August 2001 - TravelHost Dining
If the recipe for success depends upon the quality of ingredients, it's easy to explain the unqualified success of the Steam Room Grille on I-55 North.
All the seafood served in the casual Northeast Jackson eatery is fresh, a circumstance that must be as thrilling to FedEx as it is to the growing number of customers who are making the Steam Room one of the city's premier venues for client entertainment.
The lobsters are flown in from Maine. Seasonal specialties are flown in from their home waters. That could mean King Crab from Juneau, Stone Crab from Miami or salmon from the Pacific Northwest.
"What we serve is driven by what's the freshest on any given day.", says Cannon Clegg, who owns the Steam Room. "Putting together our blackboard specials at the last minute, based upon what's fresh and available, keeps the business interesting. But it's the freshness of the seafood that keeps the people coming back."
The Steam Room Grille expertise doesn't stop at seafood. All the steaks are Certified Black Angus, which is somewhat unusual in itself, but Steam Room takes the extra step of aging the beef on premises before it's cut, then trimmed, by hand.
One of the emerging favorites among the constantly growing business clientele is the smoked filet covered with crawfish tails and shrimp in a cabernet reduction sauce. "This is one of those nice things that doesn't come out of the recipe book; it just comes from having fun in the kitchen trying out new things."
This commitment to going the extra thousand miles for the best ingredients keeps the Steam Room Grille busy at dinner seven nights a week.
Lunch, with specials and a selection of seafood, salads and po' boy sandwiches, is also served daily. In addition, the restaurant does a booming meeting and banquet business for groups as large as 125 people.
While the rooms are well-appointed, they're anything but formal. Says Cannon, "We want our restaurant to look as nice as possible, but our emphasis always has been, and always will be, on the food. That's what people remember."
The Steam Room Grille takes reservations for parties of eight or more, and for special events like New year's Eve or Valentine's Day. The waits for a table are generally short. "We always want people to love our place without reservations." Considering the restaurant's success with business travelers, it looks like they already are.
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