This post originally appeared on November 11, 2017, in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.
My #hottakes on this week’s news are down in the “Off Eater” section so I can dedicate these first few grafs to Bill Addison’s guide to the 38 essential restaurants in America, which went live on Wednesday.
This is our fourth attempt at a national look at the “essential” restaurants in America, an extension of what we do on the local level. I love the framework we use for all 38 guides, because it’s not about the “best” or the most lavish or the trendiest or the prettiest or the coolest restaurants in the country.
Instead, it’s a whole mixed bag of fried chicken shacks and tasting-menu temples and mom-and-pops and nouveau steakhouses and mall dumpling shops. It’s an open-armed embrace of all of America’s culinary achievements, a full-throated refrain for the beautiful, satisfying meals we get to enjoy across this country.
And honestly, I think one of the best ways to continue to push for more inclusivity in our coverage is to change the definition of what’s worth celebrating. High, low, rustic, refined, small, massive; there is no restaurant that is outside the purview of Bill’s roaming eye and lunatic appetite.
And because this list doesn’t focus on what’s new (a restaurant must be 18 months old for inclusion), Bill also gets to check in on how places evolve. The Grey, 2017's Restaurant of the Year, was pretty good when it opened, but it’s glorious now — now that chef Mashama Bailey has settled in, now that she’s turned to the books of Edna Lewis, now that she’s created a style of cuisine all her own.
Please give the guide a look when you have a moment.
Openings of the Week
- Major Food Group’s The Lobster Club in Midtown, NYC
- Jeremy Sasson’s Prime + Proper in Detroit
- Stephen Starr and Aimee Olexy’s The Lover in Philadelphia
On Eater
- Intel: Milk Bar took on VC funding from RSE Capital, the same group that invested in Momofuku; Ollie Dabbous, one of London's greatest chefs, will return to the scene with a three-story, 250-seat restaurant in Mayfair; beloved pizzeria Una Pizza Napoletana will return to New York; Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, and Marc Vetri will bring new restaurants to the off-Strip Vegas resort The Palms in 2018; Paul Qui’s Kuneho(formerly known as Qui, but changed after the chef returned from rehab) closed; low-cal ice cream sensation Halo Top is going brick and mortar; NBC is developing a show about trainers at Chili’s; Papa John’s felt compelled to issue a statement asking white supremacists not to buy its pizza; Starbucks is getting back into the bakery business; and one of the biggest chefs in Brazil will open a restaurant with Bill Chait in LA.
- An excerpt (with stunning photos) from Homaro Cantu’s posthumously published cookbook MOTO.
- Critics Robert Sietsema and Ryan Sutton have different takes on Pasta Flyer, a new fast-casual pasta shop from a former fine-dining chef in NYC.
- A new cocktail bar in Denver doubles as a testing ground for restaurant and bar furniture for the design studio next door.
- All of this year’s Thanksgiving food mag covers, picked apart and judged.
Off Eater
- Tom Colicchio apologized for calling me a bitch seven years ago. Actually, the piece is about how he's tried to foster a safe and female-friendly work environment in his kitchens (so good for him!) but I couldn’t not point out that nugget. I’ve long gotten over that, but have still not forgiven him for having T-shirts made that say, “Bloggers ride the short bus.” I’d like to think we’ve both grown up a bit since then. [Medium]
- Amanda Cohen has been railing on food media for its bias against women for the last seven years. She does it again this week. She is right. I’m not going to say she’s not right. What I will add: In my mind, progress is being made, and there’s so much more to “food media” than lists and reviews. Yes, the Times reviewed more restaurants run by men than by women this year, but they also covered more women and people of color in their section over the last year than in recent memory. A restaurant review isn’t the only thing that moves the needle. For our part, at least 50 percent of our Young Guns every year are female, and 42 percent of the restaurants on our national 38 are run or owned by women (and 40 percent by people of color). We tell our reporters constantly to make sure they aren’t just calling up the easiest-to-reach white bro when they need a quote or a story. Our big profiles this year: Christina Tosi and Meredith Kurtzman. I could go on, but I also recently talked about this on our podcast the Eater Upsell, so I won’t. [Esquire]
- Meanwhile, Daniel Patterson is a man after my own heart. TL;DR: Sexism and racism are entrenched in this country, and we should treat them like the Sonoma fires or the Puerto Rico hurricane — as tragedies we need to address together — and here are all the unsexy and invisible in which we can do that. [Food & Wine]
- The sticky, untold story of Cinnabon. [Seattle Met]
- Love this profile on the always-fun JJ Johnson, a new dad to TWINS, by the way. [NYT]
- Do department stores appropriate soul food? A look back at when Bergdorf served chitlins and Champagne. [Racked]
- Finally:
Imagine going all the way to Japan and eating a hamburger at a country club pic.twitter.com/thYetsb5K0
— Josh Billinson (@jbillinson) November 5, 2017
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