![]() Yes, you’d be happy dipping the lamb in each sauce, but the true joy comes from trying each one with chewy, colorful, fresh-made corn tortillas. Even more impressive is the mole flight, a trio of sauces accompanied by charred lamb ribs. Hefty tacos arrive cradling fillings like butternut-stuffed chile capped with a rustic red chimayó mole or a thick slab of tender beef tongue on a lacy, crisp layer of cheese. Instead, owners Lawrence Smith (a former NFL player) and Aseret Arroyo serve an impressive, constantly changing roster of ambitious Mexican dishes. The lively pastel interior at Chilte may match the renovation of its ’50s-era home, the Egyptian Motor Hotel, but the menu doesn’t offer the kind of reliably lovable (but sometimes a little boring) food typical of a hotel restaurant. When you’ve finished off the last bites of the frozen cookie dough pie, and there’s nothing left on the table but crumbs and a few sauce-smudged plates, you’ll understand exactly why so many people flock to Brochu’s. The restaurant, situated in a former 1930s grocery store, is full of charming details, too, like bathroom wallpaper depicting fried chicken and biscuit characters with human legs or the restored boat motor (courtesy of Andrew’s dad) that hangs behind the bar. The cheddar rillette is a delightful cross between an upscale cheese ball and cauliflower mac and cheese. The deceptively simple chicken dinner, for example, comes with three preparations, including sweet-tea-brined-then-fried thighs. That warmth is palpable at Brochu’s Family Tradition, where the food is distinctly Southern and full of playful nuance. Friends and family rushed from near and far to help jump-start operations. Though chef Andrew Brochu spent years in Chicago fine dining, he decided to open his first restaurant in Savannah, the hometown of his business partner and wife, Sophie Brochu. One can’t help but feel as though that experience contributed to Spero’s intense and nuanced respect for the power of fire-to destroy, to transform, and, most important, to create. There is a certain painful irony here: Weeks before the chef was set to open Bar Spero, his Michelin-starred tasting menu restaurant, Reverie, went up in flames. You taste it in the gentle bitterness of a charcoal cream that dresses raw slivers of hiramasa, or in a beef tartare bound together with an earthy emulsion of ember-rendered tallow, or humming somewhere in the background of a spoonful of burnt cheesecake ice cream. But elsewhere fire is present in subtle, complex ways. Sometimes this is profound, as with the delicately grilled whole turbot-that most Spanish of fishes is practically defined by the fuel it is cooked over, its succulent flesh made even sweeter by bold wafts of cherrywood smoke. At his brassy grill-focused ode to Basque nightlife, Bar Spero, the flavors of the hearth make their way into nearly every dish. Elazar Sontag, restaurant editorįew chefs know fire quite like Johnny Spero. Wherever this list takes you, we know that these restaurants will bring you as much joy as they’ve brought us. So hop in the car, catch a ferry, or-if you’re lucky-simply walk down the block. The restaurant world is packed with creativity right now, and these 24 spots represent the very best of dining. With all of this in mind, we decided to make this year’s list longer than it has been in the past. We returned from each of these restaurants thrilled and invigorated. And in Oklahoma City, plates of paddlefish caviar and butter-soaked moon snails were all the proof we needed that an unforgettable seafood spot can exist in a landlocked state. In San Francisco, we stepped into a psychedelic universe fueled by food waste and free-flowing natural wine. We savored the boat ride to an idyllic island off the coast of Seattle nearly as much as the seaweed focaccia and sugar kelp ice cream we ate once there. Little moments of joy and wonder like this one overwhelmed us as we ate our way across the country in search of the Best New Restaurants of 2023. Rubbed with jerk spices, cooked over a crackling wood fire, and lazing in a cooling pool of sour coconut cream, it was one of the most exhilarating things I tasted all year. ![]() So imagine my surprise when I sliced into the one served at Portland, Oregon’s dazzling new Haitian restaurant, Kann. ![]() ![]() A whole head of cauliflower isn’t typically the sort of dish I lie awake thinking about.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |