Holleman's Restaurant and Lounge, Miami Springs

Chefs at Holleman's haul fresh catches from the sea and cuts from the chophouse to create a menu of refined American classics. Meals commence with raised wine glasses that signal forks to battle, parrying for appetizers such as herbed escargot bathed in garlic butter. For the midmeal food fight, chefs dress new york strip steak in cracked pepper and a mantle a silky cognac sauce, and pots coddle creamy artichoke-and-spinach risotto to support fresh Salmon. A selection of 11 pasta entrees includes long noodles that wrap tenderly around battered shrimp and slither under blankets of sage-tomato sauce. Under the dining room's lofted ceiling of exposed beams and olive-painted slats, white tablecloths add elegance to high-backed booths, wooden tables, and preemptive renditions of "Auld Lang Syne." A rustic brick wall separates the bar, where iron chandeliers glow above high-top tables and reflect light off elegant wooden wine cases that stack dark bottles floor to ceiling