The One Can’t Miss Restaurant In Every State

Not to be confused with the California chain of the same name, this Cattlemen’s was born in 1910 in Oklahoma City’s Stockyards City area, home to major meat-processing plants. Cowboys, ranchers, and cattle haulers were among its first customers. There are drawings of some celebrated later ones on the walls, including John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. It’s not hard to guess what the focus of the menu is — prime or choice corn-fed midwestern beef.

Though it’s now part of the McCormick & Schmick’s chain, Jake’s, a downtown Portland landmark for more than 125 years, still captures the spirit of the Pacific Northwest. It also serves an ample selection of mostly seafood — oysters on the half shell, Dungeness crab and shrimp cakes, pan-seared Washington razor clams, grilled steelhead with Oregon bay shrimp, and much more.

Okay, this historic 126-year-old covered market isn’t a restaurant. But in addition to its array of appetite-stimulating produce, seafood, meats and poultry, baked goods, and more, it happens to be a great place to eat, with almost 30 food stalls preparing everything from Philly’s famous cheesesteaks (available from at least three purveyors), Italian hoagies, pizza, hot dogs, and burgers to Thai, Chinese, Caribbean, Cajun, Middle Eastern, and Pennsylvania Dutch fare.

The Rhode Island coast yields some of the seafood in the Northeast, and this waterfront restaurant sources and prepares it superbly. The restaurant has its own oyster beds (and also brings in other excellent oysters from the area), as well as its own organic vegetable farm. Fried calamari from nearby Point Judith, stuffies (stuffed clams) with Portuguese sausage, oysters Rockefeller, lobster roll, grilled Atlantic salmon — the place is a seafood lover’s paradise.

The signature dish at this genteel 22-year-old Charleston restaurant is a 12-layer coconut cake. There’s a lot more than that, though, served in the handsome dining room with its seagrass flooring and farmland wall murals and in the courtyard lit with carriage lanterns. The crab soup, lobster prepared three ways (ravioli, tempura, and sautéed), and pistachio-crusted rack of lamb are examples of the upscale fare.