FRESH List 2015
The top 100 American restaurants that best exemplify the FRESH ethos as chosen by OAD reviewers.
 Farm-to-Table cuisine;    Regional American cuisine;    Ethnic cuisine;    Sustainable ingredients;    served with American-style Hospitality
51   Neptune Oyster
How can you go wrong with a restaurant that offers a dozen varieties of oysters on the half shell, fresh pink shrimp from Maine, crudos like hamachi tartare with pear-ginger vinaigrette, one of the best lobster rolls in the country, and entrées like cioppino? No wonder reviewers call Neptune Oyster "superb in every respect," with some claiming "it's the best seafood restaurant of its kind in America." There's a carefully chosen wine list (owner Jeff Nace used to be the beverage director at Olives), and the "service is as warm and friendly as the food is delicious."
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63 Salem St. Boston, MA 617-742-3474
52   A.O.C.
What better way to capitalize on the fact that you are already running one of the best farm to table restaurants in the country than opening a restaurant that focuses on small plates? So it makes sense that most Angelenos locals love this restaurant from Suzanne Goin, serving up comments like, "Top-notch food and a good wine list earns it five stars in my book." Along with the usual list of suspects on the menu, like platters of charcuterie and a variety of salads, there are a few ambitious offerings like skirt steak with Roquefort butter and arroz negro with squid and saffron aioli.
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8022 W. Third St. Los Angeles, CA 323-653-6359
53   Mary’s Fish Camp
New England natives who are feeling homesick should head on down to this restaurant in Greenwich Village. The main attraction is a lobster roll, but you can also enjoy steamers, fried clams and broiled fish. And don't forget to check out the most unique thing on the menu -a bowl of lobster knuckles, which, despite the hassle in cracking them open, yield a good amount of sweet meat. Just as in Maine, the best way to end your meal is with ice cream - the hot fudge sundae is especially terrific.
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64 Charles Street New York, NY 646-486 2185
Midwest Regional Winner
54   Farmhaus
Kevin Willmann wants us to focus on the ingredients of the Ozarks, serving starters like a mushroom salad with Crop Circle spicy greens, Baetje Farms goat’s milk cheese and toasted Missouri pecans, and a house butcher plate with testa, pork pie, pig’s ear terrine and hog’s head cheese. Given the landlocked nature of the state, Wellman imports his fish from the Gulf, serving grilled black fin tuna with Japanese sweet potatoes. But he returns to local sourcing for his signature dish of bacon-wrapped meatloaf with sweet and Yukon smashed potatoes, sous vide pearl onions and a tomato-merlot reduction.
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3257 Ivanhoe Ave St. Louis, MO 314-647-3800
55   Goose the Market
This little known gourmet market/butcher shop/smokehouse is an oasis in the culinary desert that extends from New York City to Chicago. On a recent visit we asked them to put together a platter of charcuterie and smoked meats, and we were bombarded with a platter of cold cuts, ribs, veal breast and a myriad of cheeses, which we happily ate downstairs in their enoteca. Those who want a lighter meal can start the journey downstairs and order tapas-size portions of meats and cheese, along with quatrino of wine and craft beers.
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2503 North Delaware Street Indianapolis, IN 317-924-4944
56   Kin Shop
After success at nearby Perrila, Top Chef contestant Harold Dieterle and Alica Nosenzo decided to open this modern Thai restaurant. Dieterle’s menu includes creations such as stir-fried baby calamari with cashews served with spring onions, bean sprouts & fried garlic; crispy Bok Choy shoots with Chinese sausage & grilled peach chutney and Brisket Khao Soi served with pearl noodles, crispy noodles, lime & peanut.
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New York, NY
57   Night + Market
You know the situation is serious when reviewers contribute comments like “the best Thai restaurant in a city that has many amazing options for the cuisine.” Thirty-one-year-old Kris Yenbamroong specializes in Thai street food, and the small menu includes dishes like grilled hog collar with chile dipping sauce, Chiang Rai-style pork larb, and a catfish and pork-fat tamale. Larger parties can opt for a whole braised skin-on pork butt or the fish of the day, which feeds two or three people and is prepared salt-crusted or deep-fried and topped with three-flavor sauce.
