GQ's Alan Richman Names His Ten Best New Restaurants

GQ magazine's restaurant man Alan Richman and his fellow editors have named the Ten Best New Restaurants of 2011, and first on the list is Michael Voltaggio's new Los Angeles restaurant, Ink. David Bouley's Brushstroke in New York is second, Grant Achatz's ever-changing and impossible to get into Chicago restaurant Next takes third, and the list is rounded out by selections from San Francisco, Portland, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Austin.

Observant readers will notice Sean Brock's Husk in Charleston, South Carolina is not on the list. Richman explains his disappointment in the Southern ingredient-driven restaurant: "I'd expected more. Sophistication, I hoped. Care, at least. I found neither. Husk is proof that a restaurant isn't about what comes in the back door; it's about what goes out the kitchen door." Here are GQ's Ten Best New Restaurants:

1. Ink (Los Angeles, CA)
2. Brushstroke (New York, NY)
3. Next (Chicago, IL)
4. Mission Chinese Food (San Francisco, CA)
5. The Catbird Seat (Nashville, TN)
6. Picca (Los Angeles, CA)
7. The Woodsman Tavern (Portland, OR)
8. Mica (Philadelphia, PA)
9. Ruxbin (Chicago, IL)
10. Barley Swine (Austin, TX)

· Ten Best New Restaurants [GQ]
· All Alan Richman Coverage on Eater [-E-]