Perry’s Steakhouse intros new off-menu menu with holiday cocktails, bison chop, crazy good fish

A Christmas nip is in the air, but that doesn’t mean mulled cider and brown spirits are your best holiday spirits come 5 p.m. The folks at Perry’s Steakhouse and Grill  have launched a new off-menu menu of treats (including a wine cocktail) that make their steakhouse worth another visit this year. 

Wait — an off-menu menu? Yep. 

“We have six new items that aren’t on the menu,” says Perry’s CMO Lesa Sorrentino, who then walks me through the menu of six new items that range from a spicy Spanish octopus with slaw and potatoes to a chile-slicked 16-ounce bison rib-eye with charred garlic and chimichurri sauce. Snapper crudo and two great desserts — salted caramel budino and stacked strawberry shortcake — should bookend your meal.

Maybe that off-menu menu will be recited by your server, or maybe you’ll have to ask. Either way, someone at your table that’s you if you’re dining solo) needs to order the bison, the budino, or the fantastic whole branzino that’s steamed inside a salt crust then cracked and served with a sweet, vinegary splash of agrodolce. 

And because today is not Monday (which means you missed Magnum Monday, when magnums of Perry’s Private Reserve cabernet go for $99 and their PPR chardonnay drops to $79), you’ll have to sip your wine in a glass. Begin (or end) with the seasonally inspired cabernet-based cocktail called Holiday Wine Time, available through December 31. It’s made with a long pour of that reserve cabernet, a splash of Hennessy VS Cognac and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Then it’s all garnished with a sprig of fresh thyme. 

Perry’s corporate sommelier and beverage director Susi Zivanovic favors savory cocktails over sweet, syrupy ones (I’m with her on this), so I’m quite fond of the Holiday Wine Thyme. It’s an ideal $9 savory winter cocktail for a generation of wine drinkers who wants an adult drink that runs more savory than sweet. (If your pantry is devoid of Fruit Loops and Cap’n Crunch, this drink was designed for you.)

Not that into wine? That’s okay. I’ll take yours.