First and foremost, we start with 100% natural, hormone-free, corn-fed Angus beef from StockYards of Chicago -- whose tradition and expertise dates back to 1893. We hand-select from prime and high-choice grades -- a quality level you'd be hard-pressed to find yourself, even if your best friend is a butcher. Only these top grades have the deep, even marbling necessary for the crucial next step: Aging.

Prior to plastics, there was only one way to enhance the flavor of beef: the slow, old world process now known as dry aging. We use this traditional method because it produces the concentrated, true beef taste long considered the gold standard. Today's vacuum-sealed, "wet-aged" meats can't compare. Dry aging allows the beef's own enzymes to naturally tenderize it, while greatly intensifying the flavor. During weeks spent in a vented, extra-cold refrigerator (with a humidity of exactly 82%), excess moisture slowly evaporates -- up to 20% of its original weight. This alone dissuades most restaurants from even considering dry aging.

And because we dry-age the entire short loin together as one piece, we're able to create very unique, bone-in steaks. The overwhelming advantage of retaining some of the bone is the extra flavor and subtle sweetness it contributes during the cooking process. Of course the bone also adds to the overall weight, and that's why we don't list a specific number of ounces for these cuts. (This is also a big reason you almost never see them outside of very high-end steak places: the average consumer is reluctant to pay for the extra ounces. Big mistake!) Rest assured, at LALLApalooza you're getting a generous steak of singular quality. In fact, we know of only two other restaurants in all of Northern California serving steaks with this kind of pedigree.

Our unique cooking method was created specifically to preserve all that wonderful, concentrated, real beef flavor we've worked so hard to develop, while also harkening back to the Old Monterey of yesteryear. We start by slow-poaching, to gently and evenly warm the steak. This prevents the proteins from toughening when they hit the fire.

Then we grill to order in our open-flame pit over Monterey oak, at temperatures above 1,000 degrees. The result is a buttery-tender steak with a unique char-smoky outside. We like to think it captures a little of that hard-to-describe, relaxed-yet-sophisticated feeling we really love about Monterey.