Awards

And Chicago Magazine’s Best New Restaurant Is… Not That One

Next is so obviously the restaurant with the biggest footprint on the past year that anyone making a list of the best new restaurants is, one, practically dared to pick something else, and two, bound to see that choice in the light of Next. And that’s exactly what happens in Chicago magazine’s annual Best New Restaurants issue, which hit subscribers this weekend with a mouthwatering picture of Acadia’s deconstructed lobster roll on the cover. The magazine’s critics crown Goosefoot the top restaurant of the past year, but define it in terms of Next (which places second): “Next may have gotten the headlines, but Goosefoot is the superior restaurant. It’s more inclusive, more fun, less of a pain in the ass.” Of course, after being named best restaurant of the year by the leading fine dining publication in town, that last statement, at least, will likely be much less true. Goosefoot’s win marks this as, in many ways, the year of the chef-owned, human-scaled, obscure-neighborhood joint: EL Ideas, the most homemade and obscurely-located of all of them, places #4, Vera (under the tracks on Lake) is #6, Acadia in the South Loop is #8, Ada Street near the Hideout is #11, and Autre Monde just over the border in Berwyn is #14. (And yes, all 20 are ranked in descending order, we believe for the first time.)

If city neighborhoods do well, the suburbs don’t do nearly so well, with only Autre Monde and Skokie’s Libertad on the list; Chicago usually bends over backwards to include suburban spots, given its heavy suburban readership, but apparently it was a lousy year for new openings in Clarendon Hills or Highwood. A few more openings get the consolation prize of a shout-out for a specific dish (Allium, The Pump Room), while the arbitrary distinction between fine dining and budget pricing lives on as ever— openings which on food quality would outrank many of the top 20 for us, such as Publican Quality Meats, Pleasant House Bakery or Lao Hunan, are relegated to a separate “budget” list.

Here’s the list:

1. Goosefoot
2. Next
3. Tavernita
4. El Ideas
5. Perennial Virant
6. Vera
7. Telegraph
8. Acadia
9. Yusho
10. Au Cheval
11. Ada Street
12. Libertad
13. Ombra
14. Autre Monde
15. Rustic House
16. Slurping Turtle
17. Urban Union
18. Grange Hall Burger Bar
19. Bar Toma
20. Nellcôte

20 Best New Restaurants [Chicago]

And Chicago Magazine’s Best New Restaurant Is… Not That One