Boys and girls, that's a wrap for 2009. To recap our recaps: Single Best Meals, Top Newcomers, Top Standbys, The Year in One Word, Best Dining Neighborhood, and Biggest Dining Surprises. Many thanks to all those who participated. Until 2010.
Christopher Kostow, Meadowood: “Jeremy Fox gets a new hat”
Jessica Battilana, 7x7: “San Francisco Chefs Finally Realize New York Chefs Don’t Care About Them,” “Noted Newspaper Critic Admits, Once and For All, That Everyone Knows Who He Is”
Nish Nadaraja, Yelp: Restaurants Start Growing Their Own Vegetables; Yelp Acquires Eater; The Year of the Fancy Take-Out Containers.
Jan Newberry, San Francisco Magazine: I'm love how fine dining is reinventing itself at places like Commis and Saison, with such serious and thoughtful food in a more relaxed environment. I hope that trend continues. We have enough great pizza. I'd like to see chefs start taking chances again.
Brett Emerson, Contigo: We're seafood fanatics at Contigo, so we would rejoice if we saw a headline announcing the return of local salmon fishing! If that doesn't happen, we look forward to seeing more chefs championing the local fishermen that catch fish sustainably. You can't beat the line caught rockfish, ling cod and black cod from Ft. Bragg, the sardines and squid from Monterey, and, when in season, the local dungeness, halibut, petrale, sand dabs, albacore, opah, smelt and harpoon caught swordfish.
Local
James Oseland, Saveur: 1. Mom-and-pop restaurants offering smart, homey REAL food will beat out soulless, grotesquely bankrolled dining palaces at 2010’s James Beard Awards—and every year after that. 2. Top Chef Masters, season 2, will thrill, confound, and shock viewers. 3. Print-edition food magazines will not only continue, they will thrive.
Ryan Farr, 4505 Meats: Sausage, Ramen, Meat CSA, Ravi Kapur/Prospect, OPEN Restaurant
Sarah Sung, UrbanDaddy: "More Pop-Up Restaurants Sprout," "Butchery is Still Big," "Nontraditional Dining Is the New Black," "Cereal (or another random food) Hits the Street Food Cart Scene," "Move Over Wine-Pairing, Hello Cocktail Pairing," and "Thomas Keller Tweets!"
Michael Mina, Michael Mina: Neighborhood Restaurants
Lissa Doumani, Terra/Ame: For Sale?
Bruce Hill, Picco/Bix: Casual, innovative will rule. Chefs will all use my Chef's Press available through Williams-Sonoma in February
Kate Krader, Food & Wine: VEGETABLES. And maybe maybe more healthy dishes. Chefs, like Mario, are making meat the side dish for health and environmental reasons (his Otto cookbook coming out in April 2010 is all about that). Even the chefs at Animal in LA - Animal! - say they're getting sick of all the pork belly in their staff meals and going towards more fish and vegetable dishes. David Chang has talked vegetables since before last year. Also, more southern (at an upcoming place there's word of barbecue spaghetti!!). And more regional American, yippee. And I think/hope there's a new tier being established above the comfort food mob.
Joe Hargrave, Tacolicious: Tacos, not just good, but good for you.
Rajat Parr, RN74: More focus on Natural (Organic or Bio Dynamic) wines and spirits.
Anna Weinberg, South: 1. Butchery is soooo 2009...said the Baker & the Candlestick maker. 2 . Reinvented restaurants rule SF dining scene!...(a girl can be optimistic right?)
Brock Keeling: SFist: Raw Red Meat Craze Red Hot In SF
Lucchesi: Benu and Prospect Lead the Class of 2010; Cosentino Gets a Cookbook; Shake Shack Yerba Buena Gardens; oh, and Deathwatch Returns to San Francisco.
Do feel free to add yours in the comments.
