Caña y Café, New York

Dominican native Sara Taveras and her husband, restaurateur Luis Taveras, blend Latin-fusion recipes with contemporary technique and a little flair from Europe, Asia, and the Caribbean. The result is a continent-spanning menu of starters such as Chinola baby back ribs served with green apple and papaya cole slaw, seafood appetizers, or classic Latin aperitivos from empanadas to plantains. Snatching up the cross-cultural baton, entrees such as pork tenderloin come with surprising sides like chipotle mashed potatoes. Diners toast before digging in with glasses of sangria, or the mojitos flavored with sugar cane, rather than the typical chocolate-covered muddler.