Eater’s 38 Most Essential and Influential Restaurants of America of the Past 20 Years
Discuss
I’ve lived in Chicago for nearly a decade, and not once has Mi Tocaya Antojería come up in any conversation I’ve had about must-try restaurants or local favorites. I looked at the menu, and to be honest, it doesn’t seem to offer anything that sets it apart from several other upscale Mexican spots in the city.
Maybe I’m just not talking to the right “foodies,” or perhaps I’ve genuinely missed out on something special. But until someone convinces me otherwise, I don’t see how this restaurant belongs on any top-tier list of “most essential or influential” places.
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Without criteria for the selections, it’s a dubious list.
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We’ve eaten at Mi Tocaya many times. The food is very good (all from scratch) and the mescal, excellent. Diana is committed to her vision (Mexican food she grew up with and the exploration of other regions of Mexico) and she is also committed to the community. Is it one of the top 38 in the country? Almost certainly not - but that’s true with a lot of the restaurants on the list.
If one looks at the list as “most influential”–not best–a number of these make sense.
Momofuku for sure. Probably the biggest no-brainer. And I think there’s a very good case for Franklin, Alinea, Carbone, Nakazawa, Atomix, Husk, and Zahav at least.
Mission Chinese maybe, but I’ve always found the food terrible and I don’t think it had the impact of a place like Momofuku.
What’s left off is most puzzling. Per Se should be there. So should Roberta’s. Shake Shack too (though it may fall just outside the 20-year window). I think BH@SB falls just outside the 20-year window or else it would be a no-brainer. Cochon in NOLA is a better choice than Compere Lapin.
Crawfish & Noodles for Houston is a fun choice, but it’s not the right one. The most influential restaurant here in the last 20 years is probably Oxheart–maybe Underbelly. Those are the restaurants that ushered in the new era of serious Houston food.
(Obviously, lists like this are by their nature silly and inaccurate and virtue signaled and meant to be provocative to obtain clicks. But they can be a good starting point for discussion, as the question posed is an interesting one.)
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Eater uses two very different terms, “influential” and “essential”. In Chicago, the most influential Mexican restaurants by a HUGE margin are Topolobampo/Fronterra Grill (same ownership). Both restaurants are significantly older than 20, but I’d argue that their influence has resonated more in the last 20 years than MTA. Kasama has a star, but has it been one of the 38 most influential restaurants in the last 20 years? I think Alinea is the only given from Chicago, but I would put Smyth in the mix.
Sticking with the term “influential”, I think @RyanC is probably correct with his list, though I might have included Kogi (haven’t been, but have heard great things).
Now if we consider the term “essential”, all bets are off because the term is so vague as to be meaningless. YMMV.
I walk by My Tocaya daily. Perhaps I should finally stop in
As others have mentioned it’s hard to come up with a definitive list without some. That said, a handful of notable omissions as far as I’d chip in; WD-50, EMP, French Laundry/Per Se, Blue Hill, Shake Shack come to mind
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I think the list is confined to restaurants that opened in the last 20 years, which would exclude most of those.
Is it this, or hard to get reservation…. Ie is carbone influential beyond tiktok?
Ah! I missed that part. I thought it was restaurants that have been open/operating in the last 20 years. Yes, that would exclude many of the ones I listed
I think Carbone (or The Grill, but really Carbone) has been wildly influential. There was a period where minimalism was everywhere, in restaurants as in home decor. Nordic restaurants and Spartan interiors and minimalist plating and ubiquitous “small plates.” Even the old French/Continental temples adopted more minimalist approaches and aesthetics. Everyone wanted to be NOMA. (And with good reason!)
Then Carbone (and I’m certain others, but Carbone and the Major Food Group are what I associate with it) went entirely the opposite direction with a beyond-maximalist approach of over the top decor and music and ceremony and, yes, huge plates of tasty food. Carbone has become somewhat of a different beast since it has gone worldwide, but in the early days in NYC it was pretty exciting and certainly different. The Grill is the same idea executed differently, with all the tableside preparations and tuxedos etc. Just in Houston I can think of probably 3-6 restaurants that have tried to seize on the same maximalist approach of over-the-top dining.
Again, not sure if Carbone really made it happen, but it’s what I associate with the trend.
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Thanks for sharing
Mozza is the only place I’ve been and I don’t even remember the experience.
Shake Shack opened in 2004, and French Laundry and a few others opened well before 2005.
Eater’s criteria would also explain why Shake Shack would get excluded anyway.
We narrowed it, partially, by limiting ourselves only to restaurants that opened in 2005 or later; this excluded noteworthy Mexican food trucks in LA, the Bay Area’s farm-to-table pioneers, fast-casual standouts turned global juggernauts, and scores of classic restaurants.
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pretty much agree here. In Chicago I’dd agree with Kasama. There’s been an explosion of Filipino restaurants since it opened. As far as MTA, I’m not sure they’re influential. Doesn’t’t mean it isn’t excellent as David says.
I guess the board has given up on having all restaurant related threads in one area. I still don’t get it…
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Not in the last 20 years.
Even though I don’t love those spots I fully agree they have been very influential. Cote and many others were definitely influenced by them.