Steak House

Police said yesterday that they were surprised additional security measures put in place at the Lone Star Steak House had failed to thwart the third robbery there since Sept. 1. The restaurant at 5050 W. Ridge Pike, near a Blue Route entrance, was robbed about 7:30 a.m. Monday by a man with a gun who fled with an undisclosed amount of money. After the first robbery, the restaurant added security recommended by police, said Plymouth Detective Jeff McGee. "They [restaurant management]

In a few weeks, Mr. Armadillo's Steak House and Saloon is expected to take over the defunct Seafood Shanty restaurant on Route 130, replacing the fishing nets and gear with a Southwestern theme. Nicholas Kouvatas said he and his partners are planning to go to settlement later this month and hope to open the new restaurant in February. He said more than $500,000 in interior and exterior renovations are anticipated. Two years ago, Joseph Gentile, owner of the 14-restaurant Seafood Shanty chain, declared bankruptcy and began closing the restaurants.

If there is a category for new restaurants that have set the world on fire, it would have to include Engine 46 Steak House, which opened recently in RiverView Plaza at Reed and Water Streets - in a firehouse that dates back to 1894. From the time the doors opened four weeks ago, this was a hot property. There were lines to get in, tons of people and an average waiting time of about 25 minutes. Weeknights were no exception. The steakhouse is the concept of Rick Blatstein, who also has given us Philly Rock Cafe and Maui.

For months, Third Ward Commissioner Lee Janiczek has led a crusade against the Outback Steakhouse on Baltimore Pike, and the aromas of sizzling steak and onions that waft from the exhaust system and into the noses of neighbors. The odors are "horrendous," Janiczek said, addding that the popular restaurant in the Olde Sproul Shopping Center should be shut down if the problems persist. The restaurant has been visited several times by Janiczek and the township health officer, who cited it twice - once during the summer and again this week - for a violation of an ordinance that prohibits the discharge of gases, steam, smoke or anything else that interferes with residents' ability to breathe fresh air, said Township Manager Michael T. LeFevre.

The steady flow of traffic into the local Ruth's Chris Steak House suggests that there are advantages to being a link in a large, successful chain. On two recent occasions this observer noted that many of the restaurant's patrons seemed to be out-of-towners reveling in the security of dining where the food and format were familiar. The restaurant, which arrived in Center City in 1988, has changed so little in seven years that I could almost use my original review of the place here verbatim.

Rileka Hooks should have ended Thursday with memories of a special day. The 14-year-old South Philadelphia girl had graduated in the evening from St. Thomas Aquinas parochial school, three blocks from her home. Afterward, her family celebrated with a dinner in her honor at their house on Wilder Street near 18th. But instead of the day ending happily, the teenager spent the night in St. Agnes Medical Center, where she was treated for a gunshot wound. Yesterday, Hooks was at home, recovering from the bullet wound in her left foot.

Billy Gargiule heard the warnings. "The neighborhood's changing, you've got to move," they'd say, urging him to move his business, Billy's Steak House, from the corner of Kensington Avenue and Cambria Street. "Oh, it's not that bad," he'd reply. "I know all these people. They won't do anything to me. " So even as businesses left and drugs and crime moved in, Billy's Steak House, in the shadow of the El, remained a fixture in Kensington. For more than three decades, it doled out steaks and fed those who streamed in under the blue awning over the front door.

In the restaurant business, the best offense is sometimes a good defense. That's how chef-entrepreneur Derek Davis - who doesn't even like steak - found himself planning to open a steakhouse in Manayunk. Davis, who presides over the jam-packed Sonoma on Main Street, recently bought a building a few doors away, one that had housed a restaurant called Jamey's. His new enterprise, conceived with a Main Line audience in mind, is called Kansas City Prime and he hopes to open in October.

Franc Gregory's Steak House is tucked away in such a concealed Queen Village location that I forgot it had once been a diner-like eatery known as the Village Court Restaurant. There still is much about the decor to remind you of this restaurant's roots. Yet there's been enough of a redesign that it measures up to its menu of Italian and American dishes. The restaurant also has an adjacent club, called the Rec Room, and an outdoor courtyard that includes a pool table, a kitchen and a bar that's just about ready to begin operation.

A steak house is perhaps the last kind of restaurant you would expect to open in this nutrition-conscious era, but the Bloomin' Onion in Ringoes is the real thing. Open nearly six months, this popular bar-restaurant midway between Lambertville and Flemington has something for everyone. Indeed, it attracts senior citizens as well as families with children - who are given balloons and crayons to occupy them while their parents enjoy a good, old-fashioned steak. With its breezy, informal style, the huge bar teems with young people; that spacious room has lots of tables for dining in a more active setting than the relatively quiet adjoining dining room.