The James Beard Semifinalists List Is Out, and the Newcomers Are Stealing the Show

The 2025 James Beard Foundation Award ceremony / Photograph by Eliesa Johnson for James Beard Foundation

This week, the James Beard Foundation announced its list of semifinalists for the 2026 restaurant and chef awards. We’ve got a long way to go yet until we know who’ll take home the awards this year (winners won’t be announced until June 15th), and that’s as it should be. A James Beard Award is a big deal. Like an Oscar or a Pulitzer, it will follow you for the rest of your career. You will forever be “James Beard Award winner Chefy McChef-Face.” They’ll mention that shit in your obituary. So picking winners should be handled with a certain amount of deliberation and gravitas.

But these early stages with their long lists of semifinalists from all over the country and occasional wild, left-field inclusions? I’ve long believed that they actually have more to say about the state of the restaurant scene than the final choice in winners ultimately does. Because as prescient and earned as those medals might be (see: Mawn), they are just a pinhole into the industry. What was released this week was the broad view.

Philly has 13 semifinalists this year — one less than last year, but still a solid haul. A lot of those were the kinds of places you’d expect to get tagged in the first round: Greg Vernick for Outstanding Restaurateur, Kalaya for Outstanding Restaurant, the Lovers Bar at Friday Saturday Sunday, Amanda Shulman, and Jesse Ito (making his 9th appearance now as a semifinalist). There’s also Justine MacNeil of Fiore, who is up for Outstanding Baker, and Russ Cowan of Radin’s Delicatessen in Cherry Hill, who is in the running for Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic — both are new to the list but have been wowing us for years. But what’s really surprising about this year’s list is how many relative newcomers — the fresh faces and new places — that were included.

Like the Michelin Guide, past iterations of the JBF winnowing process have favored restaurants with a certain amount of consistency and staying power. It has rewarded operators and establishments that have proven over time that they can go the distance. And while that may still ultimately end up being the case by the time the winners are chosen, right now this list makes Philly seem like it’s the youngest food city on earth.

First, there’s Frankie Ramirez of Amá. The place with the fried crickets and the whole octopus; with the beautiful cocktails and the highly personal, almost biographical menu. To see his name (and Amá’s name) on this list was a solid endorsement of the kind of high-end, experimental, narrative-driven approach to menu design seen among some of this year’s other picks (like Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate at Honeysuckle), but it’s where Ramirez was named that caught my eye.

Frankie Ramirez, Amá’s executive chef / Photograph by Mike Prince

He made the list in the Emerging Chef category. This is the same category that Phila Lorn won last year (making it kinda unlikely that Philly will repeat, just historically speaking); but more importantly, it’s one that’s not broken down regionally. Ramirez was named among chefs from New York and Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu. He’s competing not just against local chefs, but against the whole country. Granted, Philly has been a rising star in the food world for the past year or two, but to even get a mention in this category means that not only are you doing something good and worthwhile and interesting on your block, but you’re getting noticed for it nationwide. And that’s not nothing.

Plus, Amá has only been open since May of last year. That’s just eight months of service. And I know what you’re thinking. You’re saying: Well, duh. That’s what the “Emerging Chef” category is for. It’s right there in the name! But when Phila Lorn brought it home last year, Mawn had already been open for more than two years. And even that felt like it was crazy-soon for such a big award. “Emerging Chef” is traditionally an award given to a chef with some years in the industry behind them. It usually goes to first restaurants by blooded pros — which Ramirez absolutely is. He’s got decades of kitchen work in his rearview. Still, seeing a baby of a restaurant like Amá on that list is a little bit bonkers — even if it is entirely deserved.

Oh, and speaking of Tate and St. Aude-Tate, how about Honeysuckle for lending the list some additional youth and vigor? Yes, this isn’t Omar and Cybille’s (or Honeysuckle’s) first time at the rodeo. The original version — Honeysuckle Provisions — got a nod in 2024. But the new, fancied-up, fine dining Honeysuckle on Broad Street is an entirely new (and entirely different) restaurant, and they are on the list even though they just unlocked the doors to the public in April of last year.

Cybille St. Aude-Tate and Omar Tate at Honeysuckle / Photograph by Gab Bonghi, originally in Why Honeysuckle Is the Most Important Restaurant in Philly Right Now

Almanac got listed among the Best New Bars, and it opened late in 2024, then spent the next year getting named to pretty much every Best New Bars list there was. Father-and-son team Dan Suro-Cipolloni and David Suro-Piñera made the semifinal list of Outstanding Beverage Professionals for both Tequilas and La Jefa. And while Tequilas has a lot of history behind it (it has been around, in one form or another, since 1986, with the newest version opening in March of last year after a 2023 fire had it dark for two years), La Jefa is new-new. It just opened in May.

Another spot that’s competing on a national level (though in a different category entirely than Amá) is Emmett. Chef Evan Snyder’s stunningly good modern Levantine/Middle Eastern spot made the semifinals as Best New Restaurant — a hugely competitive category that can make any restaurant famous virtually overnight. And guess how long Emmett has been open? A year. Almost exactly.

Chef Evan Snyder of Emmett / Photograph by Ed Newton, originally in Inside Philly’s Most Inventive New Restaurant

I already had a lot to say about Emmett’s less obvious charms when it landed on Esquire‘s list of Best New Restaurants back in December, but to see it mentioned again is just further proof that the informal and the unpretentious — two things that Philly does incredibly well — are winning out over the uptight and the staid; that approachability, hospitality and a sense of actual, honest comfort is so valuable right now that restaurants that previously might’ve been overlooked for not being loud and showy enough are now being recognized for their quiet competence. I love that for us. I love that for Emmett. I love it for the industry in general.

Finally, there’s Little Water — Randy and Amanda Rucker’s new spot in Rittenhouse. I had one of my best meals of 2025 here. I still think about it at least once a week. Randy is named this year in the regional category (Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic) alongside Ian Graye from Pietramala, Amanda Shulman, Jesse Ito, and Tate and St. Aude-Tate (among others). What’s surprising is that Randy is on the long list specifically for his work at Little Water (and not his other, more established restaurant, River Twice), and that Little Water, too, has only been open for just over a year. That’s a quick entry into this kind of company. And it says a lot about just how good Little Water is.

Randy Rucker, chef and co-owner of River Twice. / Photograph by Mike Prince

More, Little Water does all of the things we’ve been talking about here. It is a highly personal, almost biographical menu (like Amá’s) that speaks to Randy and his wife Amanda’s lifelong dedication to those places where land and water touch. There’s a narrative aspect to it that has less to do with any regional cuisine or technique than it does with a lifetime spent focused on dishes and ingredients that come from these varied shores. It is experimental, beautiful, and absolutely goddamn delicious, has a sense of humor buried between the lines that shows in things like hash browns topped with uni and clams used as garnishes. And it is casual and approachable the way Emmett is, with crowded lunch services, a welcoming dinner time vibe and the Grateful Dead on the playlist.

So, of all the Philly semifinalists that made this year’s long list, almost half of them have been around a year old or less. And that’s remarkable, considering the depth of our bench, and the number of truly amazing restaurants in this town with a lot more miles on their odometers.

This is a lineup that speaks loudly to the vitality of our scene and the amount of new talent just starting their runs at greatness. And those common themes that keep recurring? The personality, the biographical menus, the leaning toward comfort and approachability? All of that makes me feel like Philly is leaning into its strengths. Doing what we do well and just watching the successes stack up.

If you want to check out the whole list of JBF semifinalists, you can do that right here. And since this whole process is just getting started, stay tuned for any updates as they happen. Finalists are due to be announced March 31st.