2 FL Restaurants Among Best New Eateries In America: New List

MIAMI, FL — Two Miami restaurants were named among the 50 best new eateries in America this year by the men’s fashion, style and culture magazine Esquire.

The 2023 list, published Tuesday, includes restaurants from well-known food hubs such as New York City, San Francisco and Los Angeles, as well as other major metro areas including Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Miami, Atlanta, Honolulu, Chicago, Louisville, New Orleans, St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and more.

Here are the restaurants in Florida that made the list.

Erba, Miami
“There is a grandness to the room at Erba. It makes you want to settle in for the evening and bathe in the lushness and the hospitality from chef Niven Patel, partner Mo Alkassar, and their gracious team. But it’s the Florida-tinged Italian cuisine that will make you a regular.”

Maty’s, Miami
“Raw-fish small plates like crudos are lovely, but they’ve become ubiquitous. They appear on many upscale restaurant menus as a fine supporting player, but they’re rarely the thing you write home about. That’s not the case at Maty’s. Chef Valerie Chang’s ceviches and tiraditos, a Peruvian dish in which fish is sliced sashimi-style and dressed with vibrant sauces, is like going from a 3D theater to a 4D one, where objects fly at you, the seats rumble, mist fills the air, and for those brief moments you are in another reality.”

Esquire noted that authenticity was a major theme this year among the restaurants. That was true for its Restaurant of the Year winner, Ilis in Brooklyn, where the chefs “prepared the fish as it would have been done centuries ago, wrapped in bark and cooked over flames.” It was also true across the country at Poltergeist in Los Angeles, where the chefs “gave us a wild, experimental take on the fish taco, which was dipped in masa and fried. Both felt genuine, and each was delicious.”

The magazine also named two eateries that earned Comeback of the Year titles and the coveted claim to Pizza Joint of the Year. Baroo in Los Angeles closed in 2018, but is now “decidedly all grown up,” Esquire wrote in naming it the comeback winner this year for the West Coast. On the East Coast, Superiority Burger in the East Village of New York City earned the comeback honor, with its tantalizing vegan burger offerings.

Meanwhile, sure to stir the pot among pizza aficionados is Nonno’s Family Pizza Tavern in Houston, which was named Pizza Joint of the Year.