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I feel like 90% of decent sized cities have good enough restaurants to satisfy foodie cravings. Coming from south Louisiana, I have a pretty high bar when it comes to food, and living in place like Denver, which isn't known for good food, I think much of these conversations are weighted too heavily for ethnic varieties and such, Denver definitely isn't New Orleans but to say it has bad food would be an outright lie. I would believe the same is true for most metros over 1 million.
I think in some places you have to "know where to go", and others are sufficiently competitive that you are more able to randomly stumble into any old place and find good food. But in general I agree with you.
It's like people who talk about a city being boring and having "nothing to do". That one is probably on you...
The other thing I see is people of a specific ethnicity or from a specific region that judge a food scene purely by their ability to get that particular cuisine.
As a visitor to Texas, not a resident, I really only care about their beef brisket. That's good enough for me. I'd rather have a place that did just one thing extraordinarily than a bunch of meh things.
I think in some places you have to "know where to go", and others are sufficiently competitive that you are more able to randomly stumble into any old place and find good food. But in general I agree with you.
It's like people who talk about a city being boring and having "nothing to do". That one is probably on you...
The other thing I see is people of a specific ethnicity or from a specific region that judge a food scene purely by their ability to get that particular cuisine.
That's pretty much everywhere as well, in my opinion. Remember when Michael from the office would brag about sbarro pizza in New York? There's tourists traps on Bourbon St too.
I do agree about the boring cities comment.
I do know alot of people from New York/PA here and they do complain about the pizza.
That's pretty much everywhere as well, in my opinion. Remember when Michael from the office would brag about sbarro pizza in New York? There's tourists traps on Bourbon St too.
I do agree about the boring cities comment.
I do know alot of people from New York/PA here and they do complain about the pizza.
Don't get me started on NYC Pizza. I'll never understand the hype of that particular regional variety of pizza. I'm sure Denver has plenty of great pizza, if not exactly what NYC puritans are looking for.
Hell, I really enjoy Beau Jo's pizza when I'm in Colorado. I always stop at that Idaho Springs location on the way back from the mountains! I think there is great pizza in different styles all across the US.
There are lots of cities with big concentrations of an ethnic group. That cuisine is inevitably excellent. I’m on the Massachusetts South Coast with a huge Portuguese/Azores concentration. New Bedford and Fall River have excellent Portuguese food. Lowell has a big Cambodian population. When I used to work near there, we did lunch in Lowell all the time.
Nashville (It does well in southern cuisine, but is below weight for ethnic offerings)
Dallas (Too much BBQ)
Denver (Very Americanized versions of "ethnic" cuisines)
Salt Lake City (until recently, chocolate milk was known as its most famous drink)
Kansas City (see Dallas)
Charlotte (see Nashville)
Orlando (too many chains, in addition to overpriced theme park food)
San Antonio (great TexMex, but nothing to write home about otherwise)
Austin (see San Antonio and Dallas)
Oklahoma City (see Dallas and Denver)
There is NO such thing as TOO MUCH BBQ..,if it is good
I'm sure this list will get ripped to shreds as they do, but I thought it was interesting. I've been to several of these cities on this list, but only really experienced the food scenes in Portland, Jacksonville, and Louisville(which I was specifically impressed by).
There are no major metro's on this list. This is not meant to be some kind end all definitive list so don't take it too seriously. They basically took cities based under a certain rent $ threshold and looked at how many 4 star restaurants based on yelp reviews. Anyone have experiences in these cities food scenes?
10. Raleigh
9. Jacksonville
8.Virginia Beach
7. Indianapolis
6. Kansas City MO
5. Columbus
4. Portland OR
3. Tulsa
2. Albuquerque
1. Louisville
Nice to see Albuquerque get recognized! The blurb about our city mentions Bocadillos in Downtown Albuquerque and its chef has recently been recognized with a nomination for Best Chef Southwest by the James Beard Foundation. She also recently opened a second restaurant in Downtown Albuquerque called My Mom's, which is a nod to that saying - especially here in Albuquerque - referring to great homecooking by mothers and grandmothers. Chef Marie Yniguez has appeared in countless episodes of shows and competitions on the Food Network. The James Beard nomination is just icing on the cake and a great honor and recognition of all her hard work. She really deserves this recognition and those of us in Albuquerque are really proud of her!
Don't get me started on NYC Pizza. I'll never understand the hype of that particular regional variety of pizza. I'm sure Denver has plenty of great pizza, if not exactly what NYC puritans are looking for.
Hell, I really enjoy Beau Jo's pizza when I'm in Colorado. I always stop at that Idaho Springs location on the way back from the mountains! I think there is great pizza in different styles all across the US.
I agree wholeheartedly. Bagels too.
I'll have to go to that place sometime.
Location: Miami (prev. NY, Atlanta, SF, OC and San Diego)
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Might have to do with the fact (1) NYC does have the largest Italian and Jewish populations in the country who know a thing or two about pizza and offer several different styles (be it NY style, Neapolitan, Sicilian, Roman style pinsa, Coal oven, calzone, etc etc) and bagels and (2) depends if one’s vast underwhelming NYC experience results from having eaten in a touristy area—such as Times Square with cheap $2 reheated slice pizza—v a more “local”, ethnic area (such as Brooklyn) selling fresh out of the oven pies.
With respect to the latter that’s the case just about everywhere (local v mediocre touristy areas) whereas it is possible to get good pizza and bagels (more so pizza; can you name me a place with a great bialy in Des Moines or Louisville?…Einstein’s doesn’t cut it) in many/most cities.
Best pizza I’ve had outside of NYC was in Portland, OR—Apizza Scholls. Never had the opportunity to go to New Haven and sample their pizza. Montreal has great bagels (outside of North America but not including Israel, Prague had the best bagels I’ve eaten).
Quote:
Originally Posted by annie_himself
I agree wholeheartedly. Bagels too.
I'll have to go to that place sometime.
Last edited by elchevere; 03-05-2022 at 01:18 PM..
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