Philly Scores a Triple on North America’s 50 Best Restaurants List
The three acclaimed restaurants join a growing list of Philly establishments receiving national culinary honors.
From left: Nok Suntaranon of Kalaya; Chad and Hanna Williams of Friday Saturday Sunday, originally in Q&A: Friday Saturday Sunday Owners on Marriage, QR Code Menus, Pineapple Pizza; and Jesse Ito of Royal Sushi & Izakaya, originally in How Jesse Ito Built a Sushi Dynasty / Photographs by Michael Persico, Linette & Kyle Kielinski, and Justin James Muir
The swells all gathered last night in Las Vegas for the announcement of the winners of the inaugural edition of the “North America’s 50 Best Restaurants” list. And once again, Philly did admirably, securing three spots on the impressive lineup. We got less love than NYC (with 13 spots, including a #1 nod for Atomix), San Francisco (with five) and Montreal (which notched four wins, including the #2 slot for Mon Lapin), but we fared better than Chicago, New Orleans, and Denver, so that’s not nothing.
Plus, the picks were solid. I mean, say what you will about the New York domination, but no one can claim Le Bernardin (#9), Le Veau d’Or (#10) or Jungsik (#35) aren’t great restaurants. And any list that includes spots like Quince and Atelier Crenn (both San Francisco), Smyth (Chicago), Kato (Los Angeles), Moon Rabbit, and Dogon (both Washington D.C.) is the kind of list you want to be on.
Which we were. Our very own Kalaya came in at #7 on the big list, with owner Nok Suntaranon also bringing home the award for “North America’s Best Female Chef” (which is a little weird, right? Especially since I can’t find a “Best Male Chef” award listed anywhere, so why not just call it “Best Chef” and leave it at that?) in this first cohort of North American winners.
The oft-decorated Friday Saturday Sunday came in at #16. Jesse Ito’s Royal Sushi and Izakaya took #32.
And this all just adds to the whole sackful of honors that Philly restaurants have been bringing home lately. Between the James Beard Awards, Food & Wine‘s Best New Chefs, The New York Times 50 Best Restaurants list, and Bon Appétit‘s Best New Restaurants, this has been a winning season for Philly’s restaurant industry. Hell, just September alone has been remarkable.
And there’s none of this that isn’t absolutely deserved. Are there great restaurants here that haven’t (yet) been name-checked by the glossy magazines and international awards committees? Sure there are. But this kind of showing is good for everyone. It shows that Philly’s restaurants have some serious game. That we’ve got talent to burn. And so far at least, none of it has felt in any way inauthentic. Kalaya, Friday Saturday Sunday, and Royal Sushi? These are deeply Philadelphian restaurants, with history and consistency behind them. They’re all names that get regularly lumped in among the best in the country. There’s no one here that thinks the way to success comes from being anything less than what they truly are.
So, rising tide and all that. Yay, us. And extra-special congrats to our three newly minted winners. As I mentioned earlier, this is the very first year of the North America’s 50 Best Restaurants list (if it sounds familiar, it comes from the same folks that put out the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, the World’s 50 Best Bars, and the World’s 50 Best Hotels lists — a company called, unsurprisingly, 50 Best), but it’s probably not going to be the last. And while we’ve been trumpeting a lot of local victories lately, let’s not forget that there’s still a very big one on the horizon: the announcement of the first-ever inclusion of our fair city in the Michelin Northeast Cities Guide, which is coming in a big, fancy, invite-only ceremony (in Philly!) on November 18th.
Check out the full list of North America’s 50 Best Restaurants right here.
