Sullivan's - Believe the Hype

Pretty much everything anyone has said to me about Sullivan's has consisted of two parts:
1) the food is amazing, delicious, incredible!
2) it's kind of pricy, though.
Both those things turned out to be entirely correct. 
     As yesterday (1/12) was my birthday, Mr EA offered to take me out to eat anywhere I wanted.  After a lengthy internal debate - I picked Sullivan's.  We got there a bit early in the evening, shortly after their dinner opening at 5 pm.  Despite not having reservations, we got seated right away.  The dining room filled up pretty quickly thereafter, though, so I'm glad we got there early. 
The atmosphere is what I would call "Classic Steakhouse" not Western Steakhouse - not a lasso or branding iron to be seen.  There are dark wood panelled walls, tables with white tablecloths, subdued lighting, and photos of Jazz Age boxers (John Sullivan, Jack Dempsey - that sort of thing).
Our waiter, whose name I unfortunately did not catch, was a real pro - making excellent recommendations and generally maintaining a good balance between checking in on us and leaving us in peace. 
I started with a gin martini, which came with a skewer of three absolutely enormous olives.  The martini itself was perfect, bitter and with good aromatics from the gin.  Then we got risotto fritters - herbed risotto wrapped around a chunk of mozzerella and fried into a crispy ball.  This came with a delicious tomato dipping sauce that really brought out the savoriness in the dish.  It was delicious, and just enough to share between the two of us. 
For our entrees, Mr EA and I debated long and hard, but both wound up ordering 10 oz strip steaks with a side of frites, both of which had garlic butter on them.  "Wait a minute!" the fitness conscious will be saying "Steak and fries with butter on them?!"  Yes.  And it was delicious.  Mr. EA also ordered gorgonzola butter for his steak, which I stole little bits of, and that was even MORE delicious.  But I am getting ahead of myself. We generally like to order different things so we can try each other's food and get a better sampling of what's on offer.  And there were a lot of tasty-sounding items on the menu.  However, this was the thing that sounded best to both of us.  We'll try for more diversity on our next visit!
  I started out with the "salad", which was a wedge of iceberg lettuce liberally doused with a house-made blue cheese dressing.  It also had a little sprinking of tomato bits on it.  This came with the entree, but Mr. EA declined his, on the grounds that he did not want to have anything to do with lettuce just then.  I loved it.  The lettuce was very crisp and refreshing, and the dressing was creamy with a good dose of blue cheese funkiness - a perfect balance of flavors.  When the entrees came, the steaks were perfectly done - we ordered medium, and they had a good sear on the outsides and juicy pink insides.  The frites were crisp and garlicy, and the ones on the bottom of the stack were doused in steak juice.  Mmmmmmmmmm. 
     Our waiter tried to tempt us with dessert, but there was really no way for that to happen.  Everything - the appetizers, the side dishes, the desserts all looked so tempting, but we were seriously full.  Maybe on another visit.
If you are in the mood for a hearty meal featuring steak in an elegant atmosphere, check out Sullivan's. You'll be glad you did!