Restaurant Raises Steaks By Buying Its Own Cattle

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Restaurateurs Michael Dene and Massimo Aronne wanted to open a steakhouse in Long Beach, but they decided to do something a little different. And that led to unexpected challenges.

They named the restaurant Chianina for an Italian breed of cattle. They planned to serve steaks made from the namesake livestock. They created a logo and found a 2,500-square-foot space amid a row of trendy restaurants and boutiques lining Second Street.

But to their surprise, they couldn’t find Chianinas. It was four months before they secured enough meat to open their restaurant in December.

Chianina is a key ingredient of one of the restaurant’s planned signature dishes, “bistecca fiorentina,” an Italian-style T-bone steak, explained Aronne, who’s also general manager of all of the restaurants in Dene’s Michael’s Restaurant Group.

“The real bistecca fiorentina is made with Chianina beef,” Aronne said. “We were searching all around and really couldn’t find anything. … We were freaking out. It was, like, ‘What are we going to do?’ We were already set on this name and the philosophy and now we couldn’t find (the beef).”

After searching online and calling their contacts, they found ranchers Bob and Judy Morrow of Klickitat Valley Chianina ranch in Goldendale, Wash., who raise Chianina cattle. Klickitat will initially supply the meat for the restaurant, but more important, the Morrows helped Dene buy his own cattle for future needs.

Dene said it was important for him to adopt the practices of the “slow-food” movement, which emphasizes organic food and hormone-free, ethically raised animals.

“The concept is that no matter what you do, you’re going to have to secure a meat supplier,” he said. “We now secured it within our own auspices. Bob doesn’t believe in any hormonal injections or anything outside of organically raising these cattle … and that’s the whole principal.”

Dene and Aronne traveled to the Morrows’ farm last month and got leads on buying the white Chianina cattle.

The Morrows were planning to retire and weren’t interested in going into business with Dene and Aronne. However, they helped the restaurateurs buy two full-blood Chianina bulls from a ranch in Hico, Texas, and five calves from Washington state. Dene and Aronne now own the cattle, which will be sent to another ranch in Utah, where they will be raised.

Dene, founder and owner of Michael’s on Naples Ristorante and Michael’s Pizzeria, declined to specify how much he invested in the livestock, but acknowledged it was substantial.

Ed Miller, chairman of the American Chianina Association in Platte City, Mo., noted that raising Chianina cattle is time-consuming because of their larger size. Typical breeds such as a Black or Red Angus take 14 to 18 months to reach an ideal slaughter weight, but Chianinas take 16 to 18 months to reach a slaughter weight of about 1,400 to 1,500 pounds.

Restaurant passion

Dene once owned a lighting manufacturing company. He sold the business and retired, only to pursue his dream of owning a restaurant. He opened his first, Michael’s on Naples, in 2007, followed by Michael’s Pizzeria in 2011.

Now, there are three Michael’s Pizzeria locations with plans to open another, possibly in Beverly Hills, by the end of this year. The properties fall under the umbrella of his restaurant group.

At the new restaurant, customers will dine on Chianina from the Morrows’ farm until this spring, when Dene’s cattle will be mature enough to serve. Dene’s two bulls will be mated with either a Black or Red Angus for future supplies.

The “Certified Chianina Beef” trademark, which the restaurant will have, requires at least 50 percent Chianina beef.

Other restaurants also work directly with their food sources. Farmshop in Santa Monica and Salt’s Cure in West Hollywood serve ingredients grown and raised in California. Mohawk Bend in Echo Park also sources its food from California farms, said Amy Yanow, who co-owns the restaurant and bar with her husband, Tony. Their beef comes from a ranch near San Francisco.

Anya Fernald, chief executive of Belcampo Meat Co. in Oakland, heads a 20,000-acre ranch in Gazelle, near Mount Shasta. The company also operates a chain of butcher shops and restaurants.

Fernald said a Chianina steak looks great on a plate because of its large size, but in order to be profitable, a chef has to find a way to use the rest of the cattle. Most restaurants only serve the prime cuts such as a rib eye or porterhouse.

“The (Chianina) steaks you get are 40 percent larger than what you get from an Angus, so in a restaurant context they’re going to look spectacular,” she said. “The question is how many hamburgers are they going to sell? The challenge is getting rid of the rest of it. But if you have creative and talented chefs, they can probably do it.”

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