Great American Bites: Keens Steakhouse, NYC's oldest, best

— -- The scene: The oldest steakhouse in New York City, and one of the Big Apple's oldest eateries period, Keens started as a clubhouse for the Lambs Club, a private theater and literary club. It was managed by Albert Keen, and in 1885, he opened it as a public restaurant (originally Keens Chophouse). Keens has just about the richest history of any restaurant in the country, and while it maintains the heavy, masculine, dark-wood-and-dim-light feel of classic steakhouses, it is also adorned from floor to ceiling with historic memorabilia and oil paintings spanning the past century and a half. Most notable among these displays is the playbill Lincoln held at Ford's Theater the night he was assassinated, and the world's largest collection of clay churchwardens' pipes, thousands of which hang from the ceiling, with more displayed in glass cases.

Keens' pipe smoking club once had 90,000 members. The clay pipes were too fragile to carry, so each had a serial number and was carefully stored and retrieved for their owners by the "pipe warden." Since smoking was banned in New York City, the club has become honorary, but virtually every Mayor, major political figure and high-profile New Yorker still gets a pipe. On display are pipes of past frequent Keens customers such as Albert Einstein, Teddy Roosevelt, Babe Ruth, JP Morgan, General Douglas MacArthur, Buffalo Bill Cody and hundreds more very famous names.

From the outside, Keens looks like an innocuous theater district eatery, sporting a simple black awning and heavy wood door, but inside it is huge, and can serve dinner to 750 patrons a night. There's a classic bar you can eat at that boasts one of the city's best selections of whiskies, and a sign reading "No Service Will Be Provided to Anyone On a Horse." Every day, different carefully selected flights of small samples of wines and whiskies are offered for experimentation. There's a casual front room with low tables where many regulars lunch, and the vast main dining room which stretches back and back. Upstairs is a smaller dining room and several private dining rooms stuffed with more memorabilia and history. If you ask at a moment it's not too busy, a staffer will give you an unofficial tour. Part museum, part eatery, Keens is completely unique, oozing both charm and history. But the best part is the food - I have been many times and fervently believe that Keens is the best steakhouse in New York, and maybe the entire country.

Reason to visit: Mutton chop, all steaks, grilled bacon, crabmeat cocktail, Key Lime pie, wine and whisky flights