Why Steve Albini Wasn't The Biggest Fan Of Restaurants

Steve Albini was best known for his impact on the music industry, both as a musician and a producer, but he had a not-so-secret second life as a foodie. In the 20-teens his food blog became quite popular with fans who enjoyed reading about the different foods he enjoyed cooking and eating. One thing he wasn't too into, though, was eating out at restaurants.

You might think that Albini's fame might have had something to do with this — it must be somewhat inconvenient to dine out when you're a celebrity of sorts, what with people wanting selfies or autographs, or, in Albini's case, perhaps pestering him to listen to their band's demo. Still, he wasn't quite at a Taylor Swift level of recognition, so he didn't mention this as being particularly problematic. Instead, as he told Grub Street, "I appreciate restaurant cooking, but I prefer cooking myself to ordering off of a menu." He went on to explain, "There's something about making food for someone else that can't be replaced, like having a conversation is better than listening to a lecture." (Some foods just taste better when they're homemade.)

Steve Albini also seemed to feel that the quality of restaurant food, in many cases, isn't always worth the high prices being charged. In his conversation with Grub Street, he opined, "Certain things, like red meat for example, are routinely awful at restaurants and routinely delicious at Tim Midyett's place." Midyett is a fellow musician who's played in several bands (none of them Albini's), although these days he primarily works in advertising. In addition to apparently grilling a mean steak, (Albini says Midyett's meat is something you might pay $100+ for in a restaurant specializing in expensive steaks), he also has one food-related side gig: He produces and sells Midyett Premium Rub, which is a meat seasoning flavored with coffee and sumac.

Albini was a huge fan of Midyett's meat rub, telling Grub Street it's "absolutely essential for a kitchen that cooks meat" (or at least one that prefers dry rubs to marinades). He also said it was the only kind of meat rub he bought since he usually preferred to make his own seasoning blends. Albini's endorsement of Midyett Premium undoubtedly didn't hurt its marketing — in fact, the product got a feature-length write-up in Bon Appetit based on Albini's endorsement of it. If Midyett had decided to turn his backyard barbecues into a business as well, it's possible that this would have been one establishment that could have been an exception to Albini's anti-restaurant stance.