This VA Eatery Among Best New Restaurants In America, New List Says

A Virginia eatery is among the best new restaurants in America, Esquire said in a report Monday.

In its report, Esquire said the 33 restaurants on the list offer “spectacular food … coupled with a damn good time.”

“These are the places you hate to leave, but when you do, you leave full,” the outlet said. “Full of some of the most deeply personal food you can remember eating, full of joy and ideas and hope. You stumble out, way past your bedtime, practically dancing in the street.”

Staunton's Maude and the Bear, located in a 1926 Montgomery Ward kit house with an inn, was a 2025 nominee for the James Beard Foundation's Best New Restaurant award. Chef Ian Boden has also been nominated for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Mid-Atlantic twice.

Esquire said Maude and the Bear serves "a menu that pays tribute both to Boden’s Ashkenazi heritage and the surrounding farmlands of the Shenandoah Valley." Guests can even stay on site, as the house run by Boden and his wife, Leslie, hosts guest rooms above its restaurant. The restaurant serves a tasting menu as well as multi-course breakfast to inn guests.

"This restaurant is very personal for my wife and me," Boden told Esquire. "We really put it all on the line, with no safety net."

Restaurants on the Esquire list are found in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Washington.