Best Caesar Salad

The trouble with most Caesars nowadays is they're either supplemented beyond recognition with grilled chicken breast or, God help us, Chilean sea bass, or they're treated like some variety of garden-fresh health food. Nothing could be further from the truth. The true Caesar, the noble Caesar, the Caesar we fell in love with beyond all boundaries of reason at a Guadalajara hotel when we were 5 years old, fairly drips with oil and cheese and raw egg and briny, salty anchovies. Not only does Alfred's serve up the genuine article (OK, the restaurant coddles the egg for a minute or so, but nobody's perfect), it prepares this most show-bizzy of dishes before your eyes with plenty of understated brio, as God and Caesar Cardini intended. The result: a tangy, rib-sticking platter of greens that's more than a match for the steak and cheesecake to come.