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9041 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 310 - 275 - 9724
58   Longman & Eagle
With dishes like Slagel Family Farms Bone Marrow, with Bacon-Shallot Jam, Green Apple Kimchi & Pickled Garlic & Shallots; Duck-In-A-Jar with Rice Beans, Potatoes, Pickled Kumquat, Duck Blood-Foie Gras Jus and Wild Boar Sloppy Joe with Crispy Sage, Onion, Pickled Jalapeno, Housemade Sesame Seed Bun & Beef Fat Fries, Jared Wentworth’s menu is perfect for the hipsters who populate Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood.
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Chicago, IL
59   Sitka & Spruce
It is rare that a restaurant like Sitka & Spruce earns a national reputation. But whenever one of our reviewers is planning a trip to Seattle, they always seem to put Matt Dillon's restaurant on their list of places to visit. It's located in the wonderful Melrose Market, and you walk past the various food vendors to find this venue, which is the quintessence of the farm-to-table experience. The cuisine is appropriately local, with dishes like Totten Inlet mussels and parsley root steamed in white wine, and Neah Bay black cod served with wild rice, celeriac, cranberries and cream.
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2238 Eastlake Ave. E. Seattle, WA 206-324-0662
60   A 16
This place is named after the autostrada that stretches all the way from Naples to Canosa, and Christopher Thompson’s menu focuses on the regional cuisine you would encounter along that route. Included among the offerings are some of the best wood-burning-oven pizzas in the city, house-cured meats like bresaola and coppa di testa, and pastas like a fettucine made from chickpeas topped with a Devil's Gulch rabbit sugo. Shelley Lindgren's 500-bottle list of wines, specializing in unusual offerings from a region that extends from Rome to Sicily, allows for perfect pairings with the food.
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2355 Chestnut St. San Francisco, CA 415-771-2216
61   Lantern
If you were wondering what a pan-Asian restaurant that serves dishes like slow-cooked duck soup with mushrooms and noodles is doing in Chapel Hill, the answer is love. No, not just a chef's love of Asian cuisine. New Jersey native Andrea Reusing married a man from Chapel Hill, and so this charming city gained a chef who can turn out a top-notch version of Asian cuisine. Reusing is equally passionate about utilizing local ingredients, which turn up in dishes like North Carolina crabs prepared in a Vietnamese style; sake and tea-cured Cold Mountain pink trout; and barbecued Cane Creek Farm lemongrass pork. Reviewers praised the "very solid creative fusion cuisine," calling this "the best place to eat in the area," though a few criticized "a menu that hardly ever changes."
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423 W Franklin St Chapel Hill, NC 919-969-8846
62   Rustic Canyon
After lifting vegetarian cuisine from being specialty cooking into something that is worthy of a fine dining restaurant at Napa’s Ubuntu, Jeremy Fox spent a number of years searching for a home. It appears he has found one at this Santa Monica restaurant run by the same group that operates Huckleberry Cafe and Milo & Olive. Fox’s menu of mostly small plates includes creations liked grilled nectarine served with polenta and fresh ricotta and brined & roasted chicken with creamed corn, romaine & vaudovan jus.
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Santa Monica, CA
63   Fung Tu
For people who are tired of eating the Hong Kong style Chinese food that can be found all over the U.S., Jonathan Wu’s cooking is a breath of fresh air. More akin to the type of Farm-to-Table Chinese cooking one finds in Shanghai, like dishes of masa scallion pancake with smoked chicken and a cilantro & scallion salad ; fried rice with crab, fiddle head ferns, ramps & spinach and braised beef cheeks with Koshihikari rice, snow peas & Mizuna.
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New York, NY
64   Alma
Ari Taymor’s restaurant is among those playing an important role in the revival of downtown Los Angeles. Taymor’s menu is ingredient-centric (he utilizes a number of ingredients he raises in his own garden), and tantalizing-sounding dishes like roast chicken with butter-soaked carrots, chanterelles and a seaweed béarnaise have made the restaurant a favorite with the local L.A./hipster foodie crowd. A 10-course tasting menu is the only option for dinner most nights; they offer a three-course market menu on Tuesday through Thursday evenings.
