Strip House

We’ve long been partial to this gilded downtown beef destination, frequented by sports stars and packs of blowhard bankers over the years, thanks to the ornate European-style sides (the goose-fat-fried potatoes, the truffled creamed spinach), the quality of the New York strip (the porterhouse isn’t bad either), and also because we happen to live directly across the street. But this original, along with the other Strip Houses (there’s one uptown and one in Vegas), has been purchased by the same sprawling restaurant conglomerate that runs Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., and although the clamorous, vaguely posh big-city vibe of this 12th Street establishment remains intact, the quality of the beef has fallen a notch or two, while the prices have ticked steadily upward.