This leopard’s take on Italian dining favors elegance over rusticity. Set within two Beaux Arts townhouses (once home to a Rockefeller family member), the restaurant is an understated sprawl of ivory walls contrasted against dark-stained floors and smoky mirrors.

The smartly attired staff attends to a buttoned-up crowd digging into pricey but pleasing fare like shaved artichoke salad with organic frisée, lemon, olive oil and bottarga di muggine.

Here, a golden-brown and crisp-skinned baby chicken arrives split into two neat halves, simply grilled with rosemary and lemon, and served with roasted potatoes. And like everything else at Il Gattopardo, the cassata Siciliana—with its candied fruit and bright green almond paste—is a dressed-up take on the classic.