The Occidental

Last year, Stephen Starr took over this centenarian dining room by the White House and turned the dusty relic into one of the chicest restaurant spaces in town. Settle into a cozy nook drenched in olive-green velvet, or a table in the buzzier upstairs dining room, and you’re whizzed back to an era of three-drink lunches. (The excellent martinis help.) The menu is both elegant and easy to like. We go straight for pigs in blankets, oysters in beurre blanc, or lobster bisque before moving on to a rib eye or French dip. Another fun throwback: Champagne layer cake with Barbie-pink frosting.