Le Rock

The Frenchette team's brasserie on the ground floor of Rockefeller Center — a downtown bistro dropped into a grand, dimly lit Art Deco space. A big bar up front shakes and stirs at speed, and the room has the kind of energetic, well-dressed crowd that makes Midtown feel like somewhere you chose.

The menu is brasserie through and through: seafood platters, pâtés, escargots, leeks vinaigrette dressed tableside. The meat is the priority — the bison au poivre is the dish to order, with the steak haché under a slab of butter for the dry-aged-beef crowd. Finish with profiteroles under buckwheat honey fudge.