The table that earns the babysitter.

Lakeside Drive's newer room, done in an Old Hollywood key — patio seats facing the water, a menu that runs from short ribs to sushi rolls, a cocktail list longer than the wine list. It's the reservation to make when Guppy's is booked and you still want the water view. Go for sunset on the patio; the dining room reads better after dark.

Farm-to-table by day, performance venue by night — the same room serves breakfast off local ingredients, then turns into a stage for live music, storytelling, and the occasional comedy set. Check the calendar before you book dinner; a Thursday might come with a folk duo you didn't plan for. The kind of Mayville stop that doesn't fit neatly into one category, which is the point.

The Institution's grand hotel dining room, open to the public as well as hotel guests — a breakfast buffet, a Sunday brunch worth building a Chautauqua day around, and a porch table over the lake if the weather holds. Farm-to-table leaning, seasonal with the nine-week Institution calendar (late June through August), and formal enough to be the closest thing on the lake to a jacket-suggested room. Reserve the porch, not the main room.

Housed in the old Ironstone building downtown — a fireplace dining room, dark wood, and a covered patio that extended the season. Steaks, seafood, and a kitchen that's kept its footing through decades of the same operator running the room. It's the Jamestown table locals point out-of-towners toward first, and the rating backs that up.

A dimly lit, red-walled bistro on East 3rd Street running an eclectic menu since 2004 — a full sushi list next to poutine, goat cheese with apple-cranberry chutney next to a $19 steak-and-beer special at the bar. Dinner runs Tuesday through Friday; the lounge stays open later for cocktails. Trust the specials board here more than the printed categories suggest.

Chef-owner Spencer Erickson cooks nearly everything himself in the Fenton building's ground floor — USDA Prime cuts, a 32-ounce tomahawk for the table, and a wine list built to match. It's the newest serious steakhouse in downtown Jamestown and already the hardest reservation on a Friday. Go early, or go on a Tuesday.