Best of Boston 2009
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FOOD PROS
Put all the city’s restaurant champs together in one kitchen, and what do you get? The recipe for one very happy meal.
Photo by Conor Doherty
Not content merely to launch the city’s best new restaurant [page 104] and upscale bar [page 121] while keeping No. 9 Park, B&G Oysters, and the Butcher Shop running on all cylinders, Lynch is now planning a fine-dining concept in Fort Point. Her ambition, like her excellence, knows no bounds. Barbara Lynch Gruppo, 617-742-9991, barbaralynch.com.
RUNNERS-UP: Tony Maws (Craigie on Main), Gabriel Bremer (Salts)
LAST YEAR: Tony Maws
MIXOLOGIST: Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli
With a cocktail menu rooted in the classics and an obsession with quality ingredients matched only by that of his boss, Craigie on Main chef Tony Maws, this Eastern Standard alum performs quietly on a one-man stage. Trust us, he puts on a show you don’t want to miss. 853 Main St., Cambridge, 617-497-5511, craigieonmain.com.
RUNNERS-UP: John Gertsen (Drink), Jackson Cannon (Eastern Standard)
LAST YEAR: John Gertsen
Hungry Mother has become one of the Hub’s hottest tables not just for its smart take on Dixieland fare, but also for its southern hospitality. Credit the latter to Miller Munzer’s knack for making patrons feel they’re in their own private dining room, even when the place is packed (and heck, when isn’t it?). 233 Cardinal Medeiros Ave., Cambridge, 617-499-0090, hungrymothercambridge.com.
RUNNERS-UP: Michela Larson (Rocca), Kerri Foley (Pigalle)
LAST YEAR: Michela Larson
UP-AND-COMING CHEF: Gérard Barbin
Deputized by superchef Guy Martin to run swish French eatery Sensing, this young import has shown all the technique and discipline required by haute cuisine, along with more than a little invention. With Barbin folding more local seafood and cheeses into his repertoire, he’s become our favorite French connection. 3 Battery Wharf, Boston, 617-994-9001, sensingrestaurant.com.
RUNNER-UP: Barry Maiden (Hungry Mother) (Radius)
LAST YEAR: Tim Wiechmann (T. W. Food)
Three years in a row? Really? Yet after scarfing down the fig and almond serpentines and ridiculously good chocolate cookies at Sofra, the bakery/mezze bar that Kilpatrick opened last year with chef Ana Sortun, we once again have to tip our hat—and loosen our belt. One Belmont St., Cambridge, 617-661-3161, sofrabakery.com.
RUNNER-UP: Shane Gray (Mistral)
LAST YEAR: Maura Kilpatrick
Where others might lean on "steak wines" like big California cabs (yawn), Grill 23′s DeWinter is likely to suggest a Paolo Bea Rosso 2000, from the little Umbrian town of Sagrantino, for your bone-in filet—he’s just that excited about the unsung heroes in his cache of some 1,500 labels. Odds are, you will be, too. 161 Berkeley St., Boston, 617-542-2255, grill23.com.
RUNNER-UP: Cat Silirie (Barbara Lynch Gruppo)
LAST YEAR: Geoffrey Fallon (Les Zygomates)
