Chef/Owner Jim Severson—otherwise known as Sevy—has an instinctive knack for hospitality, ensuring that when you enter his namesake restaurant, you feel right at home. The open dining room with Arts and Crafts-inspired décor is muscular and soothing and features name plaques on the tables to denote Sevy’s most devoted patrons.

His kitchen refuses to be bound by its apparent steak-seafood-pasta-centered menu veering into regional flavors deployed with panache. Highlights: Spicy duck flautas, soy-ginger-glazed Wagyu beef, ancho chili grilled shrimp, seared sea scallops, and Sevy’s award-winning Caesar salad. In other words, although the dishes fall for the most part into the “tried and true” category, the restaurant never drifts into complacency. Monthly wine dinners feature seasonal flavors shrewdly paired with wine selections from across the globe.

The bar hosts regular spirit tastings and specials plus 30 wines by the glass and 36 different scotches, pulling in a hefty after-work crowd. In fact, the bar several times earned local notice as one of the best places to hang out on a workday afternoon—after you’ve handed the boss that tried and true dental appointment excuse. No frilly cocktails here, just a group of bartenders who know the difference between Bombay and Bombay Sapphire. And that’s important.