Cathédrale at ARIA in Las Vegas is offering a 48 oz wagyu tomahawk steak that has been cooked in $2,000 Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition bourbon
One thing you learn if you spend enough time in Las Vegas (or reading about it) is that you’ve never quite seen it all. Soaring acrobats, mescaline-swallowing journalists, magician-mauling tigers, these are all just pieces of a history that includes everyone from Frank Sinatra to Bugsy Siegel to Mike Tyson. A true playground for the rich (famous, infamous, or otherwise), poor, and everyone in between, the minds behind Sin City always find new ways for visitors and denizens to be amazed and enjoy opulence at its most sumptuous level, one of the latest being a 48 oz wagyu tomahawk steak cooked in $2,000 whiskey.
Flambéed tableside in Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition, the 48 oz Mishima Reserve Wagyu Tomahawk steak can be found at Cathédrale in ARIA Resort & Casino, the TAO Group-owned restaurant that opened near the resort’s entrance a little over a year ago.
With its ‘too beautiful to look in the eye’ hosts and lavish, cavernous entrance, Cathédrale intimidates (or at least it should) anyone who isn’t sure they’ve arrived at the right place, especially if they’re 30 minutes early and certain they’re the only writer who continuously makes a habit of such things. Inside, it’s full drama, the kind I’d imagine enjoyed by spelunkers. The walls are a borderline indefinable teal, indigo that shimmers from gold adornments. The crowd, a mesh of finance bros most commonly found in the pages of a Bret Easton Ellis novel and swollen reddish faces with too many buttons undone. And that’s just the bar.
The restaurant, which extends deep into the adjacent room, features dark wood and the same beauty that makes each step feel like you’re falling deeper into somewhere continuously more frightening and awe-inspiring. As mentioned above, fire is involved and sudden bursts of flames are an almost common occurrence while making your way to your table.
Dining in Vegas is like this. Like everything else found along the Strip, it’s a show. You enter with certain expectations, which are either exceeded or you leave disappointed and penniless. Either way, there’s nothing cheap about Cathédrale or the exhibition that they put on.
Flambéing something tableside always turns heads, and when everyone around knows its wagyu, a certain amount of judgment (be it animosity or admiration) can be seen immediately. And it’s pretty easy to see what everyone is thinking, “did they really just order the steak and is it really cooked in $2,000 whiskey?”
For those wondering, “Yes, the steak is delicious.” But should we use $2,000 whiskey to cook steak, even if it’s wagyu? Or is there a point when we reach past the point of luxury and are just doing it because, “It’s Vegas, baby!”
For Elizabeth McCall, Master Distiller of Woodford Reserve, it’s pretty simple, “Everything is over the top in Vegas,” she laughs. “This fits the bill,” which it certainly does. And while the steak is certainly “over the top,” it is at its heart the quintessential Las Vegas many come for, “Eye-catching, WOW moments are what we aim to achieve anytime one goes out,” explains Brett LaReau, Executive Chef at Cathédrale. “If you choose to get this entree, you will assuredly be the center of attention when it comes to your table.”
As far as LaReau is concerned, “You want to cook with something that you would have no trouble tasting by itself. The better the whiskey you decide to use will only enhance the dish even more.” Adding, “The quality of the whiskey only enhances everything more. When cooking with whiskey you are reducing it down, so whatever flavors you start with only enhance and get more pronounced with the end result.” And when it comes to Bourbon, you don’t get much better (or at least decadent) than the Woodford Reserve Baccarat Edition.
The whiskey isn’t the only thing special about the dish, either. The visually-striking Mishima Reserve wagyu Tomahawk is the best money can buy, says LaReau, “The grade that we get is the highest that they sell, great marbling which translates directly to the flavor of the meat. Flambéing it with this special spirit caramelizes the meat literally searing these flavor notes to the meat itself.”
For McCall, one of the hands and minds behind the whiskey, she isn’t one to dictate how those buying her whiskey enjoy it. “ I always say enjoy our whiskey in whatever way makes you happy – and that steak flambéed with Baccarat certainly made me happy.”
A normal pour of basic Woodford Reserve will cost you about $11 at Canon in Seattle or, on the other end, it can be as much as $120 for a two ounce glass of the 2006 Master’s Collection Four Grain Second Release KST at Jack Rose in D.C. But if you really want to take things to another level, there’s always the Baccarat Edition, and for that level of indulgence, there’s no better place than Vegas.
Is it worth it? That’s up to whoever is paying the bill. But the flavors won’t disappoint.