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952 S Broadway Los Angeles, CA (213) 244-1422
65   Michael's Genuine Cuisine
Michael Schwartz's menu is split into four categories: Small (wood-roasted, double-yolk farm egg with cave-aged Gruyère and roasted tomato), Medium (crispy homemade pastrami with red cabbage slaw), Large (slow-roasted Berkshire pork shoulder with cheese grits) and Extra Large (wood-roasted Poulet Rouge chicken for two). Opened in 2006 and a mainstay of Miami's Design District ever since, it is always "filled with a hip and trendy crowd," unusual for a farm-to-table restaurant. Another reason to visit is Hedy Goldsmith's desserts, like basil panna cotta with strawberry consomme and biscotti.
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130 NE 40th St Miami, FL 305-573-5550
66   Heartland
Though a transplant from Hoboken, New Jersey, Lenny Russo has embraced the ethnic cooking of his adopted region. Smoked freshwater fish cakes honor the Swedish community, while braunschweiger with garlic aioli and sauerkraut honors the German population. And those who are after French cooking can enjoy what Russo calls Midwestern Cassoulet, a casserole of white beans, wild boar, smoked pork and pheasant confit. Among the numerous glowing comments we collected, this one says it all: "If the Twin Cities restaurant scene is distinctive by virtue of its use of local farms, then Heartland is the superlative among the distinctive."
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1806 St. Clair Ave. St. Paul, MN 651-699-3536
67   Fat Rice
Though Macau, a former Portuguese colony, is located a little more than an hour by ferry from Hong Kong, few Americans have sampled its cuisine, a blend of Chinese and Portuguese cooking that also incorporates Goan, African and Malaysian influences. Now, thanks to Abraham Conlon and Adrienne Lo, Chicago diners can sample this unique cuisine, in which linguica sausage and piri piri chicken co-exist with pork and shrimp potstickers and twice-cooked bacon served with woodear mushrooms, snow peas, pickled lotus and leeks. Get there early as the no-reservation policy makes for some seriously long waits.
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2957 W Diversey Ave Chicago, IL 773-661-9170
68   Northern Spy Co.
Named after an heirloom apple that is raised in New York State, reading the list of Northern Spy’s providers is a vertaible Who’s Who of the best farms and wholesalers in the region. Pete Lipson’s menu puts those ingredients to good use in dishes likea Peach Gazpacho Rock shrimp, arugula, red chili oil & almonds and Fleisher’s Pork with bok choy, adzuki beans, sesame togarashi and Earl Grey broth.
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Brooklyn, NY
69   Thirty Acres
Those of you who enjoyed eating at Momofuku Noodle Bar in its heyday probably didn’t realize that it was Kevin Pemoulie who was cooking your food. In 2012, Pemoulie decided to go out on his own, opening this intimate restaurant with his wife in his hometown of Jersey City. It’s worth crossing the river for Kevin’s subtle but complex version of Farm-to-Table cuisine featuring dishes such as sea scallops with roasted bamboo, pickled peppers, and spruce tips & roasted tri-tip with leeks, gooseberries, currants, and vincotto.
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Jersey City, NJ
70   Rolf & Daughters
Ten years ago, would anyone have guessed that Nashville would be producing some of the country’s best Italian cooking? The reason for this phenomenon is a bit unclear to us but, whomever is responsible for figuring out that the local ingredients lend themselves to the type of micro-regionality that make Italian cuisine so wonderful should get a Nobel Prize. Philip Krajeck’s restaurant is yet another who has adopted that model, and his menu is filled with dishes that blend the cooking of Italy and the South, like lamb ribs, sourwood honey & mint, squid ink canestri, nduja, clams, scallion & breadcrumb & a mixed roast of pork, corn, squash, okra, bay laurel
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Nashville, TN
71   Justus Drugstore
Destination diners looking for an exemplary use of local ingredients prepared with modern culinary technique should visit this restaurant located in a former drugstore. John Justus loves Berkshire pork, which he prepares as starters (a pork terrine with brioche and a poached egg and a pork-tail fritter served with wild arugula vinaigrette) and mains (Newman Farm pork served two ways: as a brined rib eye and as a house-made sausage served with soft polenta, onion, mint, lemon and elderflower white wine). Reviewers call it "farm-to-table cooking at its finest" and "worth the 30-minute drive to Smithville from downtown."
