One of the highest culinary honors in North America, recognizing excellence and outstanding achievement in food, beverage, and hospitality.
How many of these have you visited?
Discover on Pearl
New Orleans, United States
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.
Washington D.C., United States
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.
Denver, United States
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.
Boulder, United States
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.
Chicago, United States
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.
Denver, United States
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.
Portland, United States
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.
Washington D.C., United States
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.
Easton, United States
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.
Frankfurt on the Main, Germany
The Parlour in Frankfurt's Zwingergasse occupies a particular tier in Germany's serious bar scene: a drinks-led room with a 4.7 Google rating across nearly 800 reviews and a profile that invites comparison with the country's most recognised cocktail programmes. Open six days a week, it draws a crowd that treats the glass, not the table, as the reason to be there.
New York City, United States
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.
Portland, United States
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.
Portland, United States
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.
New Orleans, United States
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.
New York City, United States
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.
Miami, United States
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.
Minneapolis, United States
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.
Phoenix, United States
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.
Find out on Pearl and keep score across every place in 2024 James Beard Awards.
Overview
The 2024 James Beard Awards honored 18 restaurants across 12 American cities, representing the foundation's annual recognition of excellence in the restaurant industry. Boulder's Basta, New Orleans' Jewel of the South, Chicago's Lula Cafe, Portland's Langbaan, and Washington D.C.'s Albi were among the top honorees. The 2024 edition saw complete turnover from the previous year, with all 18 venues being new entrants.
The 2024 awards featured restaurants spanning from Portland to New York City, with Denver claiming two spots (Brutø and The Wolf's Tailor) and Portland, Oregon also landing two honorees (Langbaan and Kann). Washington D.C. placed two restaurants as well (Albi and Perry's). The geographic distribution reflects the foundation's nationwide scope, with representation across 12 distinct cities. Every restaurant on the 2024 list was a new entrant—none of the 15 restaurants recognized in 2023 (led by Fork) returned. This complete refresh represents either a shift in award categories, methodology, or simply the breadth of America's restaurant landscape that the James Beard Foundation seeks to recognize year over year.
The 2024 James Beard Awards delivered a completely new roster of 18 restaurants, with zero carryover from 2023's winners. Boulder, New Orleans, Chicago, Portland, and Washington D.C. took early honors, while Denver and Portland each placed two restaurants on the list. The complete turnover from the previous year—which was topped by Fork—signals either a restructured award framework or the foundation's intention to spotlight fresh talent annually. If you're planning visits around these honors, note that the list spans 12 cities across two countries, requiring strategic planning to hit multiple winners.
The 2024 James Beard Awards marked a clean slate from the previous year's recognition. Where 2023 crowned Fork as its top honoree alongside 14 other restaurants, the 2024 edition featured an entirely new group of 18 establishments. Basta in Boulder, Jewel of the South in New Orleans, Lula Cafe in Chicago, Langbaan in Portland, and Albi in Washington D.C. led the honors, though the list structure doesn't appear to rank beyond these initial placements.
Denver emerged as a mini-hub with both Brutø and The Wolf's Tailor making the cut, while Portland, Oregon matched that count with Langbaan and Kann. Washington D.C. also claimed two spots via Albi and Perry's. The remaining honorees—including New York City's Clover Hill—rounded out a geographically diverse list that stretched across a dozen American cities.
The complete absence of repeat winners raises questions about award category changes between years. The 15 restaurants that appeared in 2023, including Fork, Friday Saturday Sunday, and Oyster Oyster, were entirely replaced. This suggests either rotating award focuses or deliberately refreshed recognition criteria year to year.
