Texas push to rename New York strip steak doesn't sit well with Long Island merchants

Some Long Islanders aren't having a cow over a brewing beef battle.

Restaurants and butchers on Long Island said there's no meat to Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's recent proposal to change the name of the iconic New York strip steak to the Texas strip.

One Long Island meat merchant called Patrick's proposal an utter joke.

“No pun intended, I’m not trying to start any beef with Texas,” said Lee Seelig, president and third-generation meat purveyor of the family-owned Main Street Meats and the Farmingdale Meat Market in Farmingdale.

Seelig joined other local merchants who said the New York strip is here to stay.

The debate started after Patrick recently announced that the Texas Senate will file a resolution to officially change the name of the New York strip steak, according to The Associated Press. Patrick said he got the idea after meeting with Texan cattle feeders and raisers who said their favorite cut of meat is “New York strip.”

“I asked why we didn’t call it a ‘Texas Strip’ because New York has mostly dairy cows. Just because a New York restaurant named Texas beef a New York Strip in the 19th century doesn’t mean we need to keep doing that,” Patrick wrote on X.

Patrick, a Republican, serving under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott since 2015, framed the rebrand as a way to advertise Texan beef, though his post may have created some after taking a political jab at New York.

“Liberal New York shouldn’t get the credit for our hard-working ranchers,” Patrick wrote.

Abbott said Texas has 12.2 million heads of cattle, the most in the United States. The cattle industry is the state’s largest agricultural commodity with an approximate market value of $15.5 billion, according to the Texas Department of Agriculture.

By comparison, New York State has roughly 1.4 million heads of cattle, including 100,000 beef cows, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The Empire State had more than 600,000 dairy cows as of 2024.

Long Island's Seelig said Tuesday, “There's a lot of different meat cuts that have a lot of different names related to locations.”

“There’s St. Louis ribs and London broil," he added. “I don’t know what’s really motivating it but it sounds like a political stunt for Texas to talk bad about New York,” he said.

David Popp, owner of retail butcher shop Babylon Village Meat Market, said he’s not making any changes.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s always been a New York strip," Popp said.

Popp said the cut has a historic tie to the state that should be honored.

“It originated in New York City,” he said. “If that’s where it originated, then we’ve got to keep it.”

The strip steak got its name from Delmonico’s restaurant, which was started in Manhattan during the 19th century and labeled the beef cut as “New York strip,” according to The New York Post, AP said. The name soon become commonplace.

While it is doubtful that a name change — even one signed into Texas law — would catch on, there are better ways to handle the proposal, marketing and branding experts told Newsday.

“My gut reaction is that the chances for nationwide or worldwide success would be quite an uphill battle,” said Doug Drotman, public relations professional and president of Drotman Communications in Commack.

Drotman said a campaign promoting a new Texan way to prepare and cook the strip might have been a better strategy than jumping into a political division. 

Chris Meyer, managing partner of both Frank's Steakhouse in Rockville Centre and Harvest House Tavern in Malverne, said the involvement of politics in the steak debate left a bad taste in his mouth.

“It’s completely ridiculous, and I think they should keep politics out of the food services industry,” said Meyer, whose two restaurants both serve New York strip. 

Given the popularity of the name and its historic roots, Meyer said he’s not changing his menus.

“It’s always going to be New York strip to me, I can assure you that," he said.

With AP