There are thousands of restaurants on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and no place to eat. Ambitious new places open all the time, but few last very long. People who want to eat well, or be part of a scene, or try new things, go downtown. So that leaves people like me with only one neighborhood place, Café Luxembourg on West 70th. It’s a French bistro—red banquettes, tiled floors, and yellowed walls that suggest that smoking was encouraged back when it was opened in 1983 as a sister restaurant to the Odeon in Tribeca. It has the same classic menu of French fries, salade frisée, oysters, and burgers, but a slightly older, tweedier clientele—writers, academics, and the occasional actor. It’s not glamorous, but it definitely has a certain chic: Café Lux is the one place on the Upper West Side that feels a little bit like Paris—or at least downtown Manhattan. —Alessandra Stanley

Alessandra Stanley is the Co-Editor of AIR MAIL