“Steak is my favorite animal.”

Fran Lebowitz said that. Don Day wishes he had said that. Not just because Don Day thinks it was a very witty thing to say. But because Don Day thinks a lot of people’s favorite animal is steak. And Don Day knows a lot of people’s favorite steak is filet mignon.

In olden days, which refers to the days when Don Day wore most of his hair on his head instead of his chin, filet mignons were the most expensive cut of steak you could buy. But that was because in the days when Don Day had hair on his head, filet mignons were different. They came only from the very narrow end of the tenderloin, which represented only about a pound of meat per animal and meant that you could only get two good thick filet mignons or three not so good thick filet mignons from a single cow. In fact, if you were a steak aficionado (and there were a lot more steak snobs in those olden days), you would send a filet mignon back if it ventured over three fingers or about two and a half inches in width.

Today, despite the word mignon being french for dainty, Don Day has seen filet mignons that are wider than his fist. Which means that they come from almost the opposite end of the tenderloin. Which means that they are no longer the most expensive cut of steak. Which means that if you are targeting older people like Don Day to your restaurant, who still think of filet mignon as the royalty of red meat, you can use them to entice people to pay a visit.

In San Miguel de Allende, there is what restaurant chains would call a very desirable target market and what Don Day would call people who eat out a lot. One of their very best favorite things to eat is filet mignon, especially when it’s being sold at a very attractive price. Don Day is a member of this very desirable target market.

We are fifty, sixty or seventy something. We originated in the United States or Canada. We eat out at least three times a week. We often consume alcoholic beverages when we dine. And we like inexpensive places so we can afford to eat out more often.

When I think of the San Miguel restaurants that are most after us as customers, three places come to mind. La Frontera, The Longhorn Smokehouse and Hansen’s Bar & Grill. And wouldn’t you know it, they all have filet mignon specials.

La Frontera‘s special is on Wednesdays. The Longhorn‘s is on Thursdays. And Hansen’s is on Fridays and Saturdays.

Last Friday, Don Day and 13 other guys, a group also known as The Gentlemen Who Lunch, went to check out how good Hansen’s filet mignon is.

We started with a mixed salad consisting of red and green leaf lettuce topped with a selection of root vegetables including jicama, beet and carrot plus tomatoes and cucumber, a nice surprise slice of pickled egg and a simple but very tasty vinaigrette. The guys appreciated the vinaigrette on the side so they could choose whether to just rinse their salad or give it a good dowsing.

Next came an exceptional minestrone soup. Now Don Day usually stays away from minestrone soup. Because minestrone soup is usually…or at least sometimes…a what’s hanging around in the fridge or vegetable basket soup. This minestrone was an obviously planned mix of green beans, carrots, kale, zucchini, onion, celery, fusilli pasta and what Don Day thinks were real Romano beans. What Don Day liked most was how the taste of each individual ingredient stood on its own two feet as you slurped the big bowl of peppery broth. And how it got even better when you dunked the garlic bread in it.

The filet mignon special is available only from 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Fridays and Saturdays at Hansen’s and, at 109 pesos, is the least expensive of the three restaurants offering the steak specials. Don Day ranks it as one of the best bargains in any restaurant in San Miguel de Allende at any time.

The filets averaged a generous 250 grams (a little more than 8 ounces) and were barded before being cooked. You bard a steak by reading a couple of Shakespearean sonnets to it to get the meat to relax. No you don’t and, though you may not know the word bard, you do know what it means. Because the tenderloin is such a lean piece of meat you wrap a filet mignon in a generous amount of bacon and then skewer it in place. It not only holds in the moisture but helps prevent the filet from being overcooked.

Hansen’s filet was nicely spiced but not overspiced. Both the texture and tenderness were excellent. It was well-charred on the outside and very moist inside. And, most importantly, there was a nice, rich beefy taste.

The filet came with what a fancy steakhouse would call a bouquetiere or melange of vegetables, what Hansen’s simply calls steamed vegetables, and what Don Day would call perfectly done cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and green beans.

Hansen’s is obviously putting more emphasis on steak now than when it first opened a couple of years ago. You’ll find a ribeye, a strip loin and the filet mignon all on the regular menu. And more and more, people are telling Don Day that red meat is the reason they’re going to the restaurant.

Hansen’s has three partners: Dick Weber, Roberto Hansen and Arvino Kagan. Dick is the mostly serious one, Roberto the sometimes serious one, Arvino the never serious one.

I asked Hansen’s partners where they source their beef. Roberto has obviously been hanging around with Arvino too long. His answer: “It all comes from cows.”

Dick Weber was considerably more enlightening.

“It comes from the States. It’s the only way we can get enough marbling,” Dick said. “We buy only USDA Certified Black Angus.”

The beef Hansen’s serves is rated Choice or higher in the U.S. and would be classed as AAA in Canada. As there are very few people in San Miguel de Allende (or anywhere else in the world) that are willing to pay the ridiculous prices that Prime rated beef brings these days, the beef at Hansen’s is the best possible beef that’s still relatively affordable.

“It is wet-aged a minimum three weeks in Cryovac then, to really bring out the flavor, we dry age it another three weeks”, Dick continued.

Arvino, the third Hansen’s partner, went on to say, “A good steak is like a good woman…” but Dick shushed him before he could finish.

I asked Dick Weber if there were any more reasons that Hansen’s has so quickly built a reputation for red meat.

“I think it’s extremely important that when you’re aging your meat you don’t preslice it,” Dick said. “We leave everything as a roast and don’t make a cut until a customer orders a steak.”

“Business has been booming lately. We just had our best Saturday ever and I give most of the credit to our steak program.”

The guys were now on to dessert with about two thirds of us choosing the creme brulee and the other third, the tiramisu.

It was testimony to something else that Hansen’s is famous for. Quantity. You’ll never go home hungry from this restaurant and most of us had problems finishing the last course.

And speaking of going home. No matter how hungry Don Day is, he cannot leave Hansen’s without two styrofoam boxes in a plastic bag. In one is the best chicken liver pate in town. In the other is the richest chocolate truffle cake you can imagine.

Hansen’s Bar & Grill is located at Calzada de la Aurora #12 in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. They are open Thursday from 5:00 to 10:00 pm, Friday and Saturday from 1:00 to 10:00 pm. The filet mignon special is available from 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Friday and Saturday.