Chicago embraces designer beef trend

"CHICAGO - Fashionistas who want the latest in couture can go to Paris or Milan, but for real cow-ture, the place to be is Chicago.

The city once known for its stockyards is at the center of a hip food trend: designer beef.

Today, diners can select a steak that in its cow days ate nothing but sweet, tall grass. They can order a steak that comes from cattle that shared the same father. Or they can enjoy a piece of beef that is exactly like one designer Ralph Lauren dines on at his Colorado ranch.

Today, more than 30 years after the last major slaughterhouse closed, this city's romance with beef remains. Steakhouses are almost literally around every corner. Last year the USDA found the per capita consumption of beef in Chicago was at least seven pounds more a year than any other part of the country.

Jason Miller, the executive chef at David Burke's Primehouse, only has to look outside to see he's in a place where people know and appreciate beef. "There aren't very many small people walking around Chicago," he said.

That Chicagoans know and love their beef made it easier for Burke to spend a quarter-million dollars last year for a prize black Angus bull, named Prime 207L or simply "Prime," to produce offspring that become the restaurant's steaks.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060911/ap_on_re_us/designer_beef_chicago

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end meet packers. they supply ditka's, mortons, all those guys. they have aged beef, and 4 lb t-bones. they do a very nice business. not surprised that there is a notch above that, even. i mean, a 4 lb steak.