“You’re not special because you are blind, you’re just like everybody else.”

– Our server Kieron at Dylan Prime

Let’s go beyond the senses!

Naturally, I can taste a great steak, smell freshly baked bread, or hear 1980’s rock music being played at a comfortable level at any given restaurant. However, aren’t there times when certain restaurants just “feel” special for some particular reason? For me, the quality of the service is what still grabs my attention while reflecting on my meal at Dylan Prime. Is it possible for the element of service to ever overshadow the food when dining out? Incredibly the answer is yes, and this is what will probably bring me back here in the future, along with the fantastic lobster mac and cheese! To be clear, the food was excellent and lived up to my standards:

Dylan Prime
62 Laight Street (at Greenwich street)
New York, NY
4.25 stars out of 5 stars

Background:

A conversation on the 22nd century social networking platform, known as twitter, amazingly made this dining experience possible. (Side note: that was not a typo, many people do not yet understand the power of twitter to form a global community and it is my sincere wish to educate others while learning more myself.) After a previous article I wrote about
The five best steakhouses in New York City
I received a tweet from the American Foundation for the Blind who recommended another steakhouse called Dylan Prime. Over the next month, we continued a dialog about all things steak, and we were eventually joined by Maureen from
Vision Aware
Besides the fact that she has a very useful site, I met Maureen last year when
she interviewed me last year
Even Dylan Prime got involved on twitter! (To clarify, the person who runs their twitter account would comment on our conversation from time to time, she even tweeted me after finding out about my upcoming reservation and asked me what I would be ordering!) As surreal as these events might seem to some of you, this simply represents my normal set of activities on twitter and I feel grateful to have the opportunity to network with such excellent people.
I met Maureen and her husband at Dylan Prime, which is located in an older part of Tribeca. I could feel the raised curvy cobblestones under my feet as I approached the restaurant and noticed a greater sense of silence with relatively narrow streets. As I entered Dylan Prime, I found it to be curiously empty at first, but after being warmly greeted we were led to a different section with more tables and people. Sitting on the plush banquette, I felt quite comfortable and noted to myself that they had passed my chair test. (I am noticing more and more about the types of chairs that restaurants offer for their diners, and those with more comfortable arrangements definitely deserve recognition.)

The Food:

I had my heart (and stomach) set on the Dylan Prime Cheese Steak, featuring prime rib and the intriguing smoked Gouda. Of course, we also were required to order the lobster mac and cheese, for educational purposes only. All of our sandwiches honestly sounded fantastic to me and I couldn’t wait for lunch to arrive.
My sandwich exceeded all of my expectations: Based on texture alone, you might expect chunks of steak with soft sautéed onions and melted stringy cheese on a roll. It was the flavor, however, which won me over. The steak was seasoned perfectly and I could taste the time it spent on the grill. The onions provided the right amount of sweetness and the sharpness of the Gouda cheese, surprisingly, was just the thing to bring all of these flavors together. (Crispy shoe string French fries never hurt, either, and these were good but similar to several others I have tried before.)
A professional food writer recently told me “don’t tell your readers what to order at a restaurant in your review.” Keeping that in mind, please think twice or even three times before passing on the lobster mac and cheese! Here is why: managing to balance this dish between a creamy consistency and a casserole texture is quite difficult but somehow they accomplish this, while incorporating plenty of chunks of sweet lobster and a secret blend of cheese: well done Dylan Prime! For dessert, we tried the Three Chocolate Bread Pudding with salted caramel ice cream. Although it was smaller than I expected, the three small muffin shaped pieces were decadent and turned out to be just the right size after a big meal. There’s also something to be said about the wondrous salted caramel ice cream. The concept sounds strange, but every time a restaurant makes it, I am happily surprised by the result. However, there was more to this meal than just the food.
We were treated at Dylan Prime as welcomed guests: Our outstanding server, Kieron, constantly chatted with us about topics varying from food to disability issues. His personality, knowledge of the menu, and friendly nature were elements of the service which made this experience exceptional. To top things off, the manager came out after our meal to greet us. She looked at me and said: “are you Dan from twitter?” Priceless!

Dan