The 20 Things We Loved Most About Restaurants This Year
As deputy editor Julia Kramer crisscrossed the country on the hunt for this year’s best new restaurants, these were dishes, drinks, and, um, blankets that delighted her along the way. With the help of BA staffers, here they all are. Just don’t call them “trends.”
Photo by Laura Murray1/20I Want to Move to L.A. and Only Eat Birria
I’m not really sure why everyone else wants to relocate to Southern California (something about the weather?), but I’m in it for the birria. On my most recent visit, I started at the new Venice location of Teddy’s Red Tacos (pictured), where I quickly learned the distinction between the Tijuana-style birria blowing up in L.A.—typically spicy slow-cooked beef—and the Jalisco-style birria I knew from my Chicago days, which was usually goat. As good as owner Teddy Vasquez’s orange-jus-stained tacos, tostadas, and quesadillas are, it was the Styrofoam cup of deeply flavorful sinus-clearing beef consommé that got me. All I need is a little Eastside bungalow and I could spend every day hitting up the list of birria spots I’ve been making since that visit: Burritos La Palma in El Monte, Tacos y Birria La Unica in Boyle Heights, Charlie’s Tacos (weekends only) in Highland Park, etc. Now if only I could remember how to drive.... —J.K.
Photo by Alex Lau2/20I Didn’t Steal This Fork (but I Thought About It)
A fork is a fork is a fork, unless it’s one of Italian company Mepra’s retro resin-handled Fantasia forks. At Renee Erickson’s Willmott’s Ghost in Seattle, you’ll find them mixed and matched in the prettiest shades of pale rose, sage, and forest. —J.K.
Illustration by David Biskup3/20Don’t Call ’Em Trash Fish
Our love for salmon and other overfished species is—sorry—ruining the ocean. Portland, Oregon’s Erizo got us amped about these alternatives.
Photo by Chelsie Craig4/20Scissors > Knives
At Kāwi in New York City, the restaurant’s name is actually a play on the Korean word for scissors. “You use them to cut barbecue and fried food,” chef Eunjo Park says. “They’re integral to Korean cooking.” She pays tribute to her heritage with gold-plated shears , which arrive with the chopsticks and spoons. We’ll spare you the Edward Scissorhands joke and just say: We’re into it. —Elyse Inamine
Buy It: Sunland Professional Stainless Steel Heavy Duty Tailor Scissors, $11 on Amazon
Photo by Laura Murray5/20Chicken Liver: It’s What’s for Appetizer
It didn’t seem like anything could become as ubiquitous on menus as steak tartare (with potato chips! or mustard seeds!), yet it’s happening: Chicken-liver mousse has taken over. I loved this Vietnamese-ish riff with crunchy veg at OK Omens in Portland, OR. —J.K.
Illustration by David Biskup6/20The Tasting Menu Is No Longer Trying to Kill Me
Part of what’s so enjoyable about a tasting menu is abdicating responsibility for making decisions and submitting entirely to someone else’s vision. But why is someone else’s vision to feed me so much food that I feel sick by the end? The excessive egos behind a few excessive tasting menus started to make me dismissive of the whole genre. I don’t think I’m alone. In fact, I know I’m not because this year I saw so many restaurants designing tasting menus with diners’ various appetites in mind.
At Kumiko and Kikkō in Chicago, the bar’s creative director, Julia Momose, customizes her cocktail pairings to every diner’s desires, and the few extraordinary bites of food on the omakase ($130), offered downstairs, are truly meant as sidecars to the beverages. I similarly appreciated Savage in St. Louis, where I could sample chef Logan Ely’s vision in a six-course tasting ($55) rather than commit to the full 12-course version. If I’m hungry afterward, I can eat a hot dog—that’s my choice. —J.K.
