Some Surprising Food Destinations to Add to Your List

January 27, 2020 Admin 0 Comments

From the Editor: Everything you missed in food news last week

This post originally appeared on January 25, 2020 in Amanda Kludt’s newsletter “From the Editor,” a roundup of the most vital news and stories in the food world each week. Read the archives and subscribe now.

We launched a new annual package earlier this month called Where to Eat in 2020. It is exactly what you imagine it to be: a list of all the exciting dining destinations that should be on your radar this year. Since we publish guides and maps to hundreds of international dining destinations from locals on the ground around the world, we basically tapped into the vast network of Eater freelancers and challenged them to make a case for their city/region/favorite place. Some locations were chosen because the city or region is getting new investment ahead of a big event (Milwaukee). Other food scenes seem too good to last much longer (George Town, Malaysia). Some old favorites are seeing a culinary resurgence because of new infrastructure (Marseille, France).

Personally, I am going to have to live vicariously for the rest of the year, because I took my big international vacation last week. My destination: a wedding in sunny Oaxaca, Mexico. It turns out to be exactly as wonderful as you imagine (or know) it to be. I was never a mole obsessive, but holy shit do they do it right down there. Having a mole alongside an excellent mezcal in an open terrace as night falls in Oaxaca is an experience that will stay with me for a long time. Of course, I did the thing we all do when we come back from a great food trip: I ordered mole in New York and was predictably disappointed.

By the way, I did not realize chef Enrique Olvera owns a restaurant in Oaxaca with a very excellent back patio perfect for weddings. They roasted a whole pig for the wedding dinner and turned the leftovers into midnight carnitas tlayudas (!). Engaged couples take note.

On Eater

Wonho Frank Lee

• Intel: Chef Daniel Humm and the owners of the NoMad hotel group are negotiating a split; South Philly Barbacoa chef Cristina Martinez will open a new restaurant called Casa Mexico; one of D.C.’s biggest restaurateurs just opened a high-end power-dining destination; the team behind LA’s Kismet opened a rotisserie chicken spot in Los Feliz; MáLà Project’s FiDi restaurant is now a Northern Chinese noodle and dumpling bistro called Chubby Princess; one of the Twin Cities’ best-known cocktail bars is going booze-free until April; Sean Brock’s latest project is a throwback restaurant inside a Nashville Hyatt; Rick Bayless and Jollibee launched a fast-casual restaurant in Chicago called Tortazo; New York’s state attorney general is “looking into” Joe Bastianich as part of Mario Batali’s misconduct claims; restaurateur Ken Friedman agreed to pay $240,000 and 20 percent of his profits for the next decade to 11 former staffers who accused him of misconduct; Danny Meyer opened a branch of Maialino in D.C.; the very lovely nine-month-old Firehouse Hotel in Los Angeles is already undergoing a revamp; an eclectic-looking grandma-chic hotel called Graduate opened in Nashville with an animatronic karaoke bar; delivery platform Grubhub added a step to phone delivery orders that should help out their restaurant clients; Major Food Group in New York will turn the Pool into an extended version of the Grill; José Andrés will open a fine dining restaurant in Chicago; SF power couple Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski are opening an anchovy bar; Dave Chang is opening a restaurant called Siberia inside his Vegas Majordomo; and Ayesha Curry is getting a quarterly food magazine.
• I cannot get over the maximalist interior of new LA restaurant Olivetta. It’s absurd, but also I want to move in permanently.
• Please check out our new video series, Deep Dive, in which Portland chef Jacob Harth dives for sustainable seafood and turns it into the most beautiful food you’ve ever seen.
• From the race to create a better chicken sandwich to CEO shakeups and Impossible Burgers, here’s what the heck is going on at McDonald’s.
• Pro tip: Go to the omakase place as soon as it opens.
• We never talk enough about the emotional and tactical work of closing a restaurant, so I appreciate Alex Pemoulie for taking us through it.
• How different people are approaching the child care gap in the restaurant world.
• Drew Magary dares fast-food chains to try dark-meat chicken.
• The next generation of Parisian chefs is exploring Asian and Asian-American influences like never before.
• How restaurants, literally on the front lines of the protests in Hong Kong, are opting into and out of the struggle.

Off Eater

• The lost neighborhood under New York’s Central Park. [Vox.com]
• Check out this very modern homage to Thoreau and “reduction” (aka cabin porn). [Curbed]
• People get resourceful at the bodega when they can’t use plastic bags. [@nattgarun]
• How Instagram stories give life to and form a sense of community around a recipe. [TNY]
• The not-so-great state of the food-media scene in Charlotte. [Charlotte Mag]
• The Doomsday Clock is now set at 100 seconds to midnight. [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists]