Rush at Kobe Club: The Real Story

RUSH: So I get home last night after the charitable outing. I had to leave really, really early in the morning, and I didn’t have a chance to look at the computer or any newspaper stuff. So I’m doing all that last night when I get home, and I run across this blurb about me in Page Six. Did you see this? I told you people that I went to this restaurant in New York last Thursday, called the Kobe Club. The Kobe Club is a steakhouse but it’s unlike any steakhouse that you’ve ever been to. I did my best in a short period of time to describe how indescribable the place is. So I’m reading about this in Page Six yesterday. According to the New York Post: ‘Rush Limbaugh lived large at Kobe Club Thursday night, devouring bacon with truffles, Japanese strip steak, Kobe beef cheek ravioli, a large seafood platter, a combo of American, Australian, and Japanese Wagyu steak, and several side dishes. After the $700 feast Limbaugh left the server a $1,000 tip.’ Well, if you people think I ate all of that while in the midst of a diet — I probably hit 50 pounds here because I had to tighten my belt another notch today.

Now, I have a friend whose brother-in-law is Jeffrey Chodorow, who owns the place. He has been raving about the place so I wanted to go check it out. I got in there, and we didn’t order anything. They just started bringing things. It was like a tasting sampler, and I swear they brought half the raw bar. It was two stories, two trays, one on top of another with the raw bar stuff on it. I took a couple things off that. Then little portions of all these different cuts of beef that they sell. They do sell Kobe, and Kobe is kind of like Champagne. You can’t call sparkling wine made in any other country Champagne. It has to come from the Champagne region of France to be called Champagne. It’s the same thing with Kobe beef. It has to come from Kobe, Japan, to be called Kobe. Well, the Australians and the Americans have come up with their own brand of Kobe beef that they call Wagyu since they can’t call it Kobe. Then there was a sample of US prime on the plate, and they brought three different flavors of mashed potatoes. They brought out a couple different flavors of corn. The table was overflowing with things. We didn’t order any of it. It was just the restaurant owner being nice.

This thing gets written up as though I’m a pig in the midst of this diet that I’m losing 50 pounds on. (Laughing) There were other people in there. I mentioned Randy Jackson, one of the judges from American Idol was in there, and John Rich of the country crooner duo, Big & Rich, who bought me an adult beverage. I don’t know how they didn’t get mentioned. They had a much larger party than I did. They probably ordered and ate more than I did and they didn’t show up in there. You know, people read this stuff and they believe it. If it’s in print, why, they believe it! I want to thank the people at Kobe Club. They were very nice that night. They just brought out a little sampling — well, it wasn’t little. In fact, I remember looking at the menu and ordering some things and all I can tell you, is that far more than what I ordered showed up. I didn’t eat but a smidgen of it. I wanted to eat more. It was delicious. It was superb.