1. Slice into a meatball pie at East Glisan Pizza Lounge

The top call at this exceptionally kid-friendly neighborhood spot is the meatball pie. Excellent, golf ball-sized pork rounds bound in garlic, thyme and leftover pizza sourdough crumbs join pools of fresh mozzarella atop a cracker-thin sourdough stratum. 

2. Cut into steak frites at Angel Face

One of the city’s best steak-and-fry combos is tucked away in that soigne shoebox of a bar next door to Navarre. A heaping bed of golden, super-crispy fries—it puts the golden arches to shame—sets the stage for a rosy-rare slices of teres major steak topped with garlic-parsley butter. Order with a classic martini, and let the night slip away. 

3. Munch on pakora at the Sudra

Crunchy, salty, tangy, and served lava-hot straight from the fryer, this vegan-Indian micro-saloon’s habit-forming pakora (quick-pickled, chickpea-battered broccoli and cauliflower) are tasty enough to challenge tater tots for bar snack supremacy. Dunk each golden nubbin in fruity-tart house chutney and zingy cilantro-lemon sauce, so flavorful they make ketchup taste like wallpaper paste. 

4. Sample tacos at Uno Mas

Pick from a list of 20 or so two-bite wonders, from tender barbacoa brisket cooked with avocado leaves to juicy endiablado prawns in red-hot chile marinade and oregano, all singing inside house-pressed corn tortillas.

5. Suck down a “Gin Tonic” at Chesa

Bartender Tony Gurdian affects a herculean upgrade to a well classic, ditching the usual tonic water and instead carbonating Tanqueray with a simple syrup he crafts with medical grade quinine and intensified clarified lime juice. Impossibly crisp, it is the platonic ideal of a G&T.