Dining Out

By Sandra Mendoza Brown • Photography By Jennifer Polixenni Brankin

Spend an evening at Bob’s Steak & Chop House at the Omni Tucson National Resort, and you’re showered with a rustic yet sophisticated dining experience. The setting, perfect for special occasions and romantic dinners, is replete with nailhead-trimmed leather chairs, luxurious cherry bamboo floors, wood-beamed ceilings, and walls and upholstery of rich earth tones. Picture windows overlooking the postcard perfect palm tree fronds and the 1st and 18th hole of the Catalina course complete the decadent feel. 
 

Bob’s is the crowning touch on the last of a $30-plus million dollar first-phase renovation at the resort and the start of a new partnership between the two brands. “The owner of Omni Hotels and the vice president of food and beverage at the Omni Tucson frequented Bob’s a lot as one of their favorite restaurants. They came up with the idea of making Bob’s their specialty restaurant at their hotels. We were the first one to officially open under the Omni flag,” explains Bill Edgar, restaurant manager at the resort. There are currently six Bob’s in the U.S., with four in Texas, one in San Francisco and one in Tucson.
 

The first Bob’s Steak and Chop House opened in Dallas in 1993 by Bob Samble. Over the years the mini-chain has won numerous awards from publications such as Bon Apétit and Travel + Leisure. Bob’s general manager Danny Goldman would like to add another to the list. “Being the best steak house in Arizona is our goal.” 
 

Regardless of titles, Bob’s prime steaks, which are wet-aged for 28 days in their own enzymes to intensify flavors, are truly a treat. The menu offers numerous cuts and sizes including the “Cote de Boeuf,” a 22-ounce bone-in ribeye, Kansas City Strip, Porterhouse and the most popular cut, filet mignon. “Every week, somebody will come to us and say ‘It’s the best steak I’ve ever had.’ You hear it once or twice and it’s like ‘Thanks, that’s a beautiful compliment.’ But when you hear it every week, that tells you something,” says Edgar. Twice a week, Bob’s receives its meats from Stock Yards, the 113 year-old company that also supplies other top steakhouses like Morton’s and Chicago Chop House.
 

One derivation from the common steakhouse is that Bob’s has done away with a la cart service, instead pairing each entrée with potatoes and a signature glazed-carrot in a cinnamon, nutmeg and orange juice-infused sauce. However, like the competition, Bob’s serves items like pork chops, rack of lamb, crab cakes and lobster tails but in the end it’s the steaks that bring people in. And it’s the steaks that will continue to do so. n

Bob’s Steak & Chop House is located at the Omni Tucson National Resort at 2727 W. Club Drive. Call 520.297.2271 for reservations.