Always eager to offer something new, Big Apple restaurants and bars are turning to an old and elegant ritual: drinks made tableside.

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Dishes, both refined and rustic, are presented tableside on rolling carts and trays, so you can choose what to order, a la carte.

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It also does not hurt that they heated the chorizo appetizer tableside on a flaming, pig-shaped casserole of traditional Portuguese pottery.

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If you and your prince or princess are in a sharing mood, consider ordering the chateaubriand steak, a lavish dish for two, prepared tableside.

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We have them available on little silver platters that we would bring tableside, turned upside-down, so people can sort of just peek under it.

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Serving steaks -- along with tableside-prepared Caesar salads and Bananas Foster -- since the 1950s, The Golden Steer has remained in a class of its own.

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If you want the best people-watching seats, take up residence at one of the booths and banquettes surrounding the dance floor and opt for premium bottle service or tableside mixology.

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To enable discreet delivery on the Bel-Air's 12-acre spread, elaborate plating is simplified for transit, and the food (including pan-roasted jidori chicken and hand-cut steak tartare) forgoes the flourish of tableside preparations, so soup arrives in an insulated pitcher and sauces are applied in the kitchen.

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