When he ventured out of Trump Tower for a meal with his family on Tuesday, President-elect Donald J. Trump went to the “21” Club, a former speakeasy on West 52nd Street where cast-iron lawn jockeys line the balcony above the front door. It is all of four blocks from Trump Tower.

But convenience was not necessarily the reason. The place is one of Mr. Trump’s regular hangouts. He has long had a favorite table there, one strategically placed for maximum visibility. His father was a regular, too, and has a plaque at what was his preferred table. “The Apprentice,” the reality television show that greatly elevated Mr. Trump’s celebrity, included a scene shot in the wine cellar.

The restaurant is a stop on the see-and-be-seen circuit that has helped define Mr. Trump’s New York City for more than 40 years. It is a circuit shaped not so much by discriminating taste as by celebrity culture — the right nightspots and parties, Broadway openings, red carpets, paparazzi with their cameras and flash guns.

Image A plaque near the favorite “21” table of Mr. Trump’s father. Credit... Emon Hassan for The New York Times

In some ways, Mr. Trump’s New York is the city of the “Bonfire of the Vanities” set. In the 1970s, he spent late nights at Studio 54, the notorious disco for the rich and famous. More recently, when he treated Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, to pizza, he took her to a Famous Famiglia on Broadway, a chain restaurant where most pizza-savvy New Yorkers would be unlikely to dine.