Table Talk: Butcher & Singer, high-end beef brokerage

Stephen Starr says he's always been intrigued by such old-time, post-Prohibition clubhouses as 21 Club in New York and the Brown Derby in L.A.

He's converted the Striped Bass, which he bought out of bankruptcy and reopened in April 2004, into Butcher & Singer (1500 Walnut St., 215-732-4444), a steak and chop house whose leather, horseshoe-shaped booths and velvet tufting look right out of an old movie. The two crystal chandeliers hanging from the 28-foot ceiling were taken from the old Fontainebleau in Miami.

The name, of course, is more than a carnivore's pun. Butcher & Singer was the brokerage house that operated out of the building for decades.

Butcher & Singer is a high-end steak house, just like Starr's subdued but contemporary meatery, Barclay Prime, less than four blocks away. Starr says Butcher & Singer will appeal to nostalgists, while the more expensive Barclay Prime will appeal to those seeking specialized cuts of meat, such as kobe.

Designer Shawn Hausman, who did Starr's Parc and Continental Mid-town, popped in some nifty features, including a mural of dogs and a large bull's head.

Striped Bass' open kitchen has been mostly closed up. (The stainless-steel sculpture of a leaping fish that hung over Striped Bass' cooking line now sits in the backyard of one of Starr's contractors.)

Chef Shane Cash is a cousin of triple Hall of Famer Johnny Cash; he commuted to his last job from his Bucks County home. Entree prices range from $26 for the pork chop to $65 for the surf and turf (an 8-ounce filet with a 6- to 8-ounce lobster tail). Desserts include retro baked Alaska. Starr estimates the per-person dinner tab to be about $85. For now, it's open for weekday lunch and daily dinner.

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