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Forbes
Compiled by Forbes Staff
Matthew Kenney OKC voted one of America’s Best New Restaurants!
Next time the economy sinks as low as it did in 2009, remember, that’s a perfect time to open a posh restaurant in one of the highest-rent locations imaginable. As crazy as that sounds, it seems to have worked for the owners of Marea, perhaps the most critically acclaimed eating establishment to open in New York City in the past year.
“Here’s exactly the type of restaurant I didn’t expect to thrive last year: ambitious food, elegant space, buzzy chef, deep wine list, fancy Central Park address,” says Nick Fauchald, New York editor-in-chief of Tasting Table, a daily e-mail publication about eating and drinking culture. “The reason Marea works where other expensive restaurants failed (or were afraid to play): [Chef] Michael White. His food … is simply some of the best in the city right now.”
Great food would also explain the success of Locanda Verde, the much more reasonably priced and casual restaurant by former A Voce chef Andrew Carmellini. At A Voce, he was known for forward-thinking Italian fare such as duck meatballs, while the new spot is more in line with what would land on an Italian grandmother’s kitchen table.
“It’s exactly the kind of restaurant New York needed in a year when everything else was heading in the wrong direction,” says Fauchald. “That is, delicious, smart, consistent food that makes me happy, is easy to share and doesn’t ask too much of my brain or wallet.”
Right now restaurants can’t afford to do anything less. In a look at 32 large restaurant chains in 2007, 20 reported same-store gains for the year. After the books were closed on 2009, 34 of the country’s 35 major chains were in serious decline (though showing signs of a reversal in Q4). Americans spend more than $1.5 billion every day eating out, according to the National Restaurant Association; but in tough times, they’re all the more careful where they spend it.
Though Locanda Verde and Marea are in distinctly different parts of Manhattan (the former is in trendy TriBeCa, the latter on posh Central Park South), and are priced accordingly, what the two have in common, simply, is great food that offers that little extra imaginative or experiential touch.
Expert Opinion
Ask 10 everyday restaurant-goers about their favorite places to eat and you’re bound to get few similar answers. So, too, with the experts.
For our list of the best U.S. restaurants that opened in the past year or so, we asked for the top 10 favorites of master sommelier Richard Betts, cofounder of the Betts & Scholl wines and Sombra Mezcal; and Doug Shafer, president of Napa winery Shafer Vineyards. We sought the expertise of two well-known figures in the wine industry particularly because they spend so much of their time on the road, wining and dining, and seeking the best restaurants in which to have their wines served.
We also sought picks from the aforementioned Nick Fauchald, as well as Top Chef Masters-winning chef Rick Bayless, who hosts the PBS program Mexico–One Plate at a Time. He owns three Mexican-style restaurants in Chicago–Frontera Grill, XOCO and Topolobampo–as well as three quick-serve Mexican restaurants called Frontera Fresco. This week he announced the opening of a Los Angeles restaurant called RED O By Rick Bayless.
The first restaurants to make our list were picked by more than one of our experts–only Marea and Locanda Verde made that cut. In cities where multiple restaurants were selected, but none by more than one expert, we chose the restaurant with the highest rating among diners on OpenTable.com, the online reservations Web site–and the rating had to be higher than four out of five stars. To fill the final few spots on the list, we chose one unique, off-the-radar pick from each expert’s list.
Cool and Casual
Surprisingly, many of the restaurants on the list are relatively casual, yet save their excitement for the plate. This is especially the case for The Publican in Chicago; Olympic Provisions in Portland, Ore.; Happy Noodle in Boulder, Colo.; and Frances in San Francisco.
The Publican, which was opened by the team behind Blackbird and Avec (the bacon-wrapped, chorizo-stuffed dates at Avec are not to be skipped on any visit to Chicago, period), is modeled after a European beer hall. Appropriately there are dozens of brews to choose from, all to be paired with hearty meat dishes that are simple, elegant and filling.
“It’s all about pork in all of its guises and artisan beer to wash it all down,” says Betts. “[It's a] really fun, beer-hall type of addition to Chicago’s already young and fun scene.”
Similarly, Olympic Provisions, located in a large, renovated commercial building in an industrial section of Portland, serves house-cured meats and other simple, flavorful vegetable side dishes. The space is small, packed, and only open on weekdays, catering to a crowd that cares solely about the quality of the food–not a valet or a white tablecloth.
Mesmerizing, Memorable, Delightful
Of course, there are always creative standouts each year, which tend either to evoke a cult following or a collective scratch of the head. Two that appear to be more of the former are picks by Bayless: The Bazaar by Jose Andres in Los Angeles and Matthew Kenney OKC in Oklahoma City, Okla. Both restaurants go completely against the grain of the cities they call home, and have done so with immediate success.
The Bazaar is basically LA’s version of Spain’s El Bulli, believed by many critics to be the best restaurant in the world (not only for what it serves, but for the dining trends it inspires globally). Part Spanish tapas, part molecular gastronomy (one particular single-bite dish causes smoke to shoot out the diner’s nostrils), part carnival, The Bazaar has been one of the most acclaimed restaurants to open this year. It’s unlike any other place to eat in LA, but isn’t simply weird for the sake of weird; it’s about great-tasting food.
Certainly the same could be said of Bayless’ other pick, Matthew Kenney OKC, which is a stone’s throw from a stockyard, yet serves no meat whatsoever. In fact, all the food is served raw (105 is the optimal temperature to which foods are “cooked” and served here), yet by employing creative techniques such as dehydration, diners are pleasantly surprised with creative presentations and explosive flavors.
Fauchald says it’s perfectly normal to see this kind of inventiveness–and success–in a sluggish economy.
“Tough times are always good times for taking a chance and hitting uncharted restaurant territories,” he says. “I’m seeing plenty of wacky, one-off ideas fail–and fail quickly. But some are thriving.”
http://www.forbes.com/2010/02/11/best-new-restaurants-lifestyle-wine-dining_slide_12.html
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