Peter Luger

On our list of the best special-occasion restaurants in New York.

This Williamsburg steakhouse has served food from the same address since 1887, when it opened as Carl Luger's Cafe, Billiards and Bowling Alley. His son later shortened the name to Peter Luger, and a loyal regular named Sol Forman bought the place at auction to keep it running. The room still reads like a German beer hall: dark wood, steins on the walls, candelabras overhead. Servers in white aprons write orders on paper pads and bring bread with cooked onions and garlic ahead of the dry-aged porterhouse, and the register takes cash, checks or the house's own card, never a credit card.