Embeya, Carriage House Make Esquire's 2013 Best New Restaurants List

By Lisa White in Food on Oct 8, 2013 3:00PM

Esquire published their yearly list of best new restaurants yesterday, and two local options made the cut. The magazine bestowed the title on 18 different spots around the country, and the Chicago picks were the Carriage House and Embeya. We covered both restaurants last year, first the Asian fusion of Embeya, which had a range of highs and lows when we visited, and then taking a look at the Lowcountry styling at Carriage House right after they opened.

Although restaurants are pleased as punch to be included on such a prestigious sounding list, many people in the past have had criticism when it comes to the author and decider of said list, John Mariani. His supposed behavior in the industry is infamous and well documented in the Chicago dining world. So depending what you think of him, the praise might be worthwhile or not.

We are a bit surprised not to see Grace on the list, and personally would rather see Fat Rice over Embeya. Then again being familiar with the author's work, we are not that surprised after all. It did rub us the wrong way when the first thing discussed about Embeya was the price range over the food, but to each their own with what they choose is the most important factor in dining. And starting out the Carriage House piece about the typical argument that there isn’t good Southern food in Chicago seems like such a cop out. Anyone in Chicago knows there is a large slice of good Southern cuisine in our city. We’re glad to have Carriage House in that fold, but they are not some shining star to guide us to the only place to get pimento cheese in the city.

We’re still glad that Chicago had a strong showing with two picks on the list, and we still suggest stopping in both places if you haven’t checked them out already. You can read Mariani’s thoughts and the rest of the list here.