Golden Steer, with its deep-button tufted leather banquettes, its mirrored columns, its dark wood paneling, is glitzy. So glitzy, in fact, that the steakhouse hardly seems an appropriate place to celebrate the late Anthony Bourdain, who preferred a more salt-of-the-earth version like Keen’s. He’d have likely scoffed at the $240 steak, but the building at One Fifth Avenue holds a special significance in Bourdain-iverse: in the ‘90s, the space housed Vince and Linda’s, where he was the chef.
But those days are long gone, and on this Tuesday night, the Greenwich Village steakhouse played host to the premiere party for Tony, A24’s Bourdain biopic.
The air at this party was thick with Bourdain’s spirit, but among the glam of the Golden Steer, it was hard not to be reminded of just how much has changed in the eight years since his death. Viral food culture has gone into hyperdrive. The business of Bourdain-ing a fantastic hole-in-the-wall restaurant has been taken over by influencers (to mixed results). It’s enough to make you yearn for a simpler time in food—one where mimosa towers didn’t yet exist and brown butter was still a novelty.
As celebrity guests and stars escaped the rain, more than a few grabbed a frosty martini from servers standing near the entrance as trays of lobster thermidor tartlets were passed about. The star of the film, Dominic Sessa sported his Bourdain-esque curls (absent were the accompanying mutton chops), and swirled a glass of red wine while tucked into one of the massive banquettes. His co-star, podcaster Stavros Halkias, maneuvered through the crowd in a salmon pink leisure suit. Subway Takes creator Kareem Rahma stood in a corner with Cole Sprouse, poring over the A24-produced Bourdain coffee table book that was on display.
