P.J. Clarke's • 1884

When Nat King Cole christened the bacon cheeseburger here the Cadillac of burgers in the late 1950s, he immortalized a dish that Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mercer, and Buddy Holly already knew by heart. The mahogany bar has anchored this Midtown saloon since 1884, when Irish immigrant laborers first lined up for cold pints in a red-brick building that somehow survived Prohibition, developers, and skyscrapers rising all around it. Pull up to Table 20—Sinatra's seat—and taste what over 140 years of New York grit looks like on a bun.