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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