Every August, Bon Appétit releases their highly influential Best New Restaurants list, which is always 10 names long and generally comes with the promise of immediate tourist crowds as it did three years ago with State Bird Provisions landing at the top of the list. But just to prove that 2015 has already been a great year for restaurant openings in boomtown SF, there are a half dozen new spots now in contention for critic Andrew Knowlton's final tally, among 50 others from across the country.
Knowlton traverses the country checking out these new spots all year long, sometimes returning more than once as he admits he did today at Lazy Bear, apparently incognito. And the result is a snapshot of the newest eats and hottest trends from Portland, Maine to Los Angeles and back again.
The top 50 this year actually has two spots in Portland, Maine, six in New York City, four in L.A., three in Seattle, two in Chicago, two in Portland, Oregon, and a couple dozen more scattered all over.
But this year's stellar crop from SF may just land us more than one slot in the top 10, if I had to guess, though Knowlton may not want to show too much bias toward the Bay. We'll know when the final list gets revealed on August 18.
Below, the Top 50, which includes one restaurant I just recently called out here on SFist, AL's Place.
The Top 50 New Restaurants in the U.S.
Aatxe: San Francisco, CA
AL’s Place: San Francisco, CA
Alimento: Los Angeles, CA
Arcade Bakery: New York, NY
Artisan Meat Share: Charleston, SC
Biscuit Love: Nashville, TN
Cosme: New York, NY
Dai Due: Austin, TX
Damn the Weather: Seattle, WA
The Dining Room at the White Hart Inn: Salisbury, CT
Dizengoff: Philadelphia, PA
Dove’s Lucheonette: Chicago, IL
East Ender: Portland, ME
Gardner: Austin, TX
Gjusta: Los Angeles, CA
The Grey: Savannah, GA
Heyday: Minneapolis, MN
Hola Arepa: Minneapolis, MN
Jon & Vinny’s: Los Angeles, CA
Kachka: Portland, OR
Kindred: Davidson, NC
Krog Street Market: Atlanta, GA
Lazy Bear: San Francisco, CA
Leon’s Oyster Shop: Charleston, SC
Liholiho Yacht Club: San Francisco, CA
Loyal Nine: Cambridge, MA
Luscher’s Red Hots: Dallas, TX
Manolin: Seattle, WA
Milk Glass Mrkt: Portland, OR
Milktooth: Indianapolis, IN
Mission Chinese Food: New York, NY
Momofuku Ko: New York, NY
Parachute: Chicago, IL
Petit Trois: Los Angeles, CA
Porcellino’s: Memphis, TN
The Progress: San Francisco, CA
Rintaro: San Francisco, CA
Rose’s Fine Food: Detroit, MI
Saltine: Jackson, MS
Santina: New York, NY
Semilla: Brooklyn, NY
Shaya: New Orleans, LA
Small Brewpub: Dallas, TX
Southbound: Richmond, VA
Spoon and Stable: Minneapolis, MN
Tandem Coffee + Bakery: Portland, ME
Thip Khao: Washington, DC
Townsend: Philadelphia, PA
Trentina: Cleveland, OH
Trove: Seattle, WA
See Bon App's map and photos here.
Previously: The Progress Lands Among Food & Wine's Best New Restaurants
