Pietros - NY

Pietro’s Is NYC’s Most-Overlooked Red-Sauce Steakhouse

"A family-run Italian-American steakhouse founded in 1932 by brothers Natale and Pietro Donini during Prohibition and moved to its current location in 1984, it retains an old-school, behind-the-scenes midtown vibe — drawn curtains, servers in blue suits and a hands-on owner who started as a busboy and now runs the room with his sons. Its signature is shells à la Nat, named for Natale and notable for a rich bone-marrow sauce, and other stalwart items include baked clams (served in the original clamshell), shrimp scampi (a regular’s favorite, often paired with off-the-charts cottage fries), and steaks that remain a big draw. The bestseller is chicken Parmigiana (about 25–30 plates per service; the house averages roughly 110 covers nightly), while in-the-know diners can order an off-menu veal parmigiana fra diavolo; the menu also preserves retro dishes like chicken tetrazzini and the once-popular Chicken Pietro and chicken Dana. The kitchen tolerates extensive customization (to the staff’s occasional frustration), from bespoke chopped-salad orders to requests for extremely well-done broccoli, and the place has long attracted political and business figures — every New York mayor has eaten there — all without a strict dress code to accommodate high rollers." - Chris Crowley