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.
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