Where Smith & Wollensky Sources Its Beef For The Best-Tasting Steaks

Smith & Wollensky restaurants are known for quality steaks and have a reputation for going the extra mile to ensure diners have a stellar steakhouse experience. After enjoying a meal at one of these fine-dining restaurants, steak enthusiasts might wonder where they source those high-quality cuts of beef. The answer is Snake River Farms and Double R Ranch.

Snake River Farms is located in Eastern Idaho and specializes in American Wagyu, which differs somewhat from Japanese Wagyu. It is a crossbreed of Japanese Wagyu bulls with what Snake River Farms refers to as traditional beef cattle. To get this tender cut of beef, Japanese Wagyu bulls are most commonly bred with Angus cows.

The Double R Ranch is located in the Okanogan region of Washington state, which is along the Canadian border. It supplies the restaurant with USDA prime steaks that it produces from farm to table, meaning that the Double R Ranch breeds, raises, and processes all the beef in-house.

Both Snake River Farms and Double R Ranch are part of Agri Beef, a multi-generational, family-owned cattle company with an excellent reputation for producing high-quality beef. The beef can be purchased directly from each farm's website, so you don't have to visit a restaurant for their high-quality steaks unless you want it prepared by a professional. But if you insist, here are some tips for making at-home steaks that taste like they came from a restaurant.

Now that you know where Smith & Wollensky gets its beef, you may also wonder what makes Agri Beef so special and why its steaks are superior to so many others. It all comes down to a commitment to quality.

The ranches behind the beef company are family-owned, and with multiple generations of ranchers working together, they take a lot of pride in their product. The end result is high-quality steaks that end up at restaurants like Smith & Wollensky.

But it's not just the people who make Agri Beef great. It's also the commitment to feeding their cattle a high-quality diet and ensuring they live comfortable, healthy lives. The Pacific Northwest, where the cattle are raised, offers lush grazing in not-too-cold temperatures. Cattle are then finished for a short time with a grain diet, which many people think helps improve the flavor of the beef. But it's that process from birth to butcher that really means they can monitor the animals in a hands-on way.

Even with the best care and most ethical breeding practices, sometimes there is variation in quality when it comes to the beef processed by a company like Agri Beef. So it does not send every steak to fine-dining restaurants. Some are labeled as choice, which is still high-quality but not prime. Those are sold by a third company, St. Helens, which Smith & Wollensky does not source from, as it only offers prime cuts in its restaurants.