When consumers clamp onto their wallets in a recession, some operators react nimbly. Veteran chef-owner Allen Susser has been doing so for the past year at Chef Allen’s restaurant in Aventura, Fla., a Miami-area favorite since 1986. He has dialed the concept back from a high-end dining spot to a more casual, lower-priced modern seafood bistro.
The menu at Chef Allen’s is simpler, but still imbued with the local ingredients and creative flair that made Susser a pioneer of the New World Cuisine movement and a James Beard Foundation Award winner. A key piece of cooking equipment in this effort is one that impressed him in his formative days—a traditional cast-iron Lyonnaise wood-burning grill like the one he used as a young commis cook in Paris in the 1970s.
“I realized how much flavor you get from burning wood, and I wanted to use that technique myself,” Susser said. “Years later, when I opened my restaurant, I was set on finding a Lyon-style grill.”
The grill has always been useful, Susser said. But today he uses it more than ever to satisfy patrons with a yen for hearty, straightforward fare like Niman Ranch skirt steak, Black Angus filet mignon and free-range chicken paillard, priced from $20 to $30.
“This is Florida, where people want to have a casual, fun time but still enjoy great food,” he said. “Overall, I think the needs of customers and where we’re going with food have changed dramatically over two decades.”
He likens the appearance of the grill to “an oversized, old-fashioned cash register.” It has a horizontal grate over the firebox and a vent at the rear. A hinged cover can be closed for smoking or concentrating heat if desired. The sides and bottom of the grill retain heat well because they are made of three-inch cast iron.
While wood-burning grills and ovens are common in restaurants today, Susser noted that his French-built device, rare in the United States, has certain advantages. Stoked to an intense 720 degrees Fahrenheit, it is fast and versatile for cooking a variety of menu items.
“It gives you great control of cooking, whether over flame or indirectly over hot coals,” Susser said. “I like to start off lobsters right on the flame at about 720 degrees, then move them off to a slower spot to cook through. Fish like swordfish, wahoo and cobia, as well as steaks, work beautifully on it as well.”