The FT foreign correspondents’ guide to business dining around the world

New York’s love affair with Italian food has taken a more curated twist in recent years. Stuck in Midtown? Try the classic Casa Lever, a space-age cathedral with your choice of private booth or main-floor dining, which is best known for its crudos and osso bucco alla Milanese. Venturing downtown, dine at the recently opened Roscioli in SoHo. The tasting menu of Roman delights or cacio e pepe will bring you back to the restaurant’s origins in Campo dei Fiori in the heart of Italy’s capital. Seafood perhaps? Then Santi may be worth the wait. Michael White, the former executive chef of Marea (a longtime classic) is opening this new haunt this autumn, and it’s already being hyped as a hotspot for New York’s power brokers.