St. Anselm

A narrow brick-and-wood room with maybe eight tables and a long counter facing the grill, open since 2011 and still one of the best places in the city to eat a steak. Everything is cooked in the open, showered with salt, and the room feels like a cabin upstate that happens to be on Metropolitan Avenue.

Order the butcher's steak — every time, even over the pricier cuts — then pan-fried mashed potatoes, creamed spinach and whatever else appeals, and a chocolate pot de crème to finish. Two people should ask for the counter, where you can watch the grill work.