Running a steakhouse takes “chops — pun intended,” says Joshua Heide. He should know. Heide is general manager at Kennedy Steakhouse, located on the corner of 5th Avenue and Pearl Street in Eugene’s Market District.
Kennedy opened in September 2024, filling a hole in Lane County’s restaurant scene. Part of the Portland-based Urban Restaurant Group, it offers a wide variety steak dishes, served with impeccable service in a white-tablecloth fine dining environment.
Jacob Henrichs is Kennedy Steakhouse’s executive chef. He and Heide agree that it takes looking at — and, of course, eating — a lot of steak to pull off the steakhouse concept.
Kennedy offers a full bar and a varied menu, including house-made desserts, but Heide and his chef say its signature dish is the namesake “Kennedy Steak,” an eight-ounce tenderloin filet served surf-and-turf style with shrimp, crab, and béarnaise sauce.
Henrichs says the steakhouse sources only the finest ingredients, choosing local options whenever possible. Much of the restaurant’s steak comes from Pendleton Beef in Eastern Oregon. When evaluating a cut of beef, Henrichs considers the marbling, the fat-to-meat ratio, color, and thickness. “Our meat is prime grade,” he says.
The quality of the ingredients is key to the Kennedy philosophy, Heide says. “You’re not having to over-season anything if you’re taking your time and cooking and rendering fat completely.” When done right, the execution “speaks for itself,” he says. “If it’s a good piece of meat and you cook it correctly and get it out on time, it’s going to eat well.”
For vegetarians, Kennedy offers salads, and there’s fish for pescatarians. The kitchen will consider diet-specific requests on a case-by-case basis. Heide says that Henrichs has been known to run to a local bakery mid-shift to get a gluten-free cake for a customer.
Kennedy is one of several Urban Restaurant Group establishments in Eugene. The others are a few blocks away at the Gordon Hotel, including the Gordon Tavern, the 86 Speakeasy, and Carlita’s Rooftop, which specializes in tacos, tequila, and whiskey.
Heide, who had lived in Eugene once before, moved back from Portland to help open the Gordon Tavern, before moving on to Kennedy. The recent development in the Market and Riverfront districts has been a boon for the area, he says, and Kennedy’s business has been gangbusters since it opened, popular with locals and tourists alike.
Kennedy’s interior has been renovated since the restaurant’s days as Steelhead Brewery, with dark maple finish and curtained windows creating a steakhouse’s signature sense of high-end exclusivity — an atmosphere matched by the service, Heide says.
Upon entering Kennedy, you’re not “in a loud room,” he says. “The idea is that nothing’s ever rushed, and every single detail is adhered to.”
“It’s very detail-oriented,” Heide says of the steakhouse’s ethos. “We don’t give our servers large sections, four tables maximum, so that the servers are never running around sweating.” And patrons are never “cattle-called to your table,” he adds. “At a fast-casual restaurant,” Heide says, “you’re looking at maybe seven steps of service: being seated, your greeting, your order taking, your checkbacks. We are upwards of 13.”
Kennedy accepts walk-ins. But Thursday through Saturday, reservations are highly recommended.
“My job,” Heide says, “is being in the front of house. I spend half the day staring at a computer planning this service out. And the other half I spend touching every single table, making sure that we get ahead of any issues whatsoever.”
Heide even takes meticulous notes on each customer, which are revisited when they return. “Half of our regulars,” he says, “I know their kids’ names, when their birthdays are, what they do for a living. It’s just an all-encompassing experience.”
The overall goal, he adds, “is that this is a nice, calm environment. Through that, we have attracted a very professional serving staff as well, who make a living doing this.” Some of them have been in the food services industry for 30 years. “Menu knowledge goes a long way with servers, not someone staring at an iPad,” Heide says. “A lot of the feedback that we get is one: the food is delicious; and two: everything went perfectly.”
But the million-dollar question, in terms of steak, is rare or medium-rare. “I cook mine medium-rare,” Heide says, “depending on the cut. This may be sacrilege, but sometimes ‘medium’ is better for different cuts — the fat needs a little bit longer to render.”
“It depends on the cut,” Chef Henrichs agrees. “I’m going to have a filet medium-rare,” but if it’s a rib-eye, “I like it a little more medium because it tends to be a fattier cut and rendering out a little bit more helps.”
