Philly's James Beard-Honored Restaurants, 2019 to 2024

Semifinalist: Outstanding Wine Program, 2024, 2022
Additional honor in 2015

Acclaimed Philly restauranteur Ellen Yin and her High Street Hospitality group (see below) oversee Hotel AKA Rittenhouse Square’s renowned a.kitchen+bar, a two-time semifinalist for Outstanding Wine Program. With hundreds of bottles available, the restaurant and cocktail bar features one of the most compelling wine lists in the country, offering in-demand Old World-style artisan grower/producers as well as a large selection from leading natural winemakers. Pair a perfect glass with a menu of fresh seafood, charcuterie and snacks … and maybe grab a room upstairs to sleep off your food coma.

Semifinalist: Emerging Chef (Yun Fuentes), 2024

It didn’t take long for Puerto Rican native Yun Fuentes to be honored as an Emerging Chef Semifinalist at lively Latin American restaurant and rum bar Bolo, which only opened in 2023. The modern Rittenhouse Square spot serves a selection of dishes celebrating Latino Caribbean culture with two prix-fixe menus — one served year-round and another that changes with the season — along with lechon asado, several individual entrees, small plates, dessert and cocktails. The foundation recognized Fuentes for the innovative approach he first honed at several of four-time honoree Jose Garces’ establishments.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Chef (Dionicio Jimenez), 2024
Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Dionicio Jimenez), 2023

A veteran of Philly’s restaurant scene for over two decades, chef Dionicio Jimenez finally struck out on his own in 2022, opening the colorful Cantina La Martina in Kensington. The James Beard Foundation took notice, nominating him in the Best Chef category in 2023 (for excellence in a specific region) before elevating him to a semifinalist as Outstanding Chef (a national honor for broad industry influence) the following year. Jimenez serves up a versatile menu of Mexican staples under the El, ranging from affordable street favorites to the adventurously elevated.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Carlos Aparicio), 2024

After plying his trade as executive chef at upscale spots like Parc, Juan Carlos Aparicio revisited his Mexican origin story and travels across that nation to create all-day cafe and BYOB El Chingon in East Passyunk in 2022. Within two years, the quiet elevated Poblano spot — serving dishes inspired by Aparicio’s mother who taught him to cook — saw its founder named a Best Chef semifinalist. The neighborhood joint’s menu includes Pueblan items both traditional (like tacos al pastor) and non-traditional (vegan mushroom tacos árabes), and his signature cemitas with springy bread.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate), 2024

In 2023, West Philly celebrated the opening of Honeysuckle Provisions — a beloved Afrocentric pop up that’s now a permanent all-day spot in Cedar Park — and the nation took notice, with honors rolling in, including being named one of America’s best new restaurants by both Esquire and Eater, and a dual Best Chef semifinalist nod for Omar Tate and Cybille St.Aude-Tate in 2024. The spot was highlighted for its “destination-worthy” breakfast sandwiches, plantain snack cakes, Haitian potato salad and mouth-watering hoagies, including a scratch-made turkey selection Esquire calls, “as delicious as any American sandwich.”

Semifinalist: Outstanding Bakery, 2024

In 1904, Italian immigrants Mario and Crocifissa Isgro started selling rum cake, cannoli and other baked goods out of a shop in front of their Italian Market rowhome. More than 120 years and four generations later, Isgro Pastries was honored as an Outstanding Bakery semifinalist in 2024. Along with the still-handmade, still-famous rum cake (the exact recipe a family secret only three people are privy to) and top-selling cannoli, the Sicilian bakery is also known for its fantastic pound cake, Italian cream, strawberry shortcakes and special-occasion decorated cakes.

Semifinalist: Best New Restaurant, 2024

It’s hard to open a successful new restaurant in one of America’s great culinary cities. But Rittenhouse Square’s My Loup didn’t seem to have much problem, with an opening in 2023 that garnered it a Best New Restaurant semifinalist honor the following January. The sensation from married chefs Amanda Shulman and Alex Kemp (of Her Place Supper Club, see below) offers Quebecois-influenced French cuisine featuring both decadent items like roast beef au poivre with frites and horseradish and playful dishes like deep-fried “Philly balls” stuffed with roast pork sandwich fixings.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Randy Rucker), 2024

In 2019, Philly native Amanda Rucker and her Texan husband Randy relocated from Massachusetts to Philadelphia to open River Twice in East Passyunk, focusing on their passion for thoughtfully sourced ingredients and sustainable design. The couple sure knew what they were doing, as Randy was named a semifinalist for Best Chef in 2024 (his second such honor, the first coming in 2011 in Texas). The modern American BYOB with a minimalist vibe serves globally influenced dishes through a seasonally-appropriate four course menu with additions that change daily and an extensive wine list.

Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Jesse Ito), 2024, 2023, 2022 
Nominee: Rising Star Chef of the Year (Jesse Ito), 2019
Semifinalist: Rising Star Chef of the Year (Jesse Ito), 2020, 2018, 2017 

Are you feeling a full sit-down upscale Japanese meal, or more like a swanky prix-fixe sushi experience? Both are at your service at seven-time honoree Jesse Ito’s unassuming Royal Sushi & Izakaya. The casual first-come, first-served Royal Izakaya side offers an inventive a la carte menu of sushi, sashimi, soups, salads and bao buns, plus plenty of sake. Or kick your night up at Royal Sushi at an eight-seat, 16-course nigirizushi and temaki omakase (by reservation only).

Winner: America’s Classics, 2024

James Beard’s America’s Classics Award honors locally owned restaurants beloved not just for their cuisine, but also for timeless appeal, connection to the community and culinary heritage. Only two Philadelphia establishments — John’s Roast Pork in 2006 and Vietnam Restaurant in 2024 — have ever received the special recognition. With a primary location in Chinatown (opened in 1984) and a café in University City, chef Benny Lai’s now-legendary spot was singled out for its dishes like barbecue platters, crispy spring rolls, 10 varieties of vermicelli bowl, lemongrass stir-fries and a selection of Polynesian cocktails.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Bakery, 2023

Denise Gause opened her North Philly homage to sugar, eggs and flour in 1990 before a fire devastated the site in 2015. She then did what any dedicated baker would do: rebuild. Three years later, Gause passed Denise’s Delicacies on to her nieces Keshia Davis and Cynthia Benton who are committed to carrying on their aunt’s sugary legacy of well-regarded pound cake, pies, sticky buns, donuts, cookies and wedding cakes. The bakery’s generational persistence was recognized in 2023 in the form of a semifinalist nod in the Outstanding Bakery category.

Winner: Outstanding Restaurant, 2023
Semifinalist: Outstanding Restaurant, 2022

In 2022, raved-about prix-fixe spot Friday Saturday Sunday picked up its first James Beard nod, as a semifinalist for the nation’s most Outstanding Restaurant. Then, the very next year, they went and won the whole darn thing. Anchored by fresh seasonal ingredients, chef Chad Williams’ eight-course tasting menu, featuring items like pork, fish, poultry and sweetbreads, is complemented by an optional wine pairing served inside the intimate upstairs dining room in Philly’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Thanh Nguyen), 2023

Chef-owner Thanh Nguyen has taken East Passyunk’s food scene by storm with her concept Gabriella’s Vietnam, serving up street food-esque dishes from her native Saigon. The popular BYOB has garnered attention across the country — and a 2023 semifinalist honor for Nguyen as Best Chef — thanks to flavor-packed dishes like đậu hủ xào xả wok-fried lemongrass tofu, lúc lắc shaken beef (which is indeed vigorously cooked to achieve its distinct charred flavor), the bún đậu mắm tôm vermicelli platter with shrimp paste dipping sauce and steamed bánh bèo chén water fern dumplings.

Semifinalist: Best New Restaurant, 2023

Since opening in 2022, Heavy Metal Sausage Co. has garnered rave reviews for its hearty menu of soups, stews, sausages and sandwiches — and a James Beard semifinalist recognition as Best New Restaurant. That restaurant, Trattoria at Heavy Metal Sausage, features an Italian-inspired six-course family-style prix-fixe menu served during two seatings every Thursday and Friday night. But that’s only half the story. The South Philly market is also a high-end all-local specialty meat producer, butcher and deli offering a variety of sausage, pâtés, salami and scrapple along with fresh-baked bread and handmade pasta.

Nominee: Emerging Chef (Amanda Shulman), 2023
Semifinalist: Emerging Chef (Amanda Shulman), 2022

When Amanda Shulman was a student, she threw elaborate dinner parties for her University of Pennsylvania classmates. That’s the vibe at Her Place Supper Club, where the 2023 nominee for Emerging Chef serves a family-style fixed-price menu that feels like one of her college soirees — a sentiment shared by Esquire and Bon Appétit, both of whom named the Rittenhouse Square spot one of America’s best new restaurants. Maybe it’s the Italian, French and Jewish influenced menu, or maybe it’s the warm sourdough chocolate chip cookie each guest receives at the end of the meal.

