The superior steak

Are you a steak lover? When you go out to eat, do you long for a large, tender, and succulent slab of meat on your plate? Has the lack of a “real” steakhouse in Lamoille County prevented you from satisfying your hunger for this particular cut? If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then I have some great news for you: The search is over.

For as long as I can remember, my favorite food when dining at a restaurant has been a juicy, medium-cooked steak. I cannot recall a time when I didn’t order one if the option was available to me. At this point, I consider myself to be a steak connoisseur. It has taken 26 years, but I have finally found the best one in all of Northern Lamoille County, and maybe even the entire state of Vermont.

The Family Table, run by Chef John Raphael and located on Route 15 in Jeffersonville, Vermont, serves a 30-day dry-aged rib eye steak that is drizzled in house steak sauce. It comes with sides of delicious bacon and onion mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. At a price of $32.95, I would typically look elsewhere on the menu, but this meal is the one exception for me.

The Family Table experience is Vermont dining at its finest. The décor and ambiance are so rustic and true to the state that you could be deprived of all senses until you arrive, and know exactly where you are geographically without looking out the window.

The walls are tastefully filled with beautiful paintings and stunning photographs of Lamoille County landscapes from local artists, all of which are available for purchase. Scattered around the restaurant are also hand-carved wooden beavers of various sizes and branches with white Christmas lights. The atmosphere is completed by six skylights, which add to the sense that you’re sitting in a barn somewhere on the back roads of Vermont.

When we arrived for an early dinner at about five p.m., only one other table was in use in the restaurant. The waitress took a surprisingly long time — about 10 minutes — to take our orders considering the dearth of customers, but when she arrived, we ordered our food immediately: rib eyes all around.

She supplied us with a basket of exceptional homemade bread, fresh out of the oven. While we made quick work of the offering and eagerly awaited the main course, The Family Table began to live up to its name. Before our entrees arrived, the eatery was at least half full, as families of skiers steadily filed in.

It took longer for our meals to be ready than any of the other five times I have been there — over 30 minutes — and just as we were beginning to get restless, the waitress arrived with a tray of rib eyes, mashed potatoes, and green beans.

I immediately cut into my dry-aged beef and savored every bite, from the first to the last. It had only been a couple months since my last meal there, but it felt like years. Part of the reason The Family Table’s rib eye is so spectacular is the dry aging, which is key for a truly tender and flavorful steak. The process involves hanging a large cut of beef in a dry room for anywhere from several weeks to months before it is then trimmed and cut into steaks.

The other key element to making this specific steak so extraordinary is the house sauce that smothers it. Only Chef John Raphael knows what is in this mystery sauce, but it resembles a tangy and sweet combination of barbecue and steak sauce, which complements the flavor of the meat perfectly.

The second best part of the meal is easily the bacon and onion mashed potatoes. Supremely fluffy and savory, the potatoes have a balanced amount of butter and garlic mixed in, with large chunks of bacon and grilled onions throughout. The only downside is the portion size, which always leaves you wanting more.

Lastly, there are the seasonal vegetables. Every time I have eaten at The Family Table, the “fresh vegetables” have been steamed green beans, regardless of the season, and I have been greatly disappointed. I used to try to eat a few, as they are one of my favorite vegetables and I grow them during the summer months. But they are invariably tough and tasteless, so now I don’t bother touching them.

After enjoying every last bite of the rib eye and mashed potatoes, I had a sense of satisfaction that I typically only experience after Thanksgiving: a feeling of full stomach euphoria, and a strong desire to loosen my belt and take a nap.

By the time we were ready to leave, the restaurant was full with a mix of locals and families of tourists who were most likely on ski trips at Smuggler’s Notch. As I got up from the table, a teenage boy sitting near me wondered out loud what I ordered. I said to him, “The superior steak, also known as the rib eye.” We left before he ordered, but for his sake I hope he listened to me, and I hope you do too.