The server brings the squat, vanilla-hued candle to the table and lights it with a flourish. A few moments later, he returns, head slightly bowed, offering a basket of locally baked Le Quartier bread.

The diners at our table at Pivot Prime, a new steakhouse near 132nd and West Dodge, pick up a slice and timidly drag it through the warm pool of what looks like liquefied candle wax beneath the candle.

It feels like we are doing something wrong. Criminal, even.

But then we dip the bread into that melted candle again, and again, more assuredly and forcefully, until we are dragging slices of bread through it. Joyously getting away with it.

This candle is made of beef tallow. The liquefied “wax,” pooling at the base and mingling with dots of balsamic vinaigrette and fresh rosemary, is melted beef fat meant to be devoured.

It’s maybe the meatiest non-meat bite of food I have had at any Omaha steakhouse ever.

The candle is also a good illustration of why I like Pivot Prime, a steakhouse that’s simultaneously nailing steakhouse classics, taking some chances and also not taking itself too seriously.

“A new restaurant is like a shiny new toy,” Chef Joel Hassanali said. “But once (guests) come in here, they realize the level of service we give, the training and education of the staff, the food and the creativity. It’s not just steak on a plate.”

This is actually the second time Hassanali has drawn me into one of his restaurants with the allure of a single menu item. You may remember my review from Salted Edge last year, when I tried the bread board that took over many Omahans’ Facebook feeds, mine included, for several months.

This time, the beef tallow candle was just one of the many memorable dishes we tried during this month’s Steak Town USA visit to Pivot Prime.

The restaurant is dry-aging beef on site. It’s nailing classic cocktails. And there are other moments of culinary joy, including a flaming 26-ounce tomahawk and caviar and potato chips.

Hassanali said the candle’s real goal is to create a sense of ambiance at the tables ordering it — which candlelight always does — while also manufacturing a moment over which the guests can linger.

Service at Pivot Prime backs up that notion. Our dinner was never rushed, but also never too slow, a hallmark of several of the best steakhouses we’ve visited this year.

Gregg Young and the other owners of Lucky Eleven Restaurant Group, which also owns Salted Edge, knew they wanted their second restaurant to be a steakhouse. And the chef, Hassanali, knew he needed to make that steakhouse stand out in a crowded Omaha market.

So, he said, he turned to France.

Many of the dishes on the menu are French or French-inspired, like a short rib dish based on French onion soup, a Lyonnaise salad and stuffed chicken mousseline. He said he also uses many French techniques in the kitchen.

The space itself manages to stand out, too, despite being in the former Mahogany Prime spot surrounded by office buildings. Inside, various dining rooms are dim and warm, with a vaguely masculine feel. One room, reserved for special events, holds a vault filled with aging cuts of meat that diners can see through glass doors. An open kitchen and long bar hold down the central dining room; the room we were seated in had several large windows with the shades drawn even though it was still light outside. I wondered if that was to prevent a view of the vast parking lot outside. Either way, it helped create ambiance.

Pivot Prime has most of the steakhouse staples we selected for our Steak Town menu back in January. As a reminder: We’re trying the same dishes, or as many as we can, at every steakhouse in order to get an apples-to-apples comparison for our rankings, listed below. (We are of course not eating any actual apples.)

The shrimp cocktail comes with five thick pieces of seafood served over a bowl of ice with the wider ends resting in lemongrass-scented cocktail sauce. Their flavor and texture are among the best we’ve tried this year, up next to the Committee Chophouse or 801 Chophouse. Prices are in line with those steakhouses, too. At Pivot, the 16-ounce ribeye is $67, as compared to The Committee Chophouse, where an 18-ounce ribeye is $82, or 801 Chophouse, where the ribeye is $71.

We tried three steaks: the 6-ounce prime filet, the 22-ounce prime cowboy ribeye and the 6-ounce filet rossini.

Hassanali and his team spent a lot of time researching steak producers, traveling to various states and ranches in Kansas, Illinois, Arizona and Texas. They settled on Creekstone Farms, based in Arkansas City, Kansas. He said they liked the consistency of the beef and the fact that all the cattle are raised within a 200-mile radius of Omaha, some in Nebraska, and corn-finished.

All three steaks were incredibly flavorful, cooked as we ordered with a hearty sear. The filet was the most tender of the cuts, and though the ribeye was cooked as ordered, it was a bit tougher.

The rossini is a rich experience. It comes on a bed of toasted brioche and cooked spinach, then gets topped with foie gras butter, madeira wine sauce and freshly shaved truffle. It’s unusual for my sister-in-law to order beef, but she’d already had (and enjoyed) Pivot’s Ora king salmon on another visit. She enjoyed her rare foray into steak land.

The menu offers an array of steak sauces and compound butters to add to any steak. Our table liked the spicy Calabrian chili butter better than the au poivre, a version of the classic French pepper cream sauce.

There are no onion rings or loaded baked potatoes on the menu. (Hassanali said he took some heat from the staff on that second omission.)

We substituted the Brussels sprouts and the “crack fries,” named after the notion that once you start eating them, you can’t stop. The triple-cooked wedges of potato arrive uber crispy in a bowl sized to share. Parmesan cheese, crisp fried herbs and a roasted garlic aioli finish the dish. Each wedge has a crust so crisp it cracks into shards as you eat. The dish is salty, savory and texturally fun.

The same could go for the Brussels, crisped and then mixed with a flavorful variety of ingredients both sweet and savory: baked apple, spiced cashews, Pecorino cheese, a peanut miso dressing and espelette, a sweet red pepper with mild heat from France.

The one dish we didn’t love was dessert: While the presentation and fanfare that came with the Bananas Foster were all we could have hoped for, the server didn’t brulee the dish enough, leaving a strong taste of alcohol behind. I will give it another go — Bananas Foster is one of my favorite desserts — but on this evening, it simply wasn’t at the level it should be.

It seems to me that  Pivot Prime is working to be a peer among the city’s highest-end steakhouses — think 801 Chophouse and The Committee.

Its newness means that it’s not quite firing on all levels yet. But with the kitchen’s creativity, the quality of the product and that French twist that makes it stand out, I have no doubt that it should land firmly on the “must visit’ list for Omaha steak lovers.

Pivot Prime

pivot-prime.com

13665 California Street Omaha, Nebraska

402-527-4568

Hours: Monday through Thursday

4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Closed Sunday.

This year, during Steak Town USA, we will try the same selection of dishes during each visit to an Omaha steakhouse:

a ribeye, cooked to medium;

a filet, cooked to medium rare;

an order of onion rings;

shrimp cocktail;

a loaded baked potato;

a Manhattan; and a Negroni.

We’ll also try one specialty item per stop, identifying one thing the steakhouse is known for and adding it to the list.

(Ratings are from one to five in each category)

Ratings:

Ribeye, medium - 3

Filet Mignon, medium rare - 4

Onion Rings - N/A

Shrimp Cocktail - 3

Loaded Baked Potato - N/A

Specialty item (Bananas Foster) – 2

This story was originally published by Flatwater Free Press, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories in Nebraska that matter. Read the article at: https://flatwaterfreepress.org/steak-town-at-omahas-pivot-prime-american...