Sant Ambroeus Madison

The Upper East Side flagship that brought Milan's all-day café culture to Madison Avenue in 1982 and never let go of it.

Walk in past the espresso bar and its glass case of cornetti and gelato, and the room opens into mahogany-paneled dining quarters where regulars have been ordering the same cotoletta and vitello tonnato for decades. It's less about reinvention than about doing Milanese classics — risotto, tagliatelle alla Bolognese, a well-built negroni — exactly the way they should be done, morning through last call.

Best for: A civilized Milanese breakfast, a client lunch, or an evening glass of Barolo at the marble bar