Fogo do Cho is not your average steakhouse. Instead of the typical slab of beef and two sides, guests at the Brazilian-founded company are treated to a seemingly never-ending procession of skewered, fire-roasted meats—pork, lamb, chicken, and practically every cut of beef imaginable, from filet mignon and top sirloin to a bone-in ribeye.
Everything is freshly sliced and served hot at your table for a single set charge (a market table with prepared fruits, vegetables, soups, and salads is also included in the restaurant’s churrasco-style experience). The unfathomable carnal onslaught will only end when you say so.
If you’re feeling very opulent—and quite hungry—you can even enhance your meal by ordering one of the restaurant’s “indulgent cuts” à la carte, such as the 32-ounce dry-aged tomahawk ribeye. You may also go all-in and get the newest and most expensive steak on the menu, a 30-ounce Wagyu porterhouse.
“The quality of this product is amazing,” says Fogo’s senior vice president of global food and beverage innovation, chef Antonio Iocchi.
Wagyu is undoubtedly the most wanted kind of beef on the globe right now, and fetches a premium price as a consequence of its high fat content, ultra-tender texture, and buttery taste.
Fogo has been offering Wagyu beef for many years, starting with a 20-ounce strip and progressing to a 24-ounce ribeye. Iocchi claims that in a short period of time, the fast-growing restaurant firm with 62 established U.S. outlets (and rising) has become one of the largest movers of Wagyu beef in America.
However, the new porterhouse is the restaurant’s biggest and most costly Wagyu cut to yet. The beef comes from Australia. According to Iocchi, the quality is comparable to Japanese A5 Wagyu, the highest grade in Japan’s strict cattle business. “It is definitely the highest-quality offering that we have,” he said.
The porterhouse, like Fogo’s other high-end cuts, is sliced tableside and served on a heated Himalayan salt block, which keeps the meat warm as you dig in.
Fogo offered Eat This, Not That! an exclusive first taste of their huge new steak, which serves four or more people, on Wednesday. The porterhouse came attractively charred outside and sparkling with juice, with a rich ruby red hue on the interior, and was part-filet and part-strip with a massive t-shaped bone in the center.
Long after it was cut, the flesh visible bubbled as it sizzled on the salt block. It’s undoubtedly one of the most delicious and delectable steaks this writer has ever tasted, being very rich and juicy.
The porterhouse is available now for a short time in New York City for $175 but costs somewhat less in other places. Nonetheless, Iocchi believes it is a decent price for such a high-quality cut. “If you go to any other steakhouse, it will be in the $300 range,” he adds, emphasizing that Fogo can afford to charge less because of cost advantages gained from its Wagyu business’s enormous scale.
With the holidays coming, the chef feels that guests would be more willing to invest on such a high-quality steak. “During the holidays, people maybe want to indulge a little bit,” he said. “It’s a special time of the year, so that is the perfect time for us to offer something like that at an incredible-value price for the quality of the product.”
According to Reuters, the new menu item comes at a time of fast development for the Dallas-based business, which was bought this past August by investment firm Bain Capital.
Fogo launched two additional sites in California this autumn, with a third set to open next week in the Bay Area town of Emeryville. In addition, in October, it inaugurated its 80th restaurant globally in Irving, Texas. New restaurants are also in the works for Seattle, New York, Orlando, Fla., and Richmond, Va.
“We’ve been in a crescendo mode,” says Iocchi, who attributes the brand’s brisk popularity to the breadth of its churrasco menu, which may cost the same as a single steak at other upmarket restaurants for $60 to $75. “There’s no comparison with any other steakhouse.”
