Onee upon a time at the Lion, a classic West Village club tucked into a Ninth Street brownstone, Barbra Streisand sang to artists and writers and others who couldn't fathom that life existed north of 14th Street. (Future movie director Joel Schumacher worked as a busboy.) The Lion closed sometime afterward, and the space underwent a series of rebirths until it settled as a charming—though unspectacular—neighborhood bistro, which also recently shuttered its doors.

John DeLucie, executive chef and part owner of the Waverly Inn & Garden (the Waverly is co-owned by the editor of this magazine), has now teamed with restaurateur Mark Amadei to rejuvenate the Lion as a throwback to Delmonico's. The menu derives from Deludes expertise in simple, wonderfully unhip American specialties— lamb shank and branzino, for example—that have made his work such a hit at the Waverly. "Nothing too fancy or too—God forbid— foodie," he ensures.