Somerville's Lehrhaus Among Best New Eateries In America: New List

SOMERVILLE, MA — Lehrhaus restaurant in Somerville was 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.

Esquire said of Lehrhaus:

"I've been to thousands of restaurants in the past couple of years, but I hadn't truly felt at home until I walked into Lehrhaus, a Jewish tavern and house of learning.

Maybe it was the Lactaid dispenser. Maybe it was the mural of Leonard Cohen above the hand dryer in the men's room. Or the conversation at the bar: Henry James on one side, refundability of plane tickets to Miami on the other. Could have been the Samsonian bartender's 'Nazi Lives Don't Matter' T-shirt or the mensch-seeks-mensch meetup in the library.

More than likely it was the food — chef Alex Artinian's and chef Noah Clickstein's celebration of Jewish diasporic cuisine. Both Ashkenazim and Sephardim are represented. Deviled eggs, haminados-style, are aged in coffee and topped with pickled mustard seeds. A herring tartine comes with the bright spice of pickled peppers alongside the silvery fish. A golden fish-and-chips made with day-boat-caught pollack and accompanied by amba vinegar, a s'chug aioli, and Old Bay seasoning seems secular. But as the Talmudic menu informs, Old Bay was invented by Gustav Brunn, a Jewish German refugee, in 1939.

It is both delicious and a revelation."

Lehrhaus is located at 425 Washington Street in Somerville.

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.