Photo by Laura Murray7/20Finally, You Can Take It With You (the Wine, That Is)
A bar where you can discover a beautiful wine? Fine. A bar where you can discover a beautiful wine, finish your glass, turn around, and buy a bottle of the same stuff to take home? Now that’s more like it. We’re making these new drink-in/take-out spots—from Verjus in San Francisco to All Together Now in Chicago (pictured) to Bloomsday Cafe in Philadelphia—our new one-stop shops. That’s because shopping for wine has never been so much fun. Stepping into one of these hybrid bar-shops combines the thrill of Costco samples (so much to try!) with the satisfaction of finding something you actually like and want to stock up on. So go ahead and sip on that jammy Carignan as you browse what’s on the shelves; the bartenders won’t mind. It’s what we call inspired shopping. —Alex Delany
Illustration by David Biskup8/20A Mocktail by Any Other Name
Ordering a “mocktail” once elicited a slew of sneers. And we get why: The word sounds like some cringe-worthy corporate branding or the offerings at an alarmingly under-supervised tween birthday party. But now bartenders have rechristened the nonalcoholic cocktail into a thing we can order with pride. They’re called “Sans” at Morin in Denver, “Friendly Beverages” at Molly’s Rise and Shine in New Orleans, and “Clear-Headed” at Eem in Portland, OR. And the list keeps growing. Call them what you will; we just want another. —Jesse Sparks
Photo by Laura Murray9/20We’ve Hit Peak Chocolate Chip Cookie
After years of sneaking “interesting” ingredients where nobody wanted them (all due respect, kelp), bakers have finally decided to just give the people what they want: a chocolate chip cookie that tastes like the kind they grew up with—only better. There’s the gooey-centered offering at Hot L Coffee in Austin, which is basically all chocolate with just enough flour to hold it together. Penny’s, a mini coffee shop chain in Minneapolis where the baked goods are more thoughtful and delicious than they need to be, adds tahini to the mix, lending nuttiness and depth without stealing the show. At Westman’s Bagel and Coffee in Seattle (pictured), BA fave Maldon sea salt brings the otherwise classic cookie to life. And at Ochre Bakery in Detroit, the soft domed cookie gets a subtle crunchy counterpoint from hazelnuts (get the recipe here!). They’ll remind you of childhood bake sales—if the PTA were staffed with a bunch of pastry pros. —Meryl Rothstein
Photo by Laura Murray10/20You Must Know About Pide
Three words: melty cheese canoe. If that didn’t grab your attention, the beef pide (pronounced “pea-day”) at Balkan Treat Box in St. Louis will. Chef Loryn Nalic’s version of the classic woodfired Turkish flatbread comes together in four parts. The bread is smeared with ajvar, a creamy spread made with roasted red peppers and eggplant and then dolloped with an oozy sheep’s milk–mozzarella blend for that prized cheese pull effect. Then the whole thing is topped with garlicky ground beef and kaymak, a clotted cream that tastes like a beautiful hybrid of butter, yogurt, and fresh cheese. We’re already planning our next pilgrimage to Missouri. —Aliza Abarbanel
Photo by Alex Lau11/20What Place Isn’t Milling Its Own Grains?
Kitchens across the country are sacrificing precious counter space to make fresh-ground grains—and putting them to use in a lot more than just bread. Atlanta’s Root Baking Co. processes Georgia-grown small-batch Catawba wheat in a custom 26-inch stone mill for its pillowy palm-size morning rolls dusted with cinnamon sugar. In Washington, D.C., Seylou’s 1,600-pound mill crushes local grains for baked goods and einkorn-based pizza dough. Lucinda Grain Bar’s small (but powerful!) mill breaks down sorghum and buckwheat for the Seattle restaurant’s beloved fudgy gluten-free brownie, and NYC pasta temple Leonti mills soft spring wheat to form squid ink pappardelle stuffed with baccalà and served in clam brodo. Yep, we’re far beyond sourdough now. —A.A.
Illustration by David Biskup12/20Food Is the Only Thing That’s Getting Better About Airports
Trudging off the plane at SFO after a six-hour flight from JFK, then seeing before me, like a ray of neon sunshine, the most unimaginable word, TARTINE, I had to wonder: Did I die? I was, thankfully, alive, and had deplaned at the new Manufactory Food Hall in the international terminal, which sells not only Tartine’s legendary sticky buns but also chilaquiles from an outpost of Gabriela Cámara’s Tacos Cala and Pim Techamuanvivit’s Thai fried chicken at Kamin. Yes, most of my flights while traveling for the Hot 10 departed from a gate at LGA serviced solely by an Auntie Anne’s (no disrespect!), but at least there are airports proving we don’t have to live like this. —J.K.
Photo by Elizabeth Cecil13/20Youssef Akhtarini Fled Syria. His Baklava Recipe Came With Him.
A refugee from Aleppo, Youssef Akhtarini once ducked for cover each time he went outside. Now he’s making baklava that crackles like a potato chip at Aleppo Sweets, his Syrian restaurant and bakery in Providence that’s earned a spot on our 50 nominees for America’s best new restaurants 2019.
Photo by Shannon Cole14/20Fill In the Blankie
We keep seeing plush, soft blankets at restaurants for chilly customers. It hints at where hospitality is going: to a place so comfortable and cozy we might soon expect a bedtime story.
