John’s Grill is widely known for its carefully curated menu of salads, steak, seafood, pasta, and sandwiches, all at reasonable prices. The restaurant’s signature dish is the Sam Spade’s Lamb Chops, named for author Dashiell Hammett’s famed private eye. Hammett, a frequent customer of John’s Grill, had Spade wolfing down a plate of John’s “chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes.” The restaurant has a subtle motif adapted from the Hammett classic, “The Maltese Falcon,” and there’s a statue of the infamous black bird in a case on the second floor.