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106 West Main Street Smithville, MO 816-532-2300
72   Cannibal Beer & Butcher
The trio of Christian Pappanicholas, Francis Derby and Corey Lane have created this masterpiece of a gastropub. All of the pates and sausages are made in house and range from Peking duck rillettes with scallion, cilantro & sesame to Thai sausage served with peanuts & jalapeno. But the larger plates is where the action is and they include a Pig’s Head Rueben with Russian dressing & melted Gruyere and the exceptional Tandoori lamb belly with watermelon, chili,lime salad and pita.
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New York, NY
73   Park Kitchen
Don't be fooled by the "casual and relaxed atmosphere." In a city where chefs are obsessed with sourcing high-quality ingredients, Scott Dolich might be the most obsessed of all. Working out of a storefront in a historic building on the edge of the Pearl District, he wrings every last bit of flavor out of his local, sustainable ingredients, creating dishes like spinach soup with sesame oil and feta cheese, nettle fettuccini with cardoncello mushrooms and shaved goat cheese or pan-seared, first-of-the-season Alaskan halibut served atop a fondue of spring leeks.
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422 NW Eighth Ave. Portland, OR 503-223-7275
74   Holeman & Finch
Linton Hopkins continues his quest to create perfect Southern cuisine at this gastropub located next to Restaurant Eugene. There's a "terrific list of artisanal beers," which works well with the house made charcuterie, and the "unique cocktails" can be paired with small plates like locally raised pork belly with Anson Mills grits and chow chow, or hand-cut pasta topped with pancetta and a farm egg. Hopkins also serves one of the country's most famous burgers: Think of the type of double-patty burger you would get at a fast-food restaurant, only made with artisanal ingredients.
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2277 Peachtree Rd NE Atlanta, GA 404-948-1175
75   Boucherie
Once known as "the guy who served delicious barbecue from the purple truck," Nathanial Zimet decided that a lifetime of handing out ribs through a window didn't sound that appealing. So when Iris moved to the French Quarter, Zimet opened Boucherie in the vacated space. Zimet's creations come in two sizes: small plates like a blackened shrimp and grit cake, and larger plates like a grilled Fudge Family Farms pork chop with fennel seed spaetzle. Reviewers laud the "amazing food at affordable prices," which explains why "people are always waiting for tables."
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8115 Jeannette St New Orleans, LA 504-862-5514
76   Diner
“It’s always a good meal” is how one of our more experienced reviewers described this restaurant, which opened its doors nearly 15 years ago, well before Williamsburg was hip. The menu is small – no more than five or six starters and mains – and typical daily fare can include dishes like pickled sardines with wild boar lardo and wild striped bass with broccoli and sofrito. They also serve “the best brunch in Brooklyn” with “insanely great eggs.” One reviewer, in describing the no-reservation policy, suggested you “get there early before the hipsters invade.”
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85 Broadway Brooklyn, NY 718-486-3077
77   LeFarm/The Whelk
One of the great mysteries is why Connecticut, a state with 96 miles of coastline, doesn’t have good seafood restaurants. Enter Bill Taibe who has done his best to correct the situation at this “loud and lively restaurant on the water in Westport.” Taibe uses local fish whenever he can – among the oysters and clams on offer are specimens harvested in nearby Norwalk, and the shrimp and scallops are sourced from up the coast at Stonington. Non-pescatarians can opt for a number of meat dishes, including pig head ravioli and fried lamb meatballs.
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575 Riverside Ave. Westport, CT 203-557-0902
78   Empire State South
It wasn’t enough for Hugh Acheson to be the most famous chef in Athens, Georgia. He leased a space in Midtown Atlanta and opened this restaurant that reviewers describe as “dedicated to serving lighter versions of Southern dishes.” There are oysters, charcuterie and jars of deviled ham, trout mousse, pickles, pimento cheese and bacon marmalade, and boiled peanut hummus, along with dishes like tripe stew with a farm egg, hominy, roasted pork and pickled green tomatoes, as well as golden tile fish in a turmeric consommé and served with brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, vidalia tops, and cauliflower.
