For years, high-end steak houses have held a monopoly on the best beef. Restaurants had first dibs on USDA prime beef, and whatever they didn’t scoop up was secured by gourmet stores and specialty butchers. But now that restaurant goers are forsaking their $50 steak dinners for meals around the family dinner table, steak houses just aren’t buying beef like they used to—meaning your meal at home could feature meats every bit as good as a top steak house.
As a WSJ story reveals, Costco, Whole Foods, and other mainstream stores are now plentifully stocked with USDA prime beef, at prices that are (relatively speaking) cheap. Specials under $9 or $10 a pound pop up, and while that’s still a pretty penny, it’s much less expensive than dinner at Ruth’s Chris.