Winner: Outstanding Restaurateur (Ellen Yin), 2023
Semifinalist: Outstanding Wine Program (a.kitchen+bar), 2024, 2022
Nominee: Outstanding Restaurateur (Ellen Yin), 2022, 2019, 2018
Additional honors in 2010, 2015, 2016 and 2017 

No culinary entrepreneur quite captures the Philly vibe like Ellen Yin, James Beard Award winner for Outstanding Restaurateur in 2023. It’s no wonder. Restaurants within her High Street Hospitality group dating back to 1997 — which include a.kitchen+bar, Fork, High Street, High Street Hoagies, High Street Bakery and The Back Room — have previously garnered JBF recognition for Outstanding Restaurant, Outstanding Wine Program and Rising Star, as well as four more slots for Yin in the restaurateur category and Best Chef honors for four different culinary artists across three eateries. Whoa.

Winner: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Chutatip Suntaranon), 2023
Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Chutatip Suntaranon), 2022
Nominee: Best New Restaurant, 2020

After receiving a Best New Restaurant nomination in 2020 for Kalaya, chef-owner Chutatip “Nok” Suntaranon hit the stratosphere in 2023, walking away as the winner for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic. Suntaranon’s success stems from the influence of her mother, from whom she learned the authentic southern Thai cooking served at the restaurant — and for whom it is named. The eatery’s Fishtown space offers flavorful authentic dishes like pla nung manao (steamed seabass with lime) and moo yaang prik (grilled chili pork chop). Learn more about Suntaranon on season 1, episode 25 of Visit Philly’s Love + Grit podcast.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Andrew Henshaw), 2023
Semifinalist: Best New Restaurant, 2022

Named after the butcher from Fiddler On The Roof, 2022 Best New Restaurant semifinalist Laser Wolf is like a little sister to Zahav (see below), also from co-owners Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, with 2023 Best Chef semifinalist Andrew Henshaw at the helm. The Fishtown-area Israeli skewer house — also named one of the world’s best restaurants by Condé Nast Traveler — churns out delectable delicacies such as shishlik (available in chicken, ribeye, tuna or mushroom), whole dorade, koobideh and other kebabs, along with included salatim and signature hummus and pita. L’chaim!

Semifinalist: Outstanding Bar, 2023
Semifinalist: Outstanding Wine Program, 2020

In 2019, Bernard and Chloe Grigri — the father/daughter owners of Queen Village’s well-regarded Good King Tavern — opened Le Caveau right upstairs, accessible through the same famous bright blue trellis as their pub. The French-inspired “philly bar à vins” wasted no time impressing, garnering semifinalist nods for Outstanding Wine Program in 2020 and Outstanding Bar in 2023. The spot’s intimate ambiance only enhances the carefully curated wine list of over 130 bottles and a Parisian pub grub menu highlighted by their famous French hot dog and house chocolate mousse.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker (Emily Riddell), 2023

It’s mostly art with a touch of mechanics for tasty boulangerie Machine Shop and chef Emily Riddell, a 2023 semifinalist for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker. The cozy and inviting bakery, in the the ground floor “WKSHP” of South Philly’s Bok Building, uses a fresh modern approach to hone its French classics featuring locally-sourced ingredients, a long-fermentation high-hydration process for its breads, a sourdough starter for its pastries and incorporating seasonality and local flavor. Highlights include lemon tarts, orange cardamom morning buns, vanilla sablé cookies, cheddar boule and even housemade jams.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Bakery, 2023

Just three-quarters of a mile down the street from Machine Shop (see above), Mighty Bread Co. grabbed itself a semifinalist honor in the Outstanding Bakery category in 2023 thanks not just to its pastries, cookies and nearly two-dozen naturally fermented breads — including 10 varieties of sourdough — but also its fantastic restaurant menu. Stock up on all the carb goodness and homemade pantry staples you can handle, but don’t pass up fabulous breakfast and brunch sandwiches (expanded selection on weekends), toasted items and aperitivos you may not expect from a South Philly bakery.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Outstanding Wine & Other Beverages Program, 2023
Semifinalist: Outstanding Bar Program, 2019

