San Morello

San Morello is the dressed-up anchor of the Shinola Hotel — James Beard Award winner Andrew Carmellini’s love letter to the coastal towns of Southern Italy, planted at the corner of Woodward and Parker’s Alley since the hotel opened. The kitchen runs on wood fire: blistered pizzas, housemade pastas, and seasonal dishes that pull from the sunnier end of the boot, served in a room wrapped in 180 degrees of custom windows that open the whole space to the street in fine weather. It does weekday lunch and weekend brunch alongside dinner, and it manages hotel polish without hotel stiffness — the flagship of the same NoHo Hospitality family that runs the rest of the block, from the beer hall to the hidden Evening Bar, but this is the one you book for the occasion.

We’ve only admired it from the alley side so far, camera in hand, which is exactly why it sits high on our list: downtown date night, out-of-town guests, the dinner that needs to impress without trying too hard. Reservations recommended — the room draws a crowd for a reason.