Pine Club

Review by: Michael Stern

We owe John Catt big-time for originally directing us to The Pine Club, which has become one of our favorite steak houses. Mr. Catt’s recommendation said that it served “phenomenal steaks in a no-nonsense old world naugahyde-laden pine room. No credit cards, no reservations, just great meat and potatoes. Kind of a Gene and Georgetti’s run by, well, people from Ohio! For my money, there is no better steak in the USA and, believe me, I’ve done the research!”

A true Midwest supper club (open only in the evening, late on weekend nights), the Pine Club is a place to which people come for highballs at the bar and splendid cuts of beef at a table. You have your choice of filet mignon, porterhouse, or sirloin, each cut and aged on premises and cooked on a grill so the outside gets crusty dark but the inside is still bursting with flavorful beef juices.

Start with a plate of scallops: sweet, firm nuggets with a pale light crust and smouldery sea taste. Brilliant tartar sauce comes on the side. Meals are served with a basket of dinner rolls, and steaks come with a handful of onion rings and choice of potatoes that includes Lyonnaise: an eight-inch pancake of shredded spuds woven with veins of sautéed onion. As for salad, although a mesclun mix was added to the menu some years back, the traditional Pine Club salad is iceberg lettuce – cold, crisp chunks served “red and bleu,” which is French dressing loaded with enormous clods of dry blue cheese.

Dessert? There is none. If you’re in dire need of something sweet and don’t necessarily want a high-proof libation such as a grasshopper or a Golden Cadillac, you can step outside and find a nearby ice cream store.

What To Eat

Steak

DISH
Red & Bleu Salad

DISH
Cheeseburger

DISH
Mashed Potatoes

DISH

Pine Club Recipes

Discuss

What do you think of Pine Club?

2 Responses to “Pine Club”

William Crawford Jr.

November 2nd, 2022

I grew up in Dayton, about a mile from the Pine Club. Been there many times! Never a bad meal! The hamburgers are made from ground steak. Yum! Don’t forget the hash brown potatoes and stewed tomatoes!! You won’t be disappointed! The steaks are the best! I wish I still lived nearby.

Reply

Susan Pavlik

December 13th, 2007

We drove from Cincinnati to the Pine Club in Dayton recently to celebrate our anniversary. While there are great places to eat in Cincinnati (see the very active Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky forum), this remains our favorite.

My husband ordered a bone-in rib eye, while I had my usual strip steak. They were cooked as ordered, and perfectly. We’re beef eaters, and this is the best beef available anywhere. Whatever they’re rubbed with is flavorful and complements the meat perfectly. We started with their house salad, not remarkable, but great dressings. Our steaks arrived hot, accompanied by crisp and hot onion straws and potatoes, hashbrowns for him and baked potato for me. I can’t get excited about the stewed tomatoes, the usual accompaniment, but my husband loves them, and I ordered the alternate that evening, peas. Not exciting, but they arrived as hot as my steak, and were cooked just tender-crisp.

For steak lovers, this is the top of the pile, despite some good places located in Cincinnati.

Reply

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