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999 Peachtree St. Atlanta, GA 404-541-1105
79   Buttermilk Channel
Back in the days when the borough hosted the city’s dairy farms, the water route between Brooklyn and Manhattan was referred to as Butter Milk Channel. Ryan Angulo’s menu features dishes such as Caputo’s fresh linguine with sweet corn, mushrooms and fresh ricotta, duck meatloaf with dirty rice & pickled okra and buttermilk fried chicken with cheddar waffles & cabbage slaw.
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Brooklyn, NY
80   T.W. Food
Talk about flying under the radar. Because it attracts comments like “a great little restaurant with an emphasis on local ingredients” and “elegant setting, delicious food, warm husband-wife team,” it makes sense that Tim and Bronwyn Wiechmann’s restaurant was also described as “one of the best places in the Boston area that you probably don’t know about.” What everyone is talking about are dishes like foraged mushrooms – hedgehog, yellowfoot and porcini – served with a poppy seed brioche and Meyer lemon, and peachwood-smoked duck with mint-pinenut pesto, caramelized onion, olive coulis and endive.
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377 Walden Street Cambridge, MA 617-864-4745
81   Five & Ten
Hugh Acheson is a son of Canada, yet the menu at his restaurant reads as if he's a Georgia native. Doubters need only taste creations like crisp veal sweetbreads with a Red Mule grits custard or crispy catfish served with a lemon emulsion, and they will be convinced faster than they can say "Dixie." Among the favorable comments: "Chef Acheson makes imaginative use of local ingredients and puts together unexpected taste combinations," "a bit of culinary heaven stuck in the middle of a small town" and "worth the hour drive from Atlanta - and that says something."
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1073 S Milledge Ave Athens, GA 706-546-7300
82   Baco Mercat
Joseph Centeno's menu is an unusual mix of Latino, Middle Eastern, Italian and hipster eclectic, and the tables are covered with dishes ranging from a sandwich of beef tongue schnitzel with harissa, smoked aioli and pickle; flatbread topped with merguez sausage, harissa and feta cheese; black rice and local squid with fine herbs and crème fraîche; and Moroccan-spiced fried chicken. As you might expect, the style of cooking attracts a youngish crowd, which means you get to enjoy your meal in "one of the highest-energy dining rooms" in the city.
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408 S. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 213-687-8808
83   Mills Tavern
Every city should have a restaurant like Mill’s Tavern. Following in the footsteps of chefs like Sam Hayward of Portland’s Fore Street, Edward Bolus cooks your dinner in a wood-burning oven, over a wood-burning grill or in an everyday sauté pan. Relying on local ingredients whenever possible, Bolus’ menu might include Point Judith calamari dredged in chickpea flour, coastal sturgeon roasted in the wood-burning oven or a veal porterhouse grilled over a blend of woods and served with fava beans and lardons. Large and lively, Mill’s Tavern is known for “a bustling bar scene” in addition to the tasty food.
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101 North Main St. Providence, RI 401-272-3331
84   Mission Cantina
Rock star chef Danny Bowien has turned his attention from serving a hipsterized version of Szechuan cuisine to doing something similar with Mexican. Creations include bone marrow fajitas with peanuts, jicama & salsa negra; Snow Crab tostada with tomato, avocado & spicy mayonnaise and masa fried chicken with Habanero honey & sweet & hot pickles.
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New York, NY
85   Big Jones
Though Paul Fehribach is a native of Kentucky, when he decided to bring the cuisine of the south to Chicago he focused on the entire region. There is Cajun-style gumbo, Low Country-style shrimp and grits, and staples like sweet tea-brined pork loin and farmhouse chicken and dumplings. The weekend brunch menu, one of the most interesting you will ever see, includes antiquities like Sally Lunn bread; Awendaw, cornbread made from hominy grits, eggs and buttermilk; and Bayou Teche, an omelet with Louisiana crawfish, spicy smoked andouille, and cream cheese, with bearnaise sauce and scallions.
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5347 N Clark St Chicago, IL 773-275-5725
86   Greenhouse Tavern
Finding a good place to eat in the Rust Belt is not that easy. If it wasn't for Jonathon Sawyer's gastropub in downtown Cleveland, people driving from Pittsburgh to Chicago would have to make it all the way to the Indiana border before finding a good place to eat. Sawyer's menu is appropriately irreverent: a hay-scented poached egg omelet with foie gras; "Udon Noodle" of pork skin with crispy Thaxton garlic and kimchee; and his signature dish: Fred Flintstone beef short rib with a brown butter popover and Bourgogne-style braised vegetables.
