I’ve cut over two million steaks on this board. When I was six or seven, I’d stand right next to my grandfather, cutting alongside him in the restaurant. He started me off trimming fat and he’d watch me with an eye like a laser. He was my idol and all I wanted was to please him. Back then, his side of the board was all grooved out and mine was flat.
In grade school, I got out at noon on Mondays and it was the best time of the week because my grandfather would take me with him to Sioux City and we’d go right to the kill floor and pick out the beef to bring back to Archie’s. My grandfather had an eye for beef and he was a legend in the stockyards. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, he went into the hospital to have tests run. We lost him the next day, and it was earth-shattering for me, for all of us.
My grandfather had opened Archie’s in 1949. For a long time, the family had nothing. We had nothing but we had everything, if you know what I mean. I became the principal meat cutter when I was 14, and now I own the restaurant. My sister Lorrie works the front of the house and my mom, who ran Archie’s from ’73 until she retired in ’95, still stops by. When anything major comes up, well, nothing happens until I’ve talked to her. Today we do about 500 meals a day, and in 2015 we won a James Beard Award. Not a day goes by that I don’t wish Grandpa were here to see this.
We’re a steakhouse and everything starts at the board. The thing is, every piece of beef presents a different shape and size; no two pieces are the same. You take what it gives you, you put it on the board, and you shape it into the cuts you need. I still spend four to five hours a day at the board, and you know what? Cutting is the most peaceful time for me.
This still feels like my grandfather’s restaurant, but some years ago I looked at the board and realized my groove was as deep as his.
~ Bob Rand, owner, Archie’s Waeside restaurant, Le Mars, IA