Dining at its best is a process of discovery, of finding new tastes in new places. Most everyone has had the thrill of checking out a restaurant for the first time, be it a brand-new opening or just being late to the party for some old standbys one has heard about for years.
It takes a special kind of talent to survive fickle tastes and changing times in the restaurant business. As unforgiving and cutthroat a business as they come, eateries featuring skillful chefs and delicious food go out of business every day after all. Those that survive over the long haul offer that special intangible that one knows when one tastes it but struggles to put words to.
This year, AY’s Readers’ Restaurant Poll is again chock-full of restaurants that have, by a pinch here and a dash there, continued to thrive during challenging times and look good doing it. They are the old reliables and proudly so, the places patrons return to again and again, in some cases over the course of multiple generations…