Time for some elsewhere - Milwaukee - Steaks

We just got back from a few days of business in Milwaukee and had a chance to dine out a couple of times with good friends. On this sojourn we had a meal at Capital Grille , yes a chain restaurant but a high end one. Capital Grille is part of the Rare Hospitality group that was bought by Darden last year. The atmosphere is high end clubby steakhouse with warm lighting, the dinning room was about 1/3 full - what you would expect on Monday night in this economy for a $60 per person average ticket. As always we are looking for interesting wines to try so we went by the glass - A Fisher Unity Cabernet - it was wonderful -nice depth, good fruit really all round red. We decided to share a couple of appetizers since the only oysters they had were East coast - not that we are snobs we just prefer the sweetness of West coast bi-valves over the briny East coast clan. We opted for a Waygu Beef Carpaccio and the Lobster/ shrimp cakes both enough to share. The carpaccio was good and classic in appearance - dressed baby arugula, shaved Reggiano, drizzle of olive oil, cracked pepper - then when we tasted it surprise - CUMIN. They had dusted the beef before slicing it paper thin - I like cumin but do not expect it on a high end beef carpaccio. It was ok - I have to say we would not order this again. The Lobster/ Shrimp cake was fine - a little fishy but very meaty - served with roasted corn salsa (out of season) and a fairly bland tarter sauce. So far about a B minus for the first courses the wine really opened nicely but then it hit.

The cigar smoke from the bar area became so over whelming I felt I was smoking a cigar the rest of the evening. In this day and age in a restaurant that cost 3 million dollars to build they should be able to separate the air handling. I love cigars but this was out of place and a real detractor from the evening. So after feeling like a smoked ham our dinner arrived

I had the dry aged sirloin cooked medium rare, Linda had the special a marinated filet that was seared and topped with roasted tomatoes and peppers served on two croutons - it was was very tasty. My steak was nice but lacked any dry aged flavor - none of that nuttiness you expect. All in all the steaks seemed to be under whelming I have cooked better ones on the grill in the back yard and at these prices .... I don't know how long the steak segment can have so many players. The best part of the evening was getting to know friends better and focus on life out side of work it was truly great to get to connect with our friend on a new level.