Rittenhouse Square’s Monk’s Café plates one of the city’s best burgers, pomme frites and mussels. But it’s the two-time semifinalist-recognized wine and bar programs that stand out. Monk’s Benelux bona fides include becoming the first bar in America to serve Belgian Chimay on tap in 1997 and a top ranking as best beer bar in the world by Craft Beer & Brewing. Got questions? Ask for the “Beer Bible” — an extensive list of the tavern’s 225-plus offerings. Bonus: Hear owner/three-time semifinalist Tom Peters discuss the spot’s storied history in Visit Philly’s Craft Beer Trail Video Series.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Hospitality, 2023
Additional honors in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017

Where are you eating in a month? If you’re considering Rittenhouse Square’s upscale Vernick Food & Drink (and you should be), start planning now, as reservations at the five-time honoree — including a semifinal spot for Outstanding Hospitality in 2023 and a Best Chef: Mid Atlantic victory for Greg Vernick himself in 2017 — go live the first of every prior month and fill quickly. Choose from small plates, entrees and “simply roasted” proteins. For more award-winning creations, visit next-door brasserie Vernick Wine, modern seafoodery Vernick Fish or seasonal dish Vernick Coffee Bar (both in the Comcast Technology Center).

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Anthony Andiario), 2022
Semifinalist: Best New Restaurant, 2019

Andiario, located in the heart of West Chester’s shopping and dining district, was a buzzworthy semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2019. But the honors didn’t end there, with a Best Chef nod for Anthony Andiario (also co-owner with wife Marie van Schaijik) coming in 2022 as well. The Chester County farm-to-table spot celebrates locally sourced Pennsylvania produce across its artisanal pre-set dinner menu that is inspired by the season and changes weekly (and sometimes more often), but always remains filled with hearty pastas and proteins.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Pastry Chef (Angela Cicala), 2022

In a space off the North Broad Street lobby of the renovated Mint House at The Divine Lorraine Hotel, Cicala at the Divine Lorraine restaurant offers a heavenly assortment of traditional cookies and pastries from recipes inherited from the mother and grandmother of 2022 Outstanding Pastry Chef semifinalist Angela Cicala. Cicala (with chef-husband and four-time honoree Joe) created the elegant Italian ristorante backed by her impressive curriculum vitae, which includes lauded East Passyunk spots Le Virtù. She continues to lead culinary tours of Italy when not busy crafting award-winning breads and pastries.

Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Adam Diltz), 2022

Honored as a Best Chef semifinalist in 2022, Adam Diltz, chef at Elwood in Fishtown, breathes new life into down-home recipes showcasing Pennsylvania ingredients — with a dash of Pennsylvania Dutch tradition — across a menu of rustic, rural family-style entrees. The crowd-pleasing spot is committed to nose-to-tail cooking (using every part of the animal), meaning dishes like the guinea hen and whole Gobbler’s Ridge Farm rabbit offer diners a chance to try cuts they might not otherwise sample. Pro tip: Finish with the funnel cake for dessert — and come back for weekend tea service.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Baker (Rhonda Saltzman & Mercedes Brooks), 2022

Maybe there’s something in the water. One of two James Beard-honored bakeries located inside the Bok Building, the sibling team of Rhonda Saltzman & Mercedes Brooks of Second Daughter Baking Co. were named semifinalists in the Outstanding Baker category in 2022. The sisters’ locally sourced sweet shop — open for retail and preorder pickup only — offers whimsical, artistic, scratch-made and botanically influenced baked goods like tarts, pies, scones, quiches, cakes, cupcakes, focaccia, babka, hamantaschen, muffins, cookies and their renowned “Best of Philly”-winning sea salt-sprinkled fudge brownies.

Winner: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Cristina Martínez), 2022
Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Cristina Martínez), 2020, 2019
Additional honors in 2017 & 2018

Entrepreneur and immigration rights activist Cristina Martínez has racked up Best Chef honors for her authentic homestyle Mexican, including two noms, two semifinals and a culminating win in 2022. But it’s been a journey. South Philly Barbacoa started as a food cart before opening its first brick-and-mortar in 2016. It then moved into El Compadre in the Italian Market the next year, and struck out on its own again a year later before settling inside offshoot Casa Mexico in 2024. No matter the locale, you can enjoy the same amazing quesadillas, moles, pancitas and — yes — barbacoa (select days).

