Philly’s 2024 Eater Award Winners

Every year, the Eater Awards is a chance for editors to mirror on what made the very best eating places, bars, dishes, and in any other case thrilling eating experiences throughout the nation.

2024 was the yr of transformation in Philadelphia because the eating scene noticed culinary revivals, revisions, and revolutions. After a earlier yr of nationwide acclaim, new eating places within the metropolis took issues a step additional — providing every part from experimental Polish delicacies to a well-executed Mediterranean all-day cafe in a lodge. To have fun, Eater’s annual Eater Awards are right here once more this yr, showcasing 5 favourite eating places, hotspots, and cooks that made town such an distinctive place to dine in 2024.

Bastia: Finest New Restaurant

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Firstly of the pandemic, Philly misplaced one among its most beloved eating places: the charming Italian BYOB Res Ipsa in Rittenhouse. Chef-partner Tyler Akin’s love letter to all-day cafe eating felt like it might eternally be misplaced within the storm of closings and trade pivots. Fortuitously, Akin returned this yr with Bastia, a day-to-night Mediterranean culinary journey in Fishtown price countless visits. Right here, dishes impressed by the coasts of Corsica and Sardinia (bluefin tuna with sun-dried tomatoes, sea urchin butter tartine with grilled octopus and salsa verde, and braised veal osso buco) take heart stage alongside a stellar brunch menu and neighboring cocktail-piano bar Caletta. In partnership with the lavish lodge Anna & Bel, Bastia additionally represents the enterprise savviness throughout the metropolis’s eating scene — one which’s each conceptually formidable and properly collaborative.

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Bastia

Pierogi are nothing to mess with in Philly. This Polish dish is a mainstay on menus throughout town and garners debate in sure circles in the identical vein as our cheesesteaks and hoagies. So when the brand new critically acclaimed Little Walter’s in East Kensington served a number of variations of the native delicacy, all eyes have been on them immediately. The outcomes have been past favorable — the dumplings at the moment are thought-about a number of the metropolis’s greatest. The potato-less pierogi z dynia (made with hubbard squash, roasted lacinato kale, and horsey sauce) and the extra conventional pierogi ruskie (made with potato, farmer cheese, caramelized onion, and bitter cream) are savory, filling, and dynamic. Little Walter’s even serves dessert pierogi (together with one which’s made with chocolate and peanut butter, and served with ice cream) that take the cake, actually. They’re formally the brand new restaurant capital of pierogi in Philly — sorry, we don’t make the foundations.

Gab Bonghi

Provenance: Finest Tasting Menu Expertise

It’s beautiful, experimental, and terribly costly ($225 per diner) – however the formidable over 20-course tasting menu at Provenance works exceptionally effectively. A night at this spectacular new restaurant in Head Home Sq. is a culinary expedition by way of France and Korea, because the masterful government chef Nicholas Bazik serves an unforgettable kanpachi in a vibrant kabosu (East Asian citrus fruit) jus with a flagrant mussel French dressing, steelhead trout wrapped within the flakiest pastry, and a tasty mackerel tartare — a outstanding ode to seafood that’s each worldwide and notably native.

Gab Bonghi

Angie Brown of Rex on the Royal: Chef of the Yr

The “soul” in Philly’s Southern eating scene has grow to be a lot tougher to identify because the pandemic. Latest closings of a number of notable Black-owned eating places (equivalent to Warmdaddy’s, Relish, and Ms. Tootsie’s) have posed a setback for the beloved consolation delicacies. However when famend Chef Angie Brown (a earlier proprietor of 4 critically acclaimed eating places, together with her namesake spot Angie Brown’s) returned to the kitchen — this time, on the historic Rex at The Royal — it was some of the sudden comebacks of the yr. Now because the restaurant’s new culinary director, Brown is serving her signature gumbo (comprised of regionally sourced seafood), jambalaya, fried hen, fried tomatoes, ​​and candy potato soufflé. Not solely has her presence served as a well timed increase for an rising hotspot on South Avenue, however a essential revival of a various delicacies so determined for an knowledgeable chef like Brown to assist to re-invigorate it within the metropolis of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection. Not all heroes put on capes, however some put on aprons.

Angie Brown

The bar scene in Philly continues to develop, however no new bar is as fashionable or spectacular as 48 Report Bar in Previous Metropolis. This intimate 35-seat hotspot situated above the revered bar Sassafras has rapidly made a reputation for itself with its eclectic cocktail choices and vinyl music vibes. Stay NPR Tiny Desk concert-inspired performances brighten the temper as clients sip memorable alcoholic and zero-proof cocktails equivalent to Golden Hour drink specials just like the Boxcar — a riff on the sidecar made with tequila, peach, lemon, sizzling honey, and tajin. Come right here for a spirited night, keep for a fab, nostalgic blast from the previous.

Gab Bonghi