Just a few more hours until ithe San Pellegrino Top 50 Restaurant Awards 2011 are announced…
Who will be number one this year?
I think Noma might get knocked off their perch, with either the Fat Duck or El Celler de Can Roca taking the top spot…
NOMA it is.
Alinea best restaurant in the USA - #6 overall.
EMP jumps up 25 spots.
Cool!
George
in case anyone wants it!
French laundry is 56 and Per se is 10? scratches head
Congratulations to EMP which is now #24! Big jump.
French laundry a big drop again…
Great to see Alinea right up there now also!
OK. Having never been to either, but only having read posts here about both, could you Charlie, and/or anyone else explain why you feel this way please. The way I figured, they were both just siblings of each other on opposite coasts. TIA for your responses.
French laundry is 56 and Per se is 10? > scratches head
that’s what I’m curious about. They are basically the same restaurant on different coasts. What makes one significantly better than the other!
Yeah, I don’t know either…in 2009 Laundry was 12 and Per Se 6, in 2008 they were 5 and 6 respectively, and in 2007 it was 4 and 9…
So, as you questioned, it is interesting that one has fallen so much and not the other…I haven’t been to either, so I can’t comment on the changes personally…
The criteria requires the jury members to have eaten at the restaurant in the past year (although doesn’t require proof of such). I suspect a lot more of the jury members end up in New York (and therefore Per Se) than the Napa. So Per Se has a huge advantage in terms of total voting pool.
This is always a bizarre list if you compare restaurants against each other (i.e., it’s unequivocal that Troisgros is significantly superior to most of the 43 restaurants ahead of it), but it’s a very good barometer of what restaurants matter on a year-to-year basis, and therefore it’s always a fun read. I am amazed how quickly Mugaritz has rebounded and thrived since being ravaged by a fire a couple years back.
I think it is funny that Ssam Bar and Ko make the list but Ma Peche doesnt. I love Ssam Bar - my go to when I have lunch in the city - but it’s a dive (in the best sense).
i wouldn’t try to hard to figure this list out. it’s pretty useless across the board. to me, if a restaurant is on the list, then it’s at least a very good restaurant. the actual rankings are absolutely insane and meaningless and serve only to make it a hot food news item for a few days each year.
It appeals to the American idea of ranking. #24 is better than #25, etc. Same as a wine judged by Parker as a 99 is better than a 98.
I agree with Yaacov; its a bit silly, but it does appeal to a (largely American) certain audience. Hell, a #7 must be better than one rated #3, right? Pellegrino said so.
While, I’m not into restaurant ranking, other than for discussion purposes, I don’t get why this appeals, solely, to American idea of ranking. I think there’s enough subjectivity in American palates to determine which/waht restaurants are good and bad without going with somebody’s ranking. I may be wrong, but Restaurant magazine (not San Pellegrino) has been and still is the “owner” of the annual ranking. Perhaps, one of the company bought the other?
I agree with Ramon here. I understand that Americans are competitive and status conscience but I really don’t believe that the US audience is waiting for these rankings. fine dining as a competitive sport is decidedly non US centric.
Without belaboring the point, I just mean we Americans always love to rank things–not specifically fine dining. I was looking at Eater.com this morning—“best 10 comments this week,” “ten best chandelier restaurants,” or in another magazine, “100 most influential people.” We just love to rank things, and this kind of ranking fits that tradition. Again, what % of comments on the wine boards have to do either with “Parker points” (ranking) or whether a 97 wine is really better than a 94 wine. Just the way we’re brought up to think. I’m not singling out the Pellegrino awards specifically.
My friends in Holland always kid me about how much we Americans love our “top x” lists.
I love this stuff…not because i love the list or its rankings, but because anything that gets folks talking or interested in fine dining is a good thing…particularly when the use of ratings gets people who aren’t the most ardent foodies to become interested…similar to Parkers 100 point ratings…probably no bigger catalyst to enhancing both the number of people in the world interested in wine and the quality level of the wine we all drink than the popularization of understandable and comparable ratings…