Lists

ABC Kitchen Is Esquire’s Restaurant of the Year

ABC Kitchen
ABC Kitchen Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine

Esquire “freelance correspondent” (don’t call him a critic!) John Mariani files his annual “Best New Restaurants” list in November’s issue of the magazine, awarding the coveted “Restaurant of the Year” slot to New York’s much-lauded ABC Kitchen. Mariani’s list skews notably away from his usual fine-dining habits and toward casual, communal eating — a shift he notes in his introduction to the portfolio, saying that in recession-tainted 2010, “people ate out again — and they weren’t jonesing to spend money on caviar.” (He kind of hedges his picks on a financial basis, too, calling the list’s honorees restaurants “that are, for our money right now, the best.”) Eater National has the full list of spots, including Chicago’s Longman & Eagle, Frances in San Francisco, and Wolfgang Puck’s WP24 in L.A. — the proto-celeb-chef’s first appearance on this list in some time. Read on for the complete rundown.

Esquire’s Best New Restaurants
ABC Kitchen, New York
Bibiana, Washington, DC
Bistro Niko, Atlanta
Cook & Brown, Providence
Culina, Los Angeles
Epic, Chicago
Frances, San Francisco
Gather, Berkeley, CA
Haven, Houston
Julian Serrano, Las Vegas
Kalu Asian Kitchen, Charlotte, North Carolina
Longman & Eagle, Chicago
Maialino, New York
Menton, Boston
Miller Union, Atlanta
O-Ku, Charleston, South Carolina
Red O, Los Angeles
Samar, Dallas
SD26, New York
WP24 by Wolfgang Puck, Los Angeles

Esquire’s 20 Best New Restaurants of 2010 [Eater National]

ABC Kitchen Is Esquire’s Restaurant of the Year