The Verdict
ST. ANSELM holds a Michelin star on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg for the wood-fired American steakhouse that communicates what the genre looks like when it is stripped of the institutional weight that the Midtown addresses impose and embedded instead in a neighbourhood whose creative professional community uses it as their primary carnivore destination. The dry-aged cuts, the whole roasted chicken, and the cast-iron skillets of seasonal vegetables all demonstrate a kitchen that understands the American steakhouse's genuine best qualities.
The menu at St. Anselm reflects the wood-fired philosophy applied to American steakhouse staples: the dry-aged beef whose specific flavour communicates the ageing programme's knowledge; the whole roasted chicken whose wood-fired char communicates the specific quality that the fire produces in a preparation that gas ovens cannot replicate; and the cast-iron vegetable preparations whose specific caramelisation communicates the same fire's contribution to the plant kingdom.
One Michelin star in Williamsburg for a wood-fired steakhouse communicates what the borough's culinary landscape has been developing: the quality that the neighbourhood's creative professional audience demands applied to the American steakhouse tradition in a setting that has the neighbourhood's specific character rather than Midtown's institutional anonymity.
Why It Works for a Team Dinner
The St. Anselm wood-fired format, the shared dry-aged cuts, the whole roasted chicken, the Williamsburg neighbourhood's specific creative energy, creates the team dinner that communicates genuine American steakhouse quality in the most specifically Brooklyn available setting. The cast-iron vegetables provide the visual theatre alongside the beef.
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