Durgin Park in Boston represents the quintessential prime rib restaurant in the US. Famous for its Durgin cut (bone on, barely fit on the plate portion), it is always on my mind when I head to the northeast. Topped off with a pastry from
Mike's Pastry in the North End, and you've just described one of my favorite Boston evenings.
Back to reality however; the bar and experience which Durgin Park sets is difficult to match. Carver Creek in Raleigh (strange location, stuck behind the ice cream shop, right before the beltine off Capital) is a nice home style restaurant which claims to have a great prime rib. They serve a prime rib coated in the herbs it was cooked in, with a great medium to medium rare texture. Overall, the lunch was solid - however, nothing so memorable as to want to return. A great place if you need to have a quick business lunch, but not so inspiring to warrant a drive from Chapel Hill.
The dinner menu may be better... but lunch was not great enough to warrant us trying.
