Bon Appétit has unveiled the Hot 10: America's Best New Restaurants 2018. The annual list is now available in the September issue and on bonappetit.com.
Taking the top spot is Oklahoma City's Nonesuch, a 22-seat tasting-menu spot from three 20-something chefs inspired by their home state. It joins past winners like New Orleans' Turkey and the Wolf (2017), Atlanta's Staplehouse (2016), and San Francisco's Al's Place (2015).
"Nonesuch was the best dining experience of the year. Flying under the radar–even among OKC residents–I was ecstatic and grateful to have stumbled upon it," says editor at large Andrew Knowlton. "Its chefs have mastered how to incorporate hyper-local and foraged ingredients in a landlocked state, how to minimally yet artfully plate each dish, and how to express an undying love of all things fermented, pickled, and cured. This is the place that will put OKC on the national dining map."
Other noteworthy spots on the list include Washington, D.C.'s live-fire cooking Middle Eastern joint Maydan (No. 2), Los Angeles' next-gen Jewish delicatessen Freedman's (No. 4), and Yume Ga Arukara (No. 8), a small noodle shop hidden in a Cambridge, Mass., college food court that only serves one dish. Bon Appétit also crowned Portland, Maine, the Restaurant City of the Year, and its editors picked up a few new obsessions, from ultra-refreshing shaved ice to katsu sandwiches to skin-contact wines. Read more in the September issue on newsstands and on bonappetit.com now.
"The ten restaurants on this list encapsulate what makes going out to eat right now so exciting," says Julia Kramer, Bon Appétit's deputy editor. "There's no one formula that lands a place on the Hot 10. From an off-the-beaten-path tasting menu in Oklahoma City to a refugee-run Cambodian noodle shop in Oakland, these are deeply personal restaurants that couldn't exist anywhere but where they are."
For one night only, Bon Appétit will bring the Hot 10 together to serve the bites and drinks that won us over this year. Tickets for the Hot 10 Party on October 17 in Brooklyn, NY are on sale now at bahot10.com. Event partners include A to Z Wineworks, All-Clad, Bombay Sapphire, Mutti® Tomatoes, Président® Cheese, S. Pellegrino®, and Talenti.
