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Why Morton’s made the SteakMap list

Morton’s is one of the restaurants that defined what an American steakhouse chain could be, and it started with a hamburger and a shouting match.

Arnie Morton and Klaus Fritsch both worked at the Playboy Club in Montreal before they properly knew each other. The club was reworking its menu, Klaus cooked a burger, and it went out to Arnie to taste. Arnie came through the kitchen door demanding to know who had made it. Klaus stepped forward, not at all sure which way it was about to go, and Arnie told him it was the best hamburger he had ever eaten.

1978, in a basement

The two of them opened Morton’s of Chicago in 1978, in the basement of Newberry Plaza next door to Arnie’s existing restaurant. The original menu was almost aggressively simple: large steaks and giant baked potatoes.

That restraint is still the house style. Morton’s does not chase trends, does not clutter the plate, and sells USDA Prime beef cooked hard and fast. If you want a kitchen doing something clever with a flat iron, this is the wrong room. If you want a large steak done properly, it is the right one.

The White Plains room

This location is at 5 Mamaroneck Avenue in downtown White Plains, the commercial center of Westchester County. It is a business-dinner room first — convenient to the county courthouse and the office towers, and an easier reservation than the Manhattan locations forty minutes south.

Prices

Morton’s does not publish per-location pricing online, so SteakMap has no verified White Plains figures to quote. Sides are ordered separately and portioned to share, which is worth factoring in.

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