Texas Lt. Governor Rebranding NY Strip As ‘Texas Strip Steak’

Texas is home to the most cattle of any state in the United States, 12.54 million out of a total 69.1 million (2022 numbers) and rightfully lays claim to having both the most beef producing cattle and the most dairy cows. But is that enough to rebrand the NY Strip as the Texas Strip Steak? Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick believes so.

The Lone Star State’s lieutenant governor recently shared a lengthy message on X (née Twitter) announcing his plan to rebrand the NY Strip as the Texas Strip Steak by taking concrete steps to remove ‘NY Strip’ from menus and labels in the state of Texas.

Are there bigger problems to be solved in Texas? Well, he addressed that too but seemed to suggest that this is a big problem and that they’re already solving all of the other really big problems at the Texas Capitol. Here is what Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick had to say about rebranding NY Strip as the Texas Strip because steak comes from Texas and “Liberal New York shouldn’t get the credit for (Texas’) hard-working ranchers.”

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One part of his message to Texans that jumps out to me is “we ask restaurants to change the name of this strip of meat the next time they reprint their menus” and the same will go for grocery stores. This appears to be treading lightly around the fact that it will cost businesses (restaurants, butchers, grocery stores) money to reprint their menus should he mandate that the name has to be changed.

Having grown up in a restaurant family I’m keenly aware of the cost tied to menus but also how often menus get reworked and reprinted, and how that’s tied to the quality of the restaurant itself. Some won’t be phased by this, others will be put out.

By leaving it up to the restaurants and grocery stores, at their next convenience, the businesses theoretically won’t turn around and say ‘are you going to pay us to reprint these menus you are now stipulating has Texas Strip Steak on there instead of NY Strip Steak? It’s not an issue for grocery stores, their printers can easily handle it. But it will be a logistical headache getting it into the system state-wide.

Ending his message with “after session ends this summer, I might take a short cruise across the Gulf of America and have a juicy medium-rare Texas Strip” is such a perfect encapsulation of the current state of politics in America. I grew up on an island in Florida in the Gulf, an island that has an MTV reality show named after it, and suddenly someone signs apiece of paper and this body of water I’ve been living on for most of my life has a different name and everyone is expected to immediately click their heels and start calling it by a different name?

Obviously, this will only apply to beef sold within the state of Texas but as the nation’s largest cattle producer will it only be a matter of time before the name change is tied to meat sales contracts?

If there are farmers in Texas who really, truly want this and are sickened by the name ‘NY Strip’ which is known by everyone across the planet then maybe it’s worth having a discussion about changing the name but to have someone swoop in and make this decision unilaterally is not right. We should hear from the cattle ranchers and not from the politician.

What Is A New York Strip Steak? Would Texas Strip Steak Be The Same?

A NY Strip is simply a cut of steak from the top loin. It was popularized by Delmonico’s Steakhouse in NYC and the name NY Strip stuck.

If you look at a T-Bone steak from the top, the NY Strip is the larger side and the other side is the tenderloin or fillet mignon. Personally, I think we should consider branding the Tomahawk Ribeye as the Texas Tomahawk because it’s the most bad a– cut of steak there is and Texas if feeding our nation with beef. Let’s give Texas the best cut in the game? Why bother intra-state politics over the NY Strip when the Tomahawk is right there for the taking?