1.   Others, feeling flush from the strong national economy, are dining out more often at steak restaurants.

2.   Self-indulgent restaurant-goers are willing to pay for luxuries such as private wine lockers, which are common at upper-end steak restaurants.

3.   The Ochoa family owns steak restaurants in Medellin and Bogota, where walking horses worth hundreds of thousands of dollars strut amid the tables to entertain patrons.

4.   Tired commercial blocks near the National Mall are home to new office buildings and pricey steak restaurants.