Esquire's 15 best new restaurants in the U.S.

[Jenise]

Interesting list, of which I've not been to even one. Was compiled by Josh Ozersky just before his death, at least in large part, and finished with the help of Ted Allen and several James Beard award winners (for criticism, one presumes).

Hoke--how's Muscadine?


Shaya, New Orleans

Townsman, Boston

The Progress, San Francisco

Muscadine, Portland, Oregon

The Grey, Savannah

Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen, Morristown, New Jersey

B.S. Taqueria and Broken Spanish, Los Angeles

Momotaro, Chicago

Dolo Restaurant and Bar, Chicago

The Duck Inn, Chicago

Little Park, New York

Shuko, New York

Santina, New York

Mountain Bird, New York

>gulp< Haven't been yet.

not surprisingly, I've been to none. I'd not especially hip. But I've usually heard of the hot new NYC places, what is Santina?
Shuko is one I've heard most buzz from, though my sushi taste is more traditional. The Mountain Bird review in NYT sounded very cool, don't know anyone who's been. Heard mixed things re Little Park.

Muscadine---the olde vitis rotundifolia---is not necessarily a positive thing for a Southern boy. They don't taste that good as grapes (more skunky than foxy), the skins are incredibly thick and the insides are like heavy mucus, and they are bitter as hell.

They don't make very good wine either, despite many years of people trying.

I did go look at the website for Muscadine PDX and I will definitely go, just to satisfy some Southern food jonesing. Grits, okra, biscuits, low country food, some Geechee, which makes it mostly tidewater. And I haven't had real red eye gravy and ham in some years now.

I will report.

Portland actually has a few southern-themed or southern-ish restos, but they tend to cover either bbq or the biscuits and gravy game. Portland is also stone crazy obsessed with brunch. Brunchiest city I've ever known. Perfectly sensible people are willing to stand outside for a couple of hours waiting for Sunday brunch here. Weird. (On the other hand, there are some great brunch places, although I don't get to see them that often since I won't wait that long.)

Portland is also stone crazy obsessed with brunch. Brunchiest city I've ever known. Perfectly sensible people are willing to stand outside for a couple of hours waiting for Sunday brunch here. Weird. (On the other hand, there are some great brunch places, although I don't get to see them that often since I won't wait that long.)

NYC, too. And people stand in an hour-long line at God's own hour of the morning for a cronut.

Muscadine---the olde vitis rotundifolia---is not necessarily a positive thing for a Southern boy. They don't taste that good as grapes (more skunky than foxy), the skins are incredibly thick and the insides are like heavy mucus, and they are bitter as hell.

I'm not a Southern boy, but those sound like bad Muscadines. The good ones that we get are sweet and have thin skins.

Although I admit the texture is weird (but I don't mind it, I used to like Concord grapes in Ny) and in the grand scheme of things if I could choose any table grape I probably wouldn't choose Muscadine. But when you live in NC and that's all there is, the better growers at the farmers market or the better farms that are open for picking can be quite tasty.

[Robin Garr]

I can't speak to this list, but Esquire's history for doing this kind of work - particularly for cities outside New York - is pretty sketchy. I can say for certain that John Mariani used to do this kind of piece by putting out a few calls from his office to newspaper food editors around the country. The research wasn't particularly deep, and in the age of the Internet, this piece is probably even more lightly done. A couple of hours on Yelp? Could be ...

Rahsaan, the muscadines I was speaking of were the wild ones. Foraged, as they say now. What yo're eating is the cultivated, farm grown muscadine.

Wild Vitis labrusca (as opposed to the domesticated Concord and friends) has many of the same issues.

-Paul W.