Le Veau d’Or

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

Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson, the chefs behind Frenchette and Le Rock, bought this Upper East Side dining room in 2019 and spent years restoring it before reopening in 2024. It had run under just three owners since 1937, drawing regulars like Orson Welles and Jacqueline Onassis, and Nasr and Hanson kept the wood-paneled walls, the red-and-white checkered tablecloths and the sleeping-calf artwork that gives the place its name. The 2024 reopening added a 20-seat private room and bar upstairs, and wine director Jorge Riera built a list of more than 100 bottles to replace what had been a simple red-or-white pour.