Stark's Steak & Seafood
The beef is dry-aged in house, and the house burger is ground from the same aged meat as the steaks. An 1892 building in downtown Santa Rosa, open since 2008.1
Why go
Dry aging is weeks of controlled water loss and enzyme work, and it is expensive because you throw away the crust and you tie up refrigeration. Most steakhouses buy their beef aged by somebody else, or wet-age it in a bag and call it the same thing. Stark's does it in the building and says it is one of very few Bay Area restaurants that still does.1 The part that gives that away as real is the burger: the Stark's Standard is ground from the same dry-aged beef, which is what you do with the trim when you have an aging room.1 The rest of the menu goes wide, a 48-ounce long-bone ribeye at one end and warm lobster a la plancha and seared scallops at the other, with Japanese A5 Wagyu on it too.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Standard Burger if you are not committing to a steak. It is the cheapest way to taste what the aging room does.1
- Order: the 48-ounce long-bone ribeye if there are enough of you.1
Good to know
- Over sixty whiskeys behind the bar, alongside a California and European wine list.1
- The West End Dining Room takes private parties.1
- The restaurant says its happy hour has won the Press Democrat Reader's Choice since 2009. That is a readers' poll, and the restaurant is the one reporting it, so it tells you the bar has a following and nothing about the kitchen.1
Verdict
could-visit — The aging room is the reason to care. Stark's dry-ages its own beef, which the restaurant says puts it among very few in the Bay Area still doing it, and the grind for the house burger comes off the same aged meat instead of out of a fresh box. Any kitchen with an aging room has trim to use, and using it that way is the tell that the room is real. The room opened in 2008 inside an 1892 building in downtown Santa Rosa, with a 48-ounce long-bone ribeye on the menu and sixty-odd whiskeys behind the bar. The rung stops at could-visit because no critic has cut into any of it in print, and the one accolade on offer is a readers' poll the restaurant reports about itself.