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I see threads and talk about Michelin Star rankings frequently. As we all know, Michelin only reviews select markets, and is generally a measure of very high-brow chefs and restaurants.
But, I'd argue a better measure of the food scene is the James Beard awards. The restaurants are generally more "approachable" for the masses, and the rankings are across all States and Cities.
This is a better, more approachable and comprehensive list. Any list that "excludes" certain cities (or states) is not the best list overall, in my opinion.
Anyway, I think a better snapshot is their ranking of the states with award winning chefs and restaurants.
It's fascinating to see states and regions lacking--here's a ranking of the top 20 I compiled for ease of reference:
These 2 states are in a league of their own, and crush the rest of the states overall:
New York: 253
California: 140
When did Shane Company (a jewelry chain founded in Denver with really terrible, cheesetastic radio commercials) get into the lifestyle blogging biz? "Now YOU have a friend in the culinary business. The Shane Company. One half-mile east of I-25 on Arapahoe, or online at shaneco.com."
Sure there are, since you asked. First off these aren't really "2021" rankings considering the numbers and link you posted are how many awards were won from 2000-2021. That's a long 21 years and that alone makes claiming that these numbers are accurate or represent reality in 2022 just laughable, especially since all the crazy changes that just happened to many cities restaurant industry's (good and bad) because of Covid.
Second they have cities such as Yountville, St. Helena, Healdsburg, Bessemer and Birmingham with more than Austin, Miami and Nashville.
And NYC with 238 but LA with only 17? Sorry but that's just impossibly dumb.
Then looking at the state numbers you have Florida with 9, Maine with 8, Oregon with 9, South Carolina with 11, Alabama with 11, Minnesota with 14, Washington with 25 etc etc. Just ridiculous and misleading numbers. I mean come on Florida is about to get its own Michelin Guide later this year..
Does anyone really think that represents reality? When the rankings are that inconsistent overall in my eyes the list becomes practically garbage all together.
I agree, how does a state with 21m people only get 9 total awards? I’ll admit we don’t have the best food, but only 9? Come on…
The cities that gentrified first since the year 2000 are the cities that will do the best in their ranking. If your city just gentrified in the last decade, it will not have as many winners. It would be easier to analyze this data if they posted the winners in 5-year increments over 20 years so people could track the redevelopment of these cities. Places like NYC, Chicago, and San Francisco actually make sense to me. They have had large swaths of bustling rich areas with restaurants for decades.
There are a few other cities on the list that just really started booming around 2010 like Philadelphia, DC, Atlanta, and Miami etc. I’m pretty sure those cities probably won most of their awards in half of the 20 years being studied with DC at (28), Philly at (13), Atlanta at (7), and Miami at (5). Some of these cities are closing fast every year with multiple winners recently.
Methodology
We analyzed over 800 James Beard Foundation award-winners over the past 20 years from across the country. We then categorized these award-winning restaurants by U.S. city and state to determine which areas of the country are ripe with award-winning cuisine and which areas are stale and dry. Read on to see what we found!
Last edited by MDAllstar; 02-28-2022 at 09:22 AM..
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Also, first list I’ve seen with Minneapolis as a top 10 city ranking. Not saying it’s bad—just haven’t seen it that high anywhere previously.
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