Masselow's Steakhouse

I've been to Masselow's a number of times and worked through a fair bit of the menu — the rib eye, the filet, the Caesar, the Dungeness crab cake to start. All of it has been good. What I'd tell you before you book is that this isn't a place you stop into. Plan on it being the event for the evening, because that is what they are planning on too.

The name is a tribute to Chief Masselow, who led the Kalispel Tribe from 1887 and refused government pressure to move his people off the Pend Oreille River. The Tribe had fallen from roughly 1,600 in Lewis and Clark's day to about a hundred by 1911, and in 1914 they were granted a reservation on their ancestral homeland by executive order. The steaks run USDA Prime and Choice across three tiers, from a 12-ounce Choice coulotte up to a 44-ounce Prime porterhouse, and they are handled simply — chargrilled with sea salt and cracked Tellicherry pepper, then finished with garlic thyme tallow. No sauce to hide behind, which is the right call at these prices.

Three honest things. They are not in a hurry and they do not want you to be either — they know what you are spending and they pace the room accordingly, so give it the whole evening rather than squeezing it in before a show. A 20% service charge is added automatically, which is worth knowing before the check lands. And dinner is only five nights a week; they are closed Monday and Tuesday evenings, though breakfast runs every day. Would I call it the best steak in the region? No — I would still give that to Churchill's, and I owe The Barrel a visit before I say anything final. But these are excellent steaks in a room that treats the meal like it matters, and for a night that is supposed to feel like something, it is well worth the experience.