Semifinalist: Outstanding Baker (Tova du Plessis), 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017

For four consecutive years, native South African pastry chef Tova du Plessis of Passyunk Square’s Essen Bakery was anointed a semifinalist for Outstanding Baker. Her intimate Jewish bakeraytl’s “new Old World” creations span the spectrum from breads like challah and caramelized onion focaccia to pastries like rugelach and Jewish apple cake to creative sandwiches including pastrami lox on rye and Tunisian tuna on a challah roll. But let’s be clear: It’s all about the better-than-your-bubbe’s babka, available in cinnamon hazelnut and chocolate halva.

Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Nicholas Elmi), 2020
Semifinalist: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic, (Nicholas Elmi) 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015
Additional honor in 2014

What’s the bigger feather in your cap, winning Top Chef or being a six-time James Beard honoree? Nicholas Elmi of East Passyunk’s Laurel isn’t resting on either of these as he’s done both, with the Top Chef: New Orleans champ also recognized as a Best Chef five out of six years (and his shop a Best New Restaurant semifinalist). Experience that titleholder flair at his French-influenced American BYOB where Elmi lets the seasons dictate his highly edited seafood-forward a la carte menu of just a dozen or so dishes served in an intimate 22-seat space.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Producer, 2020
Additional honor in 2016 

Starting as a single suburban taphouse in 2012, Tired Hands Brewing Company has grown into a kaleidoscope of a half-dozen locations throughout the region, driven by the success of the milkshake IPA category they themselves pioneered, and highlighted with semifinalist recognition for both Outstanding Wine, Beer or Spirits Producer and Outstanding Bar Program. The brewer’s variety of styles can be found across their empire at Ardmore’s Fermentaria and BrewCafé brewpubs, Fishtown’s St. Oner’s cannabis culture diner, a Kennett Square bottle shop, a seasonal biergarten in Mt. Airy and a Newtown Square beer park.

Nominee: Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic (Rich Landau), 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
Additional honors in 2014, 2015 & 2016

Even in a city famous for cheesesteaks, you should still eat your veggies. Founded by the husband/wife team of six-consecutive-year Best Chef nominee Richard Landau and Kate Jacoby, herself a three-time semifinalist as Outstanding Pastry Chef (plus her own Best Chef nod), Vedge purposely eschews reliance on meat substitutes, putting vegetables front and center. Their constantly changing menu of seasonal ingredients features mostly “medium plates” (somewhere between tapas and entrees) for dinner and happy hour snacks at the bar, alongside excellent cocktails and genius dairy-free desserts.

Nominee: Outstanding Chef (Marc Vetri), 2020, 2019, 2015, 2014
Additional honors in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016

Count ’em: 27 James Beard honors for Vetri Cucina and its Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic winner Marc Vetri. Inside its intimate Center City townhouse, Vetri Cucina has elevated Italian food to an art, experienced through Vetri’s quattro piatti four-course tasting menu — and a 5,000-bottle wine cellar. For a more inexpensive (and flexible) selection, stroll a mile south to Vetri’s intimate pasta bar Fiorella, or check out one of four Pizzeria Vetri locations.

Semifinalist: Outstanding Pastry Chef (James Matty), 2019

A 12,000-square-foot restaurant, bar, garden patio, market and café, Fishtown’s Suraya is less dining spot and more Middle East dining complex. Celebrating the flavors of the Levant — Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Palestine, Israel and particularly Lebanon — Suraya offers a menu of aromatic items like man’oushe flatbreads, baba ganoush, taboulé, ful mudammas and heaping plates of hummus. But do not leave before partaking in dessert: James Matty and his cache of Middle Eastern-inflected French pastries and sweets picked up a semifinalist listing for Outstanding Pastry Chef in 2019.

Winner: Outstanding Restaurant, 2019
Additional honors in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018

What more can be said about Zahav that hasn’t already? Fifteen James Beard recognitions since 2008, including chef category victories for both co-founder Michael Solomonov and rising star Camille Cogswell (now working in North Carolina), all topped by a Best Restaurant in America title in 2019. Single-handedly elevating Philadelphia’s food scene with its modern take on Israeli specialties, Zahav’s open kitchen plates shareable selections like fried cauliflower, lamb with beet-pickled turnips and branzino with roasted cucumber in a friendly and casual atmosphere. Wine Enthusiast even named the spot one of the nation’s 100 Best Wine Restaurants.