The beauty of old restaurants

There's no such thing as too many oysters.

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Welcome back to Pursuits Weekly, our look at the world's biggest culture stories, as well as ideas and recommendations around travel, dining and art. Sign up here to get this newsletter every Saturday in your inbox. The comfort of old friends The most beautiful restaurant ceiling in New York. Source: Grand Central Oyster Bar On a cold winter's day, nothing is more satisfying than the warm conviviality of a familiar face, whether that comes in the form of a person or a restaurant. Kate Krader has just dropped her latest version of Five Top Tables for New York — the best restaurants in New York City right now. It's a list suffused with highly welcome nostalgia. What Kate has put her finger on is that restaurants serve many functions, and that now in particular we aren't necessarily looking for a hot young chef doing something innovative with yam. A lot of us just need a place where the first view of the interior sparks a happy cascade of Proustian remembrances, and where you immediately feel at home. For generations of New Yorkers, Grand Central Oyster Bar, with its magical Guastavino ceilings, is one of those places. Really, it's five of those places — the dining area with checkered tablecloths on the left, the small and genial bar with Saarinen tables by the entrance, the series of low horseshoe formica counters on the right, the long higher oyster bar in front of the soup station behind them, and, finally, hidden at the back, the wood-paneled Saloon. Each has its charm. My current move is to hit the long bar at lunch, where you'll find the servers with the deepest knowledge of North American merroir, to savor a dozen New Brunswick oysters and a New England clam chowder. After 5 p.m., you'll find me in the Saloon with a martini and some oysters Rockefeller. Many regulars always order a pan-roast in the dining room, while a large group of devotees turn up seasonally for herring or shad roe. Kate, for her part, recommends the linguine with littleneck clams. What you won't find at Oyster Bar is novelty. The dish you were introduced to by your grandfather all those years ago is still on the menu now that you're old enough to introduce it to your own grandchildren. Staying consistent over the decades is not easy, but it's something that has been achieved by Raoul's, another nostalgia-heavy restaurant on Kate's list. Raoul's Proustian interior. Source: Raoul's About 60% to 70% of the SoHo institution's customers order the steak au poivre with hand-cut pommes frites, according to co-founder Guy Raoul. Even its price is unchanged: While $64 might not feel particularly accessible, it's no higher, after factoring in inflation, than the $10.50 Raoul's originally charged when it opened in 1975. (That price has now been commemorated on a $610 50th-anniversary ashtray from Moda Operandi.) Raoul's definitely has more of a scene than Oyster Bar — and it has seen more than its fair share of celebrities — but it has never felt exclusive or intimidating. A night out at Raoul's is very likely to be remembered fondly, not so much for the food (although its burger has a cult following) and more for its inimitable buzz. These are "places that have a story," says Kate, "and make you think of your aunt, or your old boyfriend or whatever." Le Veau d'Or, a dusty and past-its-prime Upper East Side institution, was also on that list until it reopened in 2024 after a multiyear closure and renovation under white-hot chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson. Today, it remains a place where memories are made — but it also has a spectacular, very old-fashioned menu with lots of offal. If you're craving oeufs en gelée or cervelle de veau, LVD will do them better than anywhere else in the country. It might have the best martini in the city too. This winter, then, the message from Kate (and me!) is to seek out the familiar. After all, there's no such thing as too many oysters. By the numbers Who wants to be a meme stock? Photographer: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images $13.5 billion: The value of 75 million shares of Rich Sparkle Holdings Ltd. at the very top of the market on Jan. 15, after the Hong Kong company announced it was acquiring global rights to 25-year-old Italian-Senegalese influencer Khaby Lame's brand in exchange for 75 million shares of stock. The deal was announced as being worth $975 million, but the stock market had other ideas. As of the close of trade on Friday, those shares are worth $6.2 billion. 22 million: The number of liters of brandy China imported in 2025. That's down almost 40% from 2024, thanks to extra tariffs China imposed in retaliation for higher European levies on Chinese electric vehicles. The result has been a "violent crisis" in the Cognac industry, says Thibaut Delrieu, managing director of Hine. 70: The number of tons of gold that Tether bought last year. The stablecoin issuer continues to buy more, at the rate of one to two tons a week, per its chief executive officer. At current prices, Tether's hoard is worth about $24 billion — which sounds like a lot until you realize that Germany's is worth $600 billion. 50%: The proportion of cocktails sold at New York's Bufón that are martinis — either the house dirty martini or a pre-batched iteration including a splash of fino sherry. Eclecticism lives Ernestine Mills's angel. Source: Jon Cooney Possible Worlds, a 1928 enamel on copper by English artist and suffragette Ernestine Mills, sold for $35,000 this week from the "Study of a Young Collector" booth at the Winter Show in New York. The project was a joint venture from 12 up-and-coming international dealers who, Chris Rovzar writes, "worked together to capture the yearnings of a certain kind of new client — who they believe doesn't want to simply chase name-brand artists." A West African city break The view over the Atlantic from Terrou-Bi's pool. Source: Terrou-Bi Dakar It took Qatar's Nasser Al-Attiyah 48 hours, 56 minutes and 53 seconds to win the Dakar Rally for the sixth time earlier this month, which confusingly took place entirely in Saudi Arabia. If you'd rather go to Dakar itself, fresh off Senegal's victory in the Africa Cup of Nations, then look no further than our Where to Go In 2026 guide. The West African city, home to Dakar Fashion Week and the Dak'Art biennale, also boasts a lovely hotel, Terrou-Bi, with more than 100 new beachfront suites. If you're dreaming of going somewhere warm, prices for a two-night stay over Valentine's weekend start at $780 and top out at $1,820 for a 900-square-foot sea-view suite. Milan done right The Fresco Suite at the Four Seasons Hotel Milano. Source: Four Seasons If you're looking for a truly luxurious base from which to visit the Winter Olympics, by contrast, you can't do better than one of the four grandest hotels in Milan — Portrait Milano, in a massive 16th century seminary; the Bulgari Hotel Milano, overlooking Brera's botanical garden; the Mandarin Oriental Milan, which has stitched together four formerly separate palazzos; and, of course, the Four Seasons Hotel Milano, in a 15th century convent. "After a thorough renovation in 2025," writes Brandon Presser, the hotel's 118 rooms have been "tastefully done up in a playful palette of melone, amarena and other gelato colors." New for subscribers: Free article gifting. 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