When the W New York concierge recommended the Lamb’s Club with a reference to AMC’s Mad Men, I knew that it was going to be a winner. Straight out of the 60s, this Art Deco gem has been recently transformed into more than just the restaurant – a full hotel opened in 2010 to complete the historical preservation of the building.

The Lamb’s Club is located just steps off the “Great White Way,” but as you step through the heavy glass doors, you are transported generations back to the time of the building’s original tenants: the Lambs, America’s first professional theatrical club.  Illustrious members of the Lamb’s Club included John Wayne, Spencer Tracey and Fred Astaire, who once said, “When I was made a Lamb, I felt I had been knighted.”

Enjoying a meal in the Lamb’s Club will have that effect on you. An oversized 18th-century French fireplace warms the room, and the spacious red leather banquets invite guests to enjoy drawn-out, sumptuous meals of heritage pork ravioli, seared sea scallops with Vadouvan sauce, and prime Delmonico steaks.

This is contemporary American, done flawlessly.