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We do sort of miss the unapologetic bluebloodedness of the St. Regis Washington, D.C. before its various renovations. The St. Regis Bar itself was once all stogies, cognacs, political kerfuffles, and celebrating young Sebastian's Ivy League accomplishments. Modernized in 2007 to complement the arrival of Alain Ducasse's Adour restaurant, it has just received another facelift which, ironically, tips it aesthetically back to its former glories. The Rockwell Group's design draws on those particular northeastern takes on trad English comforts, all distressed leather Chesterfield sofas and herringbone floors. A custom Swarovski chandelier adds just a touch of glam.

Who says New York is cold and heartless? Every February 14, at least, we stop staring at our smartphones for a few hours and instead look adoringly into each others eyes. Here are some of our favorite places to share those looks of love.

If ever a restaurant was clear in its statement of intention, it's the new Citizens Kitchen and Bar at the Mandalay Bay Resort. Though The Light Group  has certainly glittered up Vegas with its share of flash, celeb-magnet nightspots (Haze, Lily, 1OAK, etc), CK&B has a populist bent; at 6,787 sq. ft., it can satisfy a large swath of the citizenry at once. Munge Leung's interior design has infused the massive space with a cozy Americana feel with lots of antique touches, faux-vintage lamps, and a charming higgledy-piggledy collection of art and photos adorning the walls. 

The original Nobu, which opened in Tribeca in 1994, was perhaps the first celebrity destination restaurant where the quality of the food matched the blazing star power. Now with 22 outposts from Milan to Moscow, and Melbourne to Mexico City, it was inevitable that the empire would spawn its own hotel. And so the doors are at last opening on the Nobu Hotel at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas—which stands athwart the strip’s gargantuan resorts. 

Amid the escalating commercial clamor of the Champs Elysees, the Hôtel Fouquet's Barrière remains a haven of graceful chic and sophistication. And now, with the opening inside the hotel of the fourth La Petite Maison De Nicole (one in Nice, Cannes, and London), Barrière gains a more laid-back, yet glam restaurant - in stark contrast to its more formal, Michelin-starred Le Diane. With La Petit's sliding white curtains, sexy graphic elements, and Dutch artist Hayo Sol's paintings of famous film stars (Marily Monroe), the 8th arrondissement finally recieves its necessary jolt of excitement.

Just in case the name was piquing your curiosity, hinoki is a type of Japanese cypress tree. As for "The Bird"--we'll leave that to the imagination. But the most important name here is that of David Myers, the hip young chef who has studied under masters both classical (Daniel Boulud) and experimental (Charlie Trotter). He won a Michelin star at Sona, but with Hinoki & The Bird, Myers seems to be aiming for more approachable elegance. Installed at The Century, Robert A.M. Stern's striking architectural masterpiece, Milo Garcia's interior design is airy and verdant, with reclaimed oak walls, refurbished flea market chairs, a solid copper communal table, and a living wall of vines.

Named for those old mechanical 1950's piggy banks that featured a canine jumping through a hoop and dropping a coin in a barrel, this new SF bar Trick Dog is a similarly quaint throwback. Helmed by Josh Harris and Scott Baird of the Bon Vivants group, its existing industrial elements (i.e. soaring factory windows) are offset by an urban-rustic interior design concept, all anchored by a century-old, marble-accented bar and Pantone-colored stools.

It translates roughly as "beautiful river," and while you won't actually find any romantic waterways coursing through Los Angeles, Innovative Dining Group's new RivaBella will at least transport you to somewhere more rustic. Ignoring the by-now-overdone trend toward more intimate dining venues, RivaBella is Italian grandiose, with 8,000-square-feet (2,800 of those being al fresco) of old world, Tuscan Farmhouse-inspired romanticism--as imagined by the award-winning Studio Collective. 

It's happening. Those cheeky purveyors of "pop-up" who have so altered the retail and dining landscape of the 21st Century are now deciding that permanence is not such a bad idea. To wit, San Francisco's Saison, which was a sensation when it popped up in the Mission in 2009. Now it has hung its two Michelin stars in an intimate and enduring location in SOMA.

It only makes sense that Gordon Ramsay should continue to expand his empire into the only city that can match his unapologetic brazenness. Now appropriately staking ground at Caesars Palace (what is Gordon, if not the Julius Caesar of the kitchen?), his buzzing and bustling new GR Pub & Grill continues his recent more populist bent.