Food

Why Harwood Hospitality Has a Wagyu Beef Herd to Provide Its Dallas Eating places

April 23, 2023

In a metropolis the place beef is king, it’s tough for Dallas eating places to face out. Steaks and burgers are in every single place, and by now diners are accustomed to seeing phrases like “prime,” “dry-aged,” and “wagyu” peppered throughout menus — many sourced from the identical group of native ranchers. So Harwood Hospitality takes a special method. It created its personal cattle breed and entire animal program. The ensuing beef is on the menu at Harwood eating places throughout quite a lot of dishes, and animal-derived merchandise are on the market on the new Fig & Favor market.

The thought was broached in 2020, when Harwood vp of culinary Taylor Kearney was struggling to seek out constant cuts of meat. The pandemic harm provide traces and inflation impacted costs, and he was upset by the consistency of prime beef, even from high-profile suppliers.

A man in chefs whites stands in an all white kitchen, a smile on his face. — Harwood Hospitality vp of culinary, Taylor Kearney.

“We needed to serve the most effective beef out there at an reasonably priced value,” he says. “However we couldn’t discover beef that was each reasonably priced and high-quality, so we determined to do it ourselves.”

To make it occur, Kearney started working with an area Texas rancher to develop an ultra-high finish breed of prime graded cattle from a pure Akaushi bloodline. Akaushi cattle initially hail from Japan, and are thought of a wagyu breed. They’re identified for his or her intense marbling and wealthy taste. The ranch modified the animals’ feed construction to provide a heftier cow of predictable measurement, which Kearney says led to extra constant cuts and streamlined sourcing.

Raw steak sits on a counter in front of an industrial oven. Salt is being shaken down on it. — Harwood Hospitality’s proprietary beef line will probably be served throughout all its eating places.

“Now we all know how a lot we’re paying per cow, and I can divide that up nevertheless I would like,” Kearney says. “I’m not counting on the meat market to inform me that. A $48 filet can keep at $48, even when the meat market shifts in six months.” Though exterior elements equivalent to feed costs would possibly change, the proprietary herd ensures a extra secure beef value that’s insulated from wild fluctuations of the market.

Dubbed HWD Premium Beef, the product first hit menus in late 2022 and is at present being utilized in about 75 p.c of the restaurant group’s beef dishes, with a objective to succeed in one hundred pc, because the operation grows. The actual Akaushi bloodline is reserved for Harwood eating places, so diners received’t discover it elsewhere.

Dishes across the Harwood District that includes the meat embody Te Deseo’s lengthy bone cowboy rib-eye, fajitas, brisket tacos, and brisket nachos. The restaurant has additionally enlisted the meat for Happiest Hour’s burgers, brisket tacos, and taco salad, in addition to Mercat Bistro’s hanger steak frites, butcher’s reduce, and burger. Saint Ann Restaurant & Bar options the meat in its burger, butcher’s reduce steak frites, and filet mignon. Elephant East makes use of it for drunken noodles, filet mignon, and bulgogi. And Harwood Arms’s menu employs the Akaushi beef for its Guinness-braised brief ribs, 50/50 burger, and double stack burger. Over at Dolce Riviera, it’s known as for within the filet mignon, spaghetti bolognese, lasagna, and the lengthy bone rib-eye.

A dark wood table holds multiple main course dishes, all meat-based. — A sampling of beef-based dishes throughout Harwood Hospitality’s eating places.

“Promoting beef in Texas is a aggressive enterprise, so it’s exhausting to face out,” says Kearney. He says that loads of Dallas steakhouses supply meat from good purveyors, however there’s overlap, as many enlist the identical ranches. No different restaurant group has created its personal line of beef, which provides Harwood a novel story to inform clients. They know precisely the place their beef comes from, they usually can hint each head of cattle from begin to end. Normally that end line is the plate, however Harwood can be discovering makes use of for the animals that transcend dishes.

“I attempt to run as zero-waste of a kitchen as attainable,” says Kearney. “Most individuals shopping for cows by no means take into consideration what occurs to the elements you don’t eat, just like the tendons, fats, and conceal.” However Kearney and his staff are rendering the kidney fats to make a transparent tallow for restaurant fryers and utilizing that instead of processed cooking oils. The tallow can be combined with Texas beeswax to make candles, that are offered at Fig & Favor.

The cow tendons and knuckle bones are became canine treats, and the animal hides see a second life as leather-based merchandise; some are being labored into the district’s restaurant uniforms. Boots and rugs will make a debut down the street.

“When making this dedication, financially and ethically, the animals should be revered and highlighted in each approach we will,” Kearney says.

Correction: April 21, 2023, 3:31 p.m.: This text was up to date to appropriate the title of the meat.