♪ the french may have lost that one, but some things french have stayed firm, unbowed, resiliently unchanged by trends or history. the continental is the kind of place about which i am unreservedly sentimental. >> when i was younger, ate here with my parents and my grandparents. >> it opened in 1956. >> classic, un-ironic cuisine ancienne, meaning dishes you haven't seen since like forever, a hipster-free zone of french continental oceanliner classics such as caesar salad tossed fresh to order, tableside, and beef tartar, also prepared tableside, as one must.