2024 James Beard Award-Winning Restaurants

Housed in an 1835 Creole cottage on St Louis Street in the French Quarter, Jewel of the South has become New Orleans' most decorated cocktail bar since opening in 2019. A 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bar and a #4 ranking in North America's 50 Best Bars 2025 position it firmly at the top of the city's drinking hierarchy. The bar's identity is built around the historical cocktail record of New Orleans, refined rather than replicated.

A Michelin-starred live-fire destination in Washington D.C.'s Navy Yard, Albi channels Palestinian culinary tradition through a wood-burning hearth and peak-season Mid-Atlantic produce. Chef Michael Rafidi's five-course tasting menu earned the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, placing the restaurant among the most decorated in the American capital.

Inside Denver's Dairy Block, Brutø operates at the upper tier of American tasting-menu dining, holding a Michelin star and a 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurateur. Chef Byron Gomez leads a program built around hearth cooking, fermentation, and hyper-local sourcing, with Japanese and Nordic inflections threading through each seasonal course. Google reviewers score it 4.6 from 325 ratings.

A Michelin Bib Gourmand recipient and 2024 James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Restaurateur, Basta brings family-style Italian-American cooking to Boulder's east side in an industrial-chic room anchored by a wood-burning oven. The bar counter offers a direct sightline into the open kitchen. Dry Storage, the sister bakery next door, supplies the bread.

Lula Cafe Chicago transforms farm-to-table dining into community art at Jason Hammel's Logan Square institution, where 25 years of hyper-seasonal cuisine and 2024 James Beard Award-winning hospitality create an authentic neighborhood experience that attracts both celebrated personalities and devoted locals.

A Michelin-starred counter in Denver's Highland neighbourhood, The Wolf's Tailor runs a tightly structured multicourse format from Chef Cody Jipson that draws on global technique while staying anchored to Colorado product. With 185 wine selections, a focused beverage program, and recognition from Opinionated About Dining and La Liste, it occupies the serious end of Denver's contemporary dining tier.

Langbaan operates as a reservation-only Thai tasting counter inside Portland's NW 23rd corridor, where Earl Ninsom's kitchen constructs multi-course menus that read less like restaurant Thai food and more like a systematic argument for the cuisine's regional depth. A 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant and back-to-back Opinionated About Dining rankings in the top 50 in North America place it in a peer set that extends well beyond Portland.

Perry's on Columbia Road brings Japanese technique to Adams Morgan with a distinctly D.C. sensibility. Chef Masako Morishita earned a 2024 James Beard Award for Emerging Chef and an Opinionated About Dining Casual North America recognition in 2025. With a Google rating of 4.5 across more than a thousand reviews, it occupies a rare position in the city's Japanese dining tier.

Bas Rouge in Easton, Maryland holds a 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, placing it in the same national conversation as marquee fine dining rooms in cities ten times the size. Chef Harley Peet runs an upscale kitchen on Federal Street that has quietly repositioned Talbot County as a serious dining destination. It is the kind of room that rewards a detour from Washington or Baltimore.

The Parlour occupies a compelling position in Frankfurt's drinking culture, operating from Zwingergasse 6 in the city's historic core. A Google rating of 4.7 from nearly 800 reviews points to consistent execution rather than occasional brilliance. The bar's award recognition and focused hours make it a reference point for anyone serious about drinks in Frankfurt on the Main.

Clover Hill New York City transforms intimate Brooklyn Heights dining into culinary artistry, where James Beard Award-winning chef Sam Rogers crafts Latin American-inspired tasting menus for just twenty guests. This Michelin-starred sanctuary combines French technique with vibrant global flavors in a candlelit setting that epitomizes Brooklyn's finest dining.

ZUbakery on Clark Street earned the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Bakery, placing it among a small cohort of American bakeries whose work registers nationally. Portland, Maine has developed a food culture that punches well above its population size, and ZUbakery sits near the center of that reputation. For a celebration breakfast, a landmark pastry, or a reason to route your morning through the West End, it merits the detour.

Kann is Portland's James Beard Award-winning live-fire Haitian restaurant from chef Gregory Gourdet, ranked #117 on Opinionated About Dining's 2025 Casual North America list. Wood-fired cooking anchors a Caribbean-inspired menu that is entirely gluten and dairy-free, backed by a 550-bottle wine list weighted toward France and Oregon. Open Tuesday through Sunday from 4pm at 548 SE Ash St.

Dakar NOLA is a rarefied dining experience where Senegalese heritage is reimagined through the prism of New Orleans’s soulful abundance. In an intimate, reservation-only setting, a choreographed tasting menu unfolds like a travelogue—jolof rice elevated with jeweled aromatics, pristine Gulf seafood perfumed with attiéké and citrus, and cassava rendered silken beside deeply spiced stews. The cadence is gracious and unhurried, the storytelling vivid, the hospitality quietly magnetic. Here, West African technique speaks fluently with Creole terroir, revealing a cuisine that is both deeply rooted and thrillingly modern, designed for those who collect meals the way others collect art.

Radio Bakery on India Street in Greenpoint has built a following among Brooklyn's most discerning bread and pastry crowd, earning a 4.5 Google rating from over 800 reviews and an Opinionated About Dining Cheap Eats ranking of #57 in North America for 2025. Under chef Kelly Mencin, the bakery sits in the smaller tier of destination-driven Brooklyn bakers where craft and technique carry more weight than scale or spectacle.

Maty's sits at the edge of Wynwood in Miami's NW 27th Street corridor, where Chef Valerie Chang's Peruvian kitchen has earned a 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: South, two consecutive Michelin Plates, and a Google rating of 4.9 from over 2,000 reviews. It occupies a specific niche in Miami dining: serious South American technique at a mid-tier price point, with the award trajectory of a far more expensive room.

Hai Hai on University Avenue NE brings Southeast Asian-inflected cooking to Minneapolis at mid-range prices, backed by Chef Christina Nguyen's 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Midwest. The restaurant sits in Northeast Minneapolis's expanding dining corridor and delivers creative, flavor-forward plates that punch well above their price point in the context of the wider Twin Cities scene.

Bacanora brings Sonoran Mexican cooking to Phoenix's Grand Avenue arts corridor, where Chef Rene Andrade's 2024 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest confirms what the neighborhood already knew. Named for the agave spirit native to Sonora, the restaurant treats masa and regional tradition as its primary language — earning a spot on Esquire's Best New Restaurants list in 2021 and sustained critical attention since.