National Accolades For Philadelphia

A number of Philadelphia restaurants and chefs have recently received national recognition.

Esquire’s list of top 20 new restaurants includes two Philadelphia restaurants, Michael Solomonov’s Zahav and Jose Garces’ Distrito. Garces is on the list twice as his Chicago restaurant, Mercat a la Planxa also made the grade.

Ristorante Panorama was named 2008 Wine Hospitality Restaurant of the Year by Santé magazine. We keep saying we’re going to get there.

Kevin Sbraga of the Garces Restaurant Group may not have come away as the overall winner at Bocuse d’Or USA but he did win best meat dish with his beef tenderloin served with peach wood smoke, red eye gravy.