And the country bows to the Big Apple for giving it bagels, Craig Claiborne, Mario Batali, fresh takes on food halls and gold-standard hospitality courtesy of Danny Meyer. Sushi Nakazawa proves a Japanese gem, Le Bernardin remains my favorite four-star, and when I munched on a $3 hot dog at Gray’s Papaya, amid exhaust and a mass of people, all seemed right with the world. Oh, there were plenty of heady moments, too. Seven hundred dollars for an undistinguished omakase at Masa? Nine hundred bucks for dinner for two at Eleven Madison Park, where the most exciting part of the night was watching a sommelier open a rare bottle of wine with heated tongs? The raves lavished on Cosme, a Mexican newcomer, baffled me, and I guess you have to be a native New Yorker to appreciate Peter Luger Steak House, a sad Brooklyn icon that has seen better days. I left scratching my head and wondering whether New York is resting on its considerable laurels. As a serious observer of the scene for more than 25 years, I went in figuring I’d be using up my annual allotment of exclamation points. Count me among them after spending 11 days there this past August and September, with the daunting goal of putting a dent in a city that counts 45,000 restaurants, 200 cuisines and some of the biggest names in the business. The dirty little secret among some food writers? They’d rather eat in places other than New York right now. Recipes: The Obstinate Daughter’s Frogmore Chowder | The Ordinary’s Diver Scallop Hush Puppies Map: Tom Sietsema’s food tour of Charleston It may lack culinary representation from around the world, but what’s wrong with serving the best shrimp and grits on the planet?ĭefining moment: Craggy golden fried chicken, succulent shrimp and a heaping helping of hospitality at soul food purveyor Martha Lou’s Kitchen.īest twist on tradition: Shrimp and masa grits with chili sofrito at Minero, a Mexican retreat from Charleston chef Sean Brock. Think farm-to-table is new? Charleston, home to ace chef Sean Brock of the beloved Husk and cookbook maven Nathalie Dupree, has been a subscriber seemingly forever. Expect to find some of the latest food fashions sprinkled among the abundant low-country treasures – which benefit from ingredients a stone’s throw away – but not, for the most part, polished service.

The first and smallest of the cities I surveyed, Charleston roots almost as hard for the future as it does for its oh-so-rich past.

Foodie cities