As GQ critic Brett Martin himself writes, the time he spent zigzagging around the country for his annual “Best New Restaurants” feels like time spent in a different world. It feels, in part, like an elegy for restaurants as places of public life; the many, many places Martin personally would insist you go visit if you could; and how lucky we’ve been to have them. “We’ve lived in an age of absurd dining bounty, a gastronomic multiverse of scenes, styles, influences, and aesthetics,” he writes. Of the restaurants on this year’s list, Martin writes, “I hope you get to see and taste for yourself.” Unfortunately, you won’t be able to do that at all of them, as one of his Best New Restaurants, Los Angeles’s Auburn, permanently closed last week. Nonetheless, his list is a celebration of great places around the country, including New York’s Maison Yaki and Ernesto’s, which opened in February and was maybe the city’s trendiest new restaurant, Washington, D.C.’s excellent Hanumanh; and Detroit’s Lela. Check out the full list below and Martin’s article for the complete treatment.
Auburn (Los Angeles)
By Tae (Seattle)
DipDipDip Tatsu-Ya (Austin)
Ernesto’s (New York)
Hanumanh (Washington, D.C.)
Indo (St. Louis)
The Jerk Shack (San Antonio)
Laser Wolf (Philadelphia)
Lela (Detroit)
Maison Yaki (New York)
Nari (San Francisco)
Pasjoli (Los Angeles)
Rupee Bar (Seattle)
Saint-Germain (New Orleans)
Tuétano Taqueria (San Ysidro, California)
