Celebrating America's Best New Restaurants

Here's something kind of cool: Every now and then I get to go to events where not one single person argues over the piece of cake with the flower on it. This was the case last week when I headed to Bon Appetit's annual Hot Ten event in downtown Manhattan celebrating the best new restaurants in America. Locals: Remind me to remind you about it next year. For people who love restaurants, but who don't have the chance to actually see the insides of them for long stretches of time (read: new parents) it's a pretty great way to get up to speed fast. The chefs from America's ten best new restaurants (as named by BA) set up pop-up stations and party-goers get to sample a few signature dishes and snacks from each of their menus. And when I say snacks I mean snacks that are no joke -- things like bottarga topped corn fritters, brine pickled french fries, and, my personal favorite, the miso-cured cod with cucumbers (above) from San Francisco's Rintaro, which was so up my alley, and which I plan to replicate in my own kitchen some time very soon. I had never been to any of the restaurants before -- I had in fact had only heard of one -- so by the end of the night it felt like I'd traveled to Indianapolis and Los Angeles and Davidson, North Carolina, and back again. What about you guys? How many have you heard of? How many have you been to? Here's the full list:

1. Al's Place, San Francisco 2. Gjusta, Los Angeles 3. Petit Trois, Los Angeles 4. Semilla, Brooklyn 5. Parachute, Chicago 6. Dai Due, Austin 7. Kindred, Davidson, NC 8. Rintaro, San Francisco 9. Manolin, Seattle 10. Milktooth, Indianapolis

Head over to BA for the full download on each.

It was pouring but it takes a lot more than a little rain to get in between New Yorkers and good food.

Let me assure you that Rintaro's cod taste every bit as amazing as it looks. Head over to BA for the recipe.

Photo credits: Elizabeth Lippman (party shots) and Aya Brackett (cod on blue plate).