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'Viagra Steak' Offers Lift to Lovers at Queens Diner

By DNAinfo Staff on February 6, 2012 7:26am

FLUSHING — A Queens diner that hopes to improve love lives this Valentine's Day by offering a "Viagra steak" insists the dish produces the same effect as its namesake drug — without the need for a prescription.

Kanes Diner doesn't ground the potent pill into its steaks, but chef Jose Paulino, who created the dish, boasted that his special ingredients will show similar results in the bedroom.

"The way I spice it, that's the best for love life," Paulino said after cooking up one of the steaks, which are served year-round at the hangout on College Point Boulevard between Maple and Pople avenues.

He said the double skirt steaks, which are marinated for at least a day in oil, fresh garlic and soy sauce, can help improve stamina without upsetting stomaches like tougher steaks might.

Cook Jose Paulino shows off a
Cook Jose Paulino shows off a "Viagra steak" with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables at Kanes Diner in Flushing, Queens.
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DNAinfo/Nick Hirshon

Paulino smirked when asked how he knows his steaks actually improve bedroom performance.

"People like it because when they eat it, they come back," he said. "They work."

Developer Bill Cheng, 40, of lower Manhattan, said he has eaten the steak and believes it "makes men a little bit stronger."

"I like it," he said. "Tender, tastes very good."

The diner's owner, George Kanes, quipped the steak is "always a happy ending."

Kanes said none of the diner's famous patrons — which have included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and tennis commentator Patrick McEnroe — have had a Viagra steak.

But Kanes himself eats the dish regularly.

"I have four Viagra steaks a month. One helps me," the 48-year-old restaurateur said with a smirk. "It fills me. It's tender on your teeth. It's something a senior citizen can have."

Paulino began making the steak decades ago while working at a restaurant in New Jersey and took it to Kanes when he started there 23 years ago.

About a decade ago, Kanes's father, Ernest, who used to run the diner, proposed the curious name when he "started looking at Viagra for himself," Kanes said with a laugh.

Kanes issued a guarantee to customers who try the steak.

"When you leave here," he said, "you're gonna feel better than when you walked in."

The Viagra steak, which costs $17.95, usually comes with gravy-doused mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. Paulino said he sometimes substitutes in rice and beans.

"This steak is very tender, very soft," Paulino said. "When you eat it, it's like it melts in your mouth."

John Scagnelli, 57, of Bayside, who ate lunch with his wife Carla at the diner on a recent afternoon, insisted the steak is more than just a cute marketing strategy.

"I could use it," he said with a laugh, adding that he views it as more dinner than lunch fare.

Kanes added that customers who don't try the steak still get a kick out of seeing it on the menu.

"They laugh," he said. "They love it. People come in here, they got a half-hour to sit down, relax, forget their problems for 20 minutes, rejuvenate, refuel the tank and go back out into the world. It's tough out there. It's a battle."