Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Tea and Sympathy in NYC makes the most voluptuous welsh rarebit. It's just to die for.

I think there is an interesting divide in the US over what is and isn't a "nice" dinner. To some it's surf and turf and you pick a soup or salad and how you'd like your potato done. To others, the emphasis is on local, fresh ingredients and... well, I don't know how to define it, but I think many Serious Eats readers would have the same vision. I'm not sure if that's a white collar/ blue collar divide, or an urban/suburban/rural divide.

The New Seasons chain in and around the Portland, OR area. They emphasize relationships with local farmers; color code their seafood according to how sustainable the practices were to make it available; offer full benefits to their employees - even their part-time workers; have great tastings of fresh produce every weekend; offer free wellness classes and one-on-one meetings with nutritionists; give out small cups of free coffee and some snacks when you shop after work; and are one of the few places around here to emphasize local, organic food while also providing mass-produced options, like Doritos or Lean Cuisine.

And they're really nice, too!