Providence

On Melrose Avenue, Providence has spent two decades quietly making the case that less can floor you. Chef Michael Cimarusti fell for the ocean as a kid fishing in Providence, Rhode Island — yes, the namesake — and to this day works almost entirely with wild-caught American seafood, including a soft-poached egg with sea urchin and salt-roasted Santa Barbara spot prawns people have been ordering for years. Co-owner Donato Poto runs the room with that rare warmth-plus-polish, all under a drifting “Sea Clouds” glass sculpture. Three Michelin stars and a James Beard nod for hospitality just made official what the regulars never doubted.