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2038 E. 4th St. Cleveland, OH 216-443-0511
87   The Hungry Cat
Suzanne Goin and David Lentz have brought the casual fish restaurant (think Boston’s Neptune Oysters or Mary’s Fish Camp in NYC) to Hollywood. The raw bar features clams, oysters, shrimps and a variety of crabs, including king, stone and snow, which you can follow with small plates like oyster and pork belly beignets or larger ones like pan-roasted grouper. Getting to slurp your oysters in a “hip, happening scene” is a plus, as is the ability to just drop by and grab a quick casual meal, which makes it “a good choice for pre-/and post-theater or movie eats.”
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1535 Vine St Hollywood, CA 323-462-2155
88   RedFarm
This updated version of a Chinese restaurant comes to us courtesy of world dim sum champion Joe Ng and his partner, Ed Schoenfeld. The duo show their irreverent side with dishes like Manila clams and Louisiana crawfish in a lemongrass lobster broth, or an egg roll made with pastrami from Katz’s Delicatessen. But the two demonstrate a more serious approach with dishes like crispy smoked chicken with garlic and sautéed lobster, egg and chopped pork, Ng’s personal take on lobster cantonese. Even the sides have been updated; for example, the egg fried rice has been larded with Benton’s bacon.
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529 Hudson St New York, NY 212-792-9700
89   Two Boroughs Larder
We have a number of reviewers who would like to live across the street from Josh & Heather Keeler’s restaurant. That would be an easy way for them to enjoy Josh’s quirky dishes like a sweet onion velouté with asparagus and a chicken wing, roasted Brussels sprouts with merguez sausage and mint and the infamous Bowl-O-Noodles, the house take on ramen that features Keegan Fillion pork. The breakfast menu, served until 3 PM, features a number of dishes that will help your hangover disappear like a soft scramble with kimchi, Fiddlehead, bologna and Grana Padano.
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186 Coming Street Charleston, SC 843-637-3722
90   Uncle Boons
One of our more erudite reviewers described Uncle Boons as “Thai with a twist” and went on to quote London Sunday Times’ restaurant critic A. A. Gill, who said, “Anything with a twist is usually bad, except this restaurant.” The twist comes from chefs Matt Danzer and Ann Redding, who have utilized their experience gained while working at Per Se to turn out dishes like a betal leaf wrap; seared chicken liver with pineapple curry; Mee-Krob sweetbreads with crispy noodle salad and peanuts; and garlic- and soy-marinated frogs’ legs with glass noodle, lemongrass and a Thai herb salad.
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7 Spring St. New York, NY 646-370-6650
91   Bergamot
Servio Garcia and Keith Pooler’s restaurant has positioned itself as one of the more inventive Farm-to-Table restaurants in New England. Pooler’s menu features dishes like rustic chicken livers with grilled scapes, roasted shallot, Balsamic figs, chilled sweet potato soup with smoked oysters, corn, Prosciutto & arugula pesto and grilled Mahi Mahi with cabbage slaw, smoked black beans & crème fraîche.
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Boston, MA
92   The Optimist
With the successful JCT Kitchen and No. 246 under his belt, Ford Fry decided it was time to focus on seafood. Opening what he describes as a “fish camp and oyster bar”, Fry’s menu offers tasty sounding fare such as a forty She-Crab soup with shrimp toast, Georgia shrimp cooked ala plancha and served with sopping” toast, arbol chile, butter & lime and duck fat poached swordfish with, chanterelles & pancetta
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Atlanta, GA
93   Blue Collar
Dan Serfer’s menu is filled with dishes like pork ’n’ beans, saffron aroncini and Chanukah latkes, and the simplest way to describe his restaurant is hipster diner. There is also a braise of the day (brisket, pot roast, pork shoulder, etc.), a Parm of the day (veal, chicken, eggplant, etc.) and a rib preparation of the day (baby back, short ribs, spare ribs, prime rib). There are also a couple dozen vegetable side dishes. At lunch, Serfer serves a slowly braised blend of veal, pork and beef called The Big Ragout Sandwich, and his brunch menu includes things like the wonderfully named Duck “McMuffin.”
