As exciting new restaurants have opened across the U.S. with fantastic wine lists to match diverse cuisines, wine lovers have a lot to explore this year. With all these options on the table, where does one begin? For an excellent starting point, try any one of the following 14 restaurants, each of which recently opened and is a first-time recipient of a Wine Spectator Restaurant Award in 2024; this year’s full list of winners was revealed in late June.
Some of the winners are from rapidly growing hospitality groups and well-established names in dining, while others represent smaller teams. Some offer contemporary American cuisine, while others still impress with Italian, Mexican, Japanese and Portuguese menus. What unites these diverse restaurants is their dedication to quality dining and alluring wine programs that feature a range of styles, regions and producers.
Learn more about our Restaurant Awards here, and explore our full list of more than 3,700 Wine Spectator Restaurant Award–winning establishments, including four new Grand Award winners among the 96 restaurants that hold our highest honor.
Do you have a favorite you’d like to see on this list? Send your recommendations to restaurantawards@mshanken.com. We want to hear from you!
C29
1320 Main St., St. Helena, California
Telephone (707) 302-9978
Website c29sthelena.com
Best of Award of Excellence
The brainchild of chef Bruce Marder, C29 is the new Napa Valley outpost from the team behind Santa Monica Grand Award winner Capo. C29 popped up in a temporary location on Highway 29 (giving the restaurant its name); the restaurant team is currently finishing construction on a permanent Main Street location with greenhouses, gardens and chicken coops that will supply ingredients for an array of Italian offerings.
What’s on the Menu
Marder incorporates local, seasonal ingredients into classic preparations of Italian pasta and meat dishes. This includes the likes of short rib osso buco with polenta, ravioli with wild mushrooms, grilled whole branzino and cuts (graded 8–9) of New Zealand Wagyu beef.
Wine List Highlights
Sommelier Alexandre Calvi has put together a list of 830-plus selections that tap a 2,555-bottle cellar. There is a robust showing of wines from Tuscany and Piedmont, with acclaimed bottlings such as Ornellaia’s Bolgheri Superiore, Antinori’s Toscana Solaia and Biondi-Santi’s Brunello di Montalcino Tenuta Greppo. The wine program also shows strength in France and California, especially Napa Valley, and Barolo lovers will be pleased to see Giacomo Conterno’s Barolo Monfortino Riserva on the list. Calvi plans to expand the list when the restaurant moves to its permanent location.
Café Carmellini
The Fifth Avenue Hotel, 250 5th Avenue, New York City
Telephone (212) 231-9200
Website cafecarmellini.com
Best of Award of Excellence
The new fine-dining flagship of chef Andrew Carmellini’s restaurant group, Café Carmellini occupies a prime spot in Midtown Manhattan’s NoMad neighborhood. The restaurant is in the Fifth Avenue Hotel, which opened in 2023 in a landmark Gilded Age mansion. Café Carmellini’s main dining room is adorned with luxe chandeliers that hang above blue banquettes and sculptural trees, with a mural behind the bar depicting more trees alongside peacocks. The restaurant also offers balconies for those seeking more private dining.
What’s on the Menu
Carmellini and his team marry French and Italian culinary traditions for a menu that reinterprets dishes well known in New York fine dining. Starters include a crab-melon mille-feuille and an endive-beet insalata. For entrees, look to grilled wild salmon in a carrot-ginger sauce, duck tortellini and rabbit primavera, among other options.
Wine List Highlights
Master Sommelier Josh Nadel steers the 1,900-wine program, which focuses on Italian and French wineries and encompasses 14,000 bottles. The Bordeaux, Burgundy and Rhône Valley selections are particularly impressive, with bottlings such as Domaine Moreau-Naudet Chablis, Domaine Faiveley Mercurey Vieilles Vignes, Clos du Marquis St.-Julien and Jamet Collines Rhodaniennes Valine.
COQODAQ
12 E. 22nd St., New York City
Telephone (646) 490-5099
Website coqodaq.com
Best of Award of Excellence
When COQODAQ opened in New York City earlier this year, it made headlines with its Korean fried chicken and its ambitious aim to create the largest Champagne program in the United States. Owned by Gracious Hospitality Management (GHM), the growing group behind dining powerhouses Cote Korean Steakhouse and Cote Miami, COQODAQ quickly become a can’t-miss Manhattan spot, as well as a Best of Award of Excellence winner.
What’s on the Menu
For its signature fried chicken, COQODAQ sources pasture-raised poultry from Amish and Mennonite farms. Cooked after being dipped in a gluten-free batter and available by the bucket or à la carte pieces, the chicken comes in three styles: original (with signature sauces), coated in a soy-garlic glaze or tossed in a sweet-spicy gochujang glaze. For $38 a person, the Bucket List meal option includes a red ginseng–seasoned roast chicken consommé, a small bucket of crispy chicken, pickled seasonal vegetables, cold soy sauce–dressed noodles and, for dessert, frozen yogurt with seasonal fruit. COQODAQ also offers an ice-chilled raw bar with oysters, caviar and a variety of fish tartares.
