Good morning. It’s Wednesday. We’ll take a look at the brouhaha over what to call a New York strip steak. We’ll also talk about a plan to fix Penn Station that calls for moving Madison Square Garden across the street.
Maybe a rose by any other name really would smell as sweet. But Todd Shapiro says that a New York strip steak by any other name wouldn’t taste as good.
Especially if it had to be called a Texas strip, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas proposed last month.
Now Shapiro, who owns a restaurant in Albany, N.Y., called the War Room Tavern (appropriately, under the circumstances), is firing back at Patrick. He said his lawyer had sent a cease-and-desist letter to the lieutenant governor as a prelude to a lawsuit that claims that changing the name of the familiar marbled and tender boneless short-loin cut would bring economic harm to restaurateurs.
“We’re trying to stop him, in cowboy terms, before the pass,” said Shapiro, who in addition to owning the restaurant is a publicist and is close to both former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Eric Adams of New York City. Patrick’s office did not immediately respond to a telephone call or an email seeking comment.
Patrick, a Republican, said that the name change would boost his state’s cattle ranchers and “help better market Texas beef.” But, as my colleague Pete Wells observed, “the way he framed the issue carried more than a whiff of red-meat politics.” Patrick wrote in a post on social media that “liberal New York shouldn’t get the credit for our hard-working ranchers.”
The lieutenant governor also wrote that “just because a New York restaurant named Texas beef a New York Strip in the 19th century doesn’t mean we need to keep doing that.” That was apparently a reference to Delmonico’s in Lower Manhattan, which opened in 1837.
Shapiro — whose restaurant is a mere four years old — said that if he had to use the name “Texas strip,” he would take it off the menu. That situation is unlikely. Patrick’s resolution would apply only in Texas. But he does not want to stop there. “We want this to catch on across the country and around the globe,” he wrote on social media.
Mark Solasz, vice president of Master Purveyors, a wholesaler in the Bronx, was doubtful about that. “Maybe the Texans will change it to the Texas strip, but I don’t think New York is going to change,” he said last month. “I don’t think this one is going to cross the border.”
Patrick said he wanted restaurants to change the name “the next time they reprint their menus.” Shapiro said that would represent a significant expense — and represent a substantial departure from the theme at the War Room Tavern.
“Everything we have is New York-based,” he said, and heavy on the politics.
The chicken parm is named for the state comptroller, Thomas DiNapoli. On the menu, it appears just above “Teddy Roosevelt’s fried chicken poutine,” which is just above “Eric Adams’s vegan black bean tacos.” The filet mignon is named for former Gov. George Pataki, who served three terms from 1994 to 2006.
The corned beef sandwich? It is named for Grover Cleveland, who resigned as governor after he was elected to the first of his two nonconsecutive terms as president in 1884. The grilled cheese? It honors Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose term as governor ended 64 days before he was inaugurated president in 1933.
Patrick said he got the idea for “Texas strip” after meeting with cattle ranchers. He wrote on social media that Texas led the nation with 12.2 million heads of cattle, while “New York has mostly dairy cows.” Only 675,000 cows in Texas were dairy cows in 2024, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, while New York had 630,000 dairy cows at the beginning of 2025 and only 100,000 animals being raised for beef.
Shapiro said he sold 50 to 80 strip steaks a week. “Our biggest seller,” he said.
“It has nothing to do with where it comes from — it’s the way it’s prepared,” Shapiro said. “It’s a New York preparation. It’s part of the culture.”
Weather
Expect partly sunny skies with mild winds and a high near 54 degrees. In the evening, it will be mostly cloudy with temperatures in the low 40s.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect until Friday (Purim).
The latest Metro news
To build a new Penn Station, move the Garden?
Madison Square Garden and Pennsylvania Station have been yoked together since the 1960s, with the Garden on top of the drab and overcrowded station, which Gov. Kathy Hochul has described as a “hellhole.”
A new plan calls for disconnecting the two and moving the Garden across Seventh Avenue. That could double the station’s capacity to 48 trains an hour once the existing arena is demolished. There would also be room for a green space roughly the size of Bryant Park — a giant backyard for a new train hall.
The plan came from the Grand Penn Community Alliance, a nonprofit group led by Alexander Washburn, the former chief urban designer for New York City. Two earlier renovation proposals — one from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the other from a private developer — have been stalled for months. Washburn said Grand Penn’s plan would cost about $7.5 billion, roughly the same as the M.T.A. plan.
Grand Penn’s plan would require a developer, yet to be named, to buy the site of the Hotel Pennsylvania, which was demolished in 2023, as well as several adjacent properties. The new sports arena would be built first to avoid disrupting the schedule of games and events. The entire project would take about 11 years, a timeline similar to the one for the M.T.A. project, which would leave the Garden where it is.
Much of the proposed site is owned by Vornado, a real estate firm that had planned to build as many as 10 skyscrapers in the area. Hochul scaled back that plan in 2023. The Garden is controlled by companies led by James Dolan, the mercurial billionaire who has resisted past calls to relocate it.
Washburn said that moving the Garden would allow for easier access for trucks and could help Dolan secure a permanent license for the arena after years of operating on temporary extensions. MSG Entertainment, which operates the Garden, did not respond to requests for comment. Vornado declined to comment.
Dear Diary:
The M57 bus had just pulled away from my stop as I got there.
Might the driver let me on as he was merging into the line of traffic, just a few yards from the curb? No. Had he even seen me, looking plaintive and hopeful? Apparently not.
I decided to go for it, to catch this same bus at the next stop, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Weighed down by a backpack, a shoulder bag and a shopping bag full of groceries, I ran as fast as I could, dodging pedestrians as I went.
The bus beat me to the stop, but because a few other people were waiting to get on, I made it before it pulled out.
Huffing and puffing up the steps, I fished out my senior MetroCard.
The driver, without making eye contact, covered the farebox with his hand.