Brass Ram is Chef Nick Badovinus’ ninth and newest restaurant which opened in early November 2022 on the second floor above National Anthem on the edge of downtown.  This place is all about prime rib and old-school steakhouse dining.  There’s leather, dim lighting, brass, exposed brick walls, cozy spacious booths, a large bar, vintage music in the background, and a private dining room decorated with photos of Marilyn Monroe.  Parking is mostly valet but be forewarned – they sent us to the end of the building to climb the open staircase and surprised the hell out of the staff leaning on the door.  There is a proper door on the downtown side of the building where you enter and have an elevator or enclosed stairs to take you up to the place.  Either way gets you in but the hostess stand is by the preferred door.  Staffing has been an issue with the parkers so these people probably really didn’t know how to enter.  The service is friendly, relaxed, and excellent in the restaurant but the food did not overwhelm me.  I love the look of the place, but as with many of Bodovinus’ places, I wish it were less noisy, and even though he was in the house he did not make it around to many of the tables.

Set up

 

Food

We started with martinis from the bar and they were well made, as they should have been at $20 each.  The wine list is large and the wine director BK was most helpful in making a selection.

 

Salads have 2 prices listed, one is for an individual plate and the other is if you want slightly smaller portions for 2.   We both wanted to try the Iceberg “Chunk” salad topped with bacon, tomato, red onion, and a choice of bleu cheese with a  bleu cheese dressing or thousand island with cheddar.  We both had the former.  The ‘small’ salads were fairly large and a wedge of lettuce was topped with tons of ingredients.  The bleu was good but I would have liked more creamy dressing to spread it around.  It just feels like what you must eat with steak or prime rib.

 

Real Prime Rib is prepared in limited amounts each evening with a 24-hour salt and butcher pepper cure, an all-day slow roast, tallow butter rubbed, and a high heat finish.  The cuts are USDA Prime of different sizes and thicknesses and there is a Mishima Reserve Wagyu also available on Friday and Saturday.  All choices are served with au jus, horseradish cream, and Yorkshire pudding.  Due to the method of preparation, there is no real rare but the medium rare was just fine for doneness.  The exterior of the meat was quite salty whereas the interior needed a touch, which was not available on the table.  The au jus helped bring out the limited flavor in the meat itself and it was reasonably tender.  The addition of the horseradish cream was helpful in my opinion but for the price, the meat lacked a spark.  The Yorkshire pudding was nicely cooked and tasty as well as a fun addition to the plate.

 

We split a side order of Fried Onions which are a mix of red and white onions in thin rings served with BBQ sauce.  They were nicely crisp, not greasy with tasty sweet onion.  The BBQ sauce was fairly sweet and I’m not sure it was an enhancement for the rings.  They were fine on their own.  These are thumbs up.

 

Apple Bourbon Donkey Roll made me too curious, so I had to try it.  It was a roll topped with salted caramel sauce, Marcona almonds, and rum raisin ice cream. There were tons of raisins in the ice cream and even more golden ones in the sauce below.  The nuts were nicely toasted and added a fun crisp texture to the dish.  I might have added more caramel sauce or cinnamon to tie it together better but it was sweet and plentiful as a finish for the meal.