s beef shoulder the new short rib? Dizengoff chef de cuisine Quin Meyer is making a convincing case.
In the ongoing quest to transform CookNSolo’s popular hummusiya from its original incarnation as a fast-casual takeout hub into a full-service neighborhood restaurant, Meyer has experimented with a number of options for a beef entree that’s both delicious and fairly priced. The original plan, to feature a grilled-to-order skirt steak, proved to be cost-prohibitive (given the skyrocketing cost of beef), not to mention tricky to execute consistently.
So Meyer gravitated toward a more predictable slow-cooked solution with beef shoulder, a 5-pound hunk of meat most commonly butchered into flat-iron and blade steaks.
Meyer instead braises the big cut whole for five hours with onions and tomatoes until it’s meltingly tender. It’s then cut into half-pound bricks and caramelized to order in the blazing hot pita oven, where it gets lacquered with a tropical, sweet-tart passion fruit-amba barbecue sauce. The beef is served with a colorful succotash of fava beans, roasted corn, and sumac-dusted onions. When you pierce the meat with a fork, it unfolds with unctuous softness, not unlike a luxuriously braised short rib — but at nearly half the price of that popular cut.
The shoulder has proven to be one of the most popular entrees, especially for dinner, alongside Dizengoff’s za’atar roast chicken. It’s also a flexible canvas for whatever the season brings. The current rendition recalling the faded warmth of summer will soon shift into deep-fall mode, shined with a tangy date glaze over a garlicky celery root skordalia mash, with broccoli rabe and crunchy celery root chips. Along with the sides of turmeric rice and chopped cucumber-tomato salad that accompany every platter at Dizengoff, it makes for a hearty supper.
Dizengoff, 1625 Sansom St., 215-867-8181, dizengoffphilly.com