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6730 Biscayne Boulevard Miami, FL 305-756-0366
94   Higgins Restaurant & Bar
In 1984, Greg Higgins launched Portland's regional cuisine movement by bringing local and sustainable cuisine to Portland's Heathman Hotel. Ten years later he opened Higgins, and ever since he has been serving dishes like baked oysters with nettle pesto, a salad of Oregon Bay shrimp or a Tuscan "whole pig" plate that includes fennel sausage, braised belly, ribs and crepinette served with a cranberry bean stew. Though it is not as well-known as some of the city's other restaurants, knowledgeable locals call it "a must for those who want a primer on the cooking of the Pacific Northwest." (photo of Greg Higgins by Mike Perrault)
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1239 SW Broadway Portland, OR 503-222-9070
95   The Federal
Cesar Zapata and Aniece Meinhold decided to swim against the tide. Instead of being like everyone else in Miami and opening their restaurant in a trendy location, they chose a location in a quiet strip mall that is located between the city's Design District and its Midtown neighborhood. Of course, that means the duo can avoid blowing air kisses to their guests and instead concentrate on serving up dishes like a jar filled with duck rillettes, charred fluff and candied sweet potato, and Smokey Fried Chicken, which Zapata serves with house-made hot sauce and pickled watermelon radish.
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5132 Biscayne Blvd Miami, FL 305-758-9559
96   Bronwyn
Located in a converted pub in Somervilles Union Square, the Bronwyn is the second restaurant opened by the T.W. Food team. The restaurant delivers a hipsterized version of German cuisine, featuring dishes like Swabian-style spätzle with tarragon, corn & cheddar, spicy squid goulash made with pork and veal, and a giant pork shank with mushrooms, apples and potatoes. The food pairs perfectly with a carefully chosen list of craft beers.
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Somerville, MA
97   Caiola's
Caiola's turns six this year. The quirky menu mixes New American fare, like a starter of lobster pudding served with a corn salad, with Mediterranean-inspired dishes like chile-and-orange-marinated swordfish alongside chorizo, chickpeas and spinach. The restaurant's stated goal is to be one of Portland's top neighborhood places, and one person described it as "having a little something for everyone," from vegetarian options to a juicy steak. They also offer one of the most popular Sunday brunches in the city.
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58 Pine Street Portland, ME 207-772-1110
98   Zingerman's Roadhouse
Most people know Zingerman’s as a gourmet shop in one of the country’s most famous college towns. But fewer people realize that the same crew operates this restaurant located on the road from Detroit to Ann Arbor. As at the shop, the menu is a mishmash of styles, ranging from burgers to barbecue to southern cuisine to farm-to-table to what is probably the only restaurant in the country that dedicates an entire section of the menu to mac ’n’ cheese, listing seven different preparations, such as macaroni, chicken and Monterey Jack.
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2501 Jackson Ave Ann Arbor, MI 734-663-3663
99   Oliveto
If one were to map the genealogy of the Cal-Ital movement, Oliveto would be at the base of the family tree. The menu, a prototype for restaurants in the genre, teems with delicious pastas, hand-crafted salumi and meats that are braised until they are fork-tender. Each year the restaurant holds a number of now-famous single-ingredient theme dinners - one is based on tomatoes, another on truffles and another on using an entire pig - that draw chefs and foodies from all over the country. The fairly priced wine list emphasizes top regional wines rather than collector's items.
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5655 College Avenue Oakland, CA 510-547-5356
100   Reynard
Though it flies under the radar because of its location in the super-trendy Wythe Hotel, this is where you can find some of the most interesting Farm-to-Table cooking in the U.S. Sean Rembold likes to cook with wood, and his daily menus include things that are both baked or roasted in a wood burning oven, such as his Tarte flambée of the day, or grilled over wood, like Rockfish with summer squash, cilantro romesco & cashew and lamb with Shitake mushrooms, nectarine, English peas & mint
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80 Wythe Ave Brooklyn, NY (718) 460-8004