Café Cluny

Lynn Wagenknecht, who owns the Odeon, opened this bistro on the corner of West 4th and West 12th, with Odeon chef Vincent Nargi running the kitchen. Two mushroom-gray rooms, hung with antlers, taxidermy and framed vegetable prints, are split by a corner bar. Short ribs braise for hours in veal stock and red wine until they fall off the bone, and squash ravioli comes doused in sage and brown butter. The restaurant built its following through word of mouth rather than a splashy opening.