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Why Smith & Wollensky made the SteakMap list

It is the only national steakhouse group that dry-ages and hand-carves its own USDA Prime on site at every restaurant. Nearly every other chain at this price ships in portioned steaks. This one runs a butcher room.

The beef is selected from the top 2 percent of American beef graded USDA Prime, dry-aged up to 28 days, then butchered in house.

The signature cut

The one to order is the 44oz American wagyu bone-in ribeye — finished by hand and carved tableside. At that weight it is a shared plate for two or three, and the tableside carve is the part worth staying for.

The house history

The original opened in 1977 at 49th and Third in New York, in the building that had housed Manny Wolf’s Steakhouse, founded by Alan Stillman — the man who created T.G.I. Friday’s — with Ben Benson.

The name is the best story in American steakhouse history: Stillman opened a New York phone book at random, took “Smith” off the first page, turned to the next and took “Wollensky.” Neither man existed.

The Las Vegas room

This location is in the Grand Canal Shoppes at 3377 South Las Vegas Boulevard, inside the Venetian complex mid-Strip. That places it within walking distance of a dense cluster of casino steakhouses — the in-house butchery is the thing that separates it from its neighbors.