A new player is joining the crowded business of ranking the “best restaurants” in America.
The British-based organization “50 Best” is adding an annual North America restaurant list to its growing catalogue of regional and global rankings in pursuit of an audience on this side of the pond. It’s the next step in an ongoing effort to evolve on what constitutes “best.”
Historically, these lists have tilted towards pricey fine-dining restaurants with hard to secure reservations, even as what constitutes “best” has evolved beyond white table clothes, weighty wine lists, and French technique. “It’s not designed to be a fine-dining list,” said William Drew, the director of content for 50 Best. “It’s designed to be a list of great restaurants of any sort. Hopefully we bring that to the table.”
There was chatter that a regional North American list was in the works during the global awards ceremony, which was held in Las Vegas this past June. Monday’s announcement makes it official.
It comes on the heels of the North America’s 50 Best Bars list which was launched in 2022, and at a time when the organization’s signature “World’s 50 Best Restaurant” awards has increasingly been less centered on dining in the United States (and to a lesser extent Europe). After years of criticism, the organization diversified its 50 Best voting pool to be more racially and gender diverse, and began to include restaurants in South Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Dubbed “North America’s 50 Best Restaurants,” the list is the latest in an expanding field of best restaurant kingmakers. Along with the Michelin Guide and James Beard Foundation, it includes media organizations such as Eater, Esquire, Food & Wine, Infatuation, the New York Times, and this magazine to name a few.
These lists rank restaurants in the US and North America, weighing cooking, service, innovation, approachability, sustainability, and staff welfare as points of consideration.
Drew acknowledged the tough terrain, and said the goal was to be a guide for a North American audience, but also “what we can bring to an audience outside North America that is interested in travelling to North America.”
World’s 50 was launched in 2002 by William Reed, a London-based business-to-business media group centered on food and beverage that has been around since 1862.
Only two North American restaurants made the most recent World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. Judges who scout for the organization voted New York City’s Atomix as the top restaurant in North America for the second year in a row, and Single Thread, the farm-to-table tasting menu spot in Healdsburg, California, reentered the list as the world’s 46th best restaurant.
Drew said the dwindling number of American restaurants on the list “was an influence” for the new regional list, but noted that even in years that America has been better represented, restaurants have almost exclusively been from New York City and California, with restaurants from Canada and the Caribbean nearly non-existent.
