to go follow the official @RPMSteakChi. Move along now. Nothing to see here.
Let’s look at some of those familiar starters. A pair of small “coal roasted” king crab legs—a couple of joints really—is served in a giant bowl filled with what looks like road salt. You might feel crestfallen at the portion, especially given its $18 price tag (couldn’t they throw a couple more knuckles on that hill of salt?). But the intersection of the smoky char on the tender flesh and the sweet, almost buttery miso glaze is enough to make you start rationalizing another order.
Things become relatively ostentatious at dessert, where a flaming baked Alaska can be upstaged by a brick of chocolate cake flecked with gold leaf, a gaudiness really only matched by the clientele. This being an LEYE restaurant in the aorta of River North, RPM Steak’s biggest problem is its own instant popularity. Good luck getting a short-notice reservation on any night before 9 PM—and even then you’ll probably wait. Designed with animal watching in mind, a raised bar overlooking a wide dining room gives perfectly unobstructed views of white-jacketed staffers serving Bud Lights to bros in baseball caps. For better and worse, it’s difficult to imagine this singular steak house duplicated anywhere other than River North.
66 W. Kinzie 312-284-4990rpmsteak.com
