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Check out 17 D-FW chefs named “Rising Stars” during StarChefs Restaurant Week 2021

Robert C. Williams 3 days ago

The metroplex’s best up-and-coming culinary talent will be recognized as part of Rising Stars Restaurant Week by restaurant media company StarChefs.

The company announced the 2021 Dallas-Fort Worth Rising Stars and launched the accompanying “Restaurant Week” Dec. 2. The two-week promotional event will last until Dec. 16.

The Rising Stars program and restaurant week spotlights up-and-coming chefs, pastry chefs, and bartenders and incentivizes the community to support the hospitality industry.

“[Rising Stars] have strong, compelling culinary philosophies and are committed to fostering a culinary community by sharing their knowledge with fellow professionals,” says the company’s website.

In North Texas, the 2021 class includes 17 rising stars recognized for their culinary strengths, charitable contributions to D-FW, and their ability to “navigate, lead, and inspire.” Among them are Jimmy Park (chef) of Shoyo, Matthew Ramirez (baker) of Lucia, and George Kaiho (bartender) of Jettison.

Dallas chef Jimmy Park is opening a sushi restaurant on Greenville Avenue in Dallas in 2021.

Interested in tasting some of

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Two D.C. restaurants named to Esquire’s Best New Restaurants In America list : NPR

Robert C. Williams 2 weeks ago

Moon Rabbit, Moon Rabbit, a modern Vietnamese restaurant at The Wharf, was one of two D.C. establishments named the best new restaurants in the country by Esquire.

Mukul Ranjan/WAMU/DCist


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Mukul Ranjan/WAMU/DCist

Two D.C. restaurants — Moon Rabbit at the Wharf and Oyster Oyster in Shaw — have been named to Esquire’s list of best new restaurants of in America this year, continuing a multi-year trend of local eateries rising to the top of prestigious restaurant rankings.

Last year, four local restaurants were named in Esquire’s “23 Best New Restaurants in America” list. In 2019, three local spots made the ranking — and 14th Street’s Seven Reasons was at the very top of it.

This year’s list of 40 restaurants is longer than last year’s — in part, Esquire editor Kevin Sintumuang wrote, because the restaurant industry is still working to recover from the effects of the

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Alabama restaurant named one of America’s best by Esquire

Robert C. Williams 2 weeks ago

Helen, a contemporary Southern grill in Birmingham, was named one of the best new restaurants in America by Esquire.

The magazine’s list, published Thursday, highlights 40 restaurants across the country that epitomize “the transportive power of food” and “the soul-stirring nature of hospitality.”

Helen, a downtown eatery led by a husband-and-wife team, Rob and Emily McDaniel, is the only Alabama restaurant chosen by Esquire’s food writers. Helen opened in August 2020 at 2013 Second Ave. North, in the historic Berry Project buildings.

“Helen was a real woman who wore pearls and had a grill inside her house,” Joshua David Stein writes in his description for Esquire. “Her facility with coals lives on in her grandson Rob McDaniel’s restaurant: Witness the twenty-two-ounce, dry-aged Kansas City strip, drizzled with beef-and-herb-infused duck fat, and the fennely porchetta with a crackling skin. The chef describes the place as not a steakhouse. ‘But,’

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New restaurant in Navy Yard named among best in America

Robert C. Williams 4 weeks ago

Foodie news and review site Eater puts a Middle Eastern restaurant in Southeast D.C.’s Navy Yard on its list of the 11 Best New Restaurants in America.

Foodie news and review site Eater puts a Middle Eastern restaurant in Southeast D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood on its list of the 11 Best New Restaurants in America.

Albi, which opened in February 2020, focuses on Levantine cuisine, the region that includes Syria, Israel, Lebanon and Palestine, using the culinary tradition of coal-fired cooking.

It is the first solo restaurant for owner and chef Michael Rafidi, who comes from highly rated D.C. restaurants such as Arroz and Requin.

Of Albi, Eater DC editor Gabriel Hiatt writes, “Consider what makes a special-occasion restaurant sizzle: an utterly original point of view, top-tier service, and food that ignites conversation. Chief Michael Rafidi’s team hits every mark and then some with a health-centered Levantine restaurant marrying

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