Food critic Mariani names top eateries

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 21, 2002

NEW YORK -- John Mariani, food correspondent for Esquire magazine, named Julia's Kitchen at Copia in Napa, Calif., the magazine's Restaurant of the Year.

The 75-seat restaurant, which is housed in Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts, was named after television's cooking authority, Julia Child. Mariani called the restaurant "a distillation of everything that is great and refined about California Cuisine: respect for the land and its ingredients, the marriage of food and wine, a relaxed comfort level and the extraordinary natural beauty of the valley."

Mariani also named another 19 restaurants to Esquire's "Best New Restaurants of 2002."

Those restaurants are Adega, Denver; Alex, Los Angeles; A.R. Valentien, LaJolla, Calif.; Atelier, New York; Cafe 15, Washington, D.C.; Colvin Run Tavern, Vienna, Va.;Dry Creek Kitchen, Healdsburg, Calif: Fiamma Osteria, New York; Fortunato, Chicago; 40 Sardines, Overland Park, Ken,: Joel Atlanta; Kyma, Atlanta; Louis's at Pawleys, Pawleys Island, S.C.; Martini House, St. Helena, Calif.; Max, Sherman Oaks, Calif.; Mockingbird Bistro, Houston; Redwood Park, San Francisco; Rene Bistrot, New Orleans; and Via Matta, Boston.

Mariani selected this year's restaurants based on a number of criteria, most notably, quality of food, atmosphere and service.

The November issue of the magazine also includes several other Mariani "Best of..." picks, including Michael White of Fiamma Osteria as Chef of the Year. Commenting on his choice, Mariani writes, "Fiamma is that rare and curious thing: a very authentic, very intimate, very gregarious Italian restaurant whose chef is an American kid with an achingly American name."

Other special picks include Best Design: Morimoto, Philadelphia; Best New Restaurant Room: Trust, Philadelphia; Hostesses of the Year: Madres, Pasadena, Calif; Best New Bar: Jade Bar, The Sanctuary on Camelback Mountain, Paradise Valley, Ariz.; Best New Hotel: The Four Seasons, San Francisco.

He also awarded the Best New Dessert Name to Sex in a Cup, rosewater custard on a nest of pastry with orange-blossom-sugar syrup, pistachios and rose-petal jam, served at Theo in New York.

Several of Mariani's pet peeves also made the issues in the "Let's Call a thousand-year ban on..." section. It included "waiters who call themselves 'servers,'" "Restaurants with numbers for names," "Pea tendrils," "Nehru jackets on restaurant staff," and "New York waiters who refer to tap water as 'Chateau Bloomberg.'"