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When Frost opened in 1959, customers had to eat their calamari on the stoop. Today, third-generation loyalists hunker down on caramel-leather banquettes in the formal late-seventies dining room, where low stucco ceilings and softly-lit sconces inspire cross-table conversation. On a menu where seafood reigns supreme, traditionalists will delight in baked clam appetizers, a super-buttery shrimp scampi, and a seafood marinara brimming with lobster tail meat, tender calamari, plump mussels and not-for-the-squeamish scungilli. Moving away from the sea, the Southern-Italian entrées continue to follow the old adage, "Molto e molto." ("More is more.") Plates are heaped with slabs of chicken and medallions of veal then smothered in a bright, zingy red sauce or Marsala. Don't scoff at the lack of subtlety; sop it up with your bread and be prepared to join that hour-long weekend wait only partly explained by the time it takes the regulars to kiss the waiters hello. — Nicole LaRosa

Stuffed eggplant, $10; shrimp scampi, $20; seafood marinara, $28