Wine List Highlights
More than two-thirds of the 720-label list (backed by a nearly 2,500-bottle cellar) is dedicated to Champagne. GHM beverage director Victoria James emphasizes vertical depth and horizontal breadth, resulting in a library of Champagnes spanning larger houses and grower-producers. At COQODAQ you don’t have to break the bank to pair fried chicken with Champagne thanks to its “100 bubbles under $100” selection, which includes value bottlings from such houses as J. Lassalle, Michel Gonet and Pierre Gimonnet.
ILIS
150 Green St., Brooklyn, New York
Website ilisnyc.com
Best of Award of Excellence
When chef René Redzepi announced he was closing his globally renowned restaurant Noma in early 2023, it sent ripples throughout the dining world and raised questions about the future of high-concept dining. Chiefly: Would guests still seek out culinary experiences that cost so much? Yet, we are still seeing a wave of New Nordic fine dining, with 2024 Best of Award of Excellence winner ILIS at the forefront in New York City. In Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood, ILIS is owned by Danish chef Mads Refslund, who was co-chef with Redzepi at Noma when it opened in 2003. ILIS features a minimalist dining room, with large contemporary paintings and a wall of dried sunflowers, as well as an open kitchen, allowing guests to watch as Refslund and his cooks prepare complex dishes using a large wood-fire grill.
What’s on the Menu
Refslund’s ever-changing menu features standouts including steamed Santa Barbara sea urchin served with fava bean pods, seared twine-wrapped Napa cabbage stuffed with a white ramson kimchi, and Montauk squid pressed on a plancha and served with a tomato sauce. But one of the most iconic and picture-worthy dishes served at ILIS has to be the large clam flask wrapped in rough rope, adorned with moss and filled with smoked dashi accented by tomatoes and sumac.
Wine List Highlights
Exceeding 1,000 selections, wine director Tira Johnson’s program has a vast array of picks from Burgundy, Champagne and other French regions, as well as California, Germany and Italy. Represented on the list are leading wineries such as the Rhône’s Château Rayas, Tuscany’s Ornellaia and Sonoma’s Ramey. Johnson’s cellar also includes a wide selection of large-format bottles and a well-curated list of sakes, including highlights from Noguchi Naohiko and Jikon.
Little's Oyster Bar
3001 S. Shepherd, Houston
Telephone 713-522-4595
Website littlesoysterbar.com
Best of Award of Excellence
Pappas Restaurants, the group behind three Grand Award winners in Texas, opened Little’s Oyster Bar in 2023 in Houston’s Montrose neighborhood. The location had previously been the home of Little Pappas Seafood House, which closed in 2020 after 30-plus years in business. With 80 seats inside and 50 on its patio (featuring a retractable roof), Little’s Oyster Bar showcases notable decorations like the original neon sign from Little Pappas Seafood House and culinary drawings from chef Jason Ryczek.
What’s on the Menu
Ryczek’s menu is seafood focused and offers a range of seasonal, market-driven gems, including rotating selections of oysters, shellfish and caviar. Fans of bivalves can look forward to oysters with a mignonette sauce and horseradish or the smoked chilled wild mussels with a chili oil. Some larger plates include lobster and gnocchi with blistered cherry tomatoes and crispy potato skins, grilled octopus with marble potatoes and zhug, and a dry-aged rib eye with a wild mushroom tart.
Wine List Highlights
Little’s Oyster Bar offers a range of Champagnes to complement seafood, including bottlings from such houses as Jacques Lassaigne and Bruno Paillard. Also among the list’s 450 selections is a big pool of Burgundies, including plenty of whites from leading names such as Jean-Claude Ramonet and Vincent Dauvissat (with the Chablis offerings being particularly notable). Beyond France, Little’s Oyster Bar boasts bottlings from California, Germany, Italy and Spain, including Riesling from Dr. Bürklin-Wolf and Chardonnay from Mayacamas.
Oak Park
3901 Ingersoll Ave., Des Moines, Iowa
Website oakparkdsm.com
Best of Award of Excellence
Don’t overlook the Midwest when seeking out unforgettable fine dining experiences. As an example, consider new Best of Award of Excellence winner Oak Park in Des Moines, Iowa—far from either U.S. coast. Open since 2023, the restaurant is led by the husband-and-wife team of chefs Ian and Jess Robertson, whose combined résumés include roles at Grand Award winners Daniel and Eleven Madison Park. The two settled in Jess’ native Iowa to open Oak Park, which sources many of its ingredients from an in-house garden.
What’s on the Menu
Ian manages Oak Park’s dinner service, which shines with such dishes as an imaginative carrot Wellington atop a mushroom demiglace, a clam-forward take on cacio e pepe with roasted bacon and a lamb loin with a green garbanzo bean hummus. Jess oversees the pastry program, which includes a basil-rhubarb crème brûlée, a grown-up fudge pop with a rum diplomat cream and a mango–passion fruit soufflé with coffee ice cream. The showstopper is a $100 banana split, featuring scoops of three ice cream flavors (pistachio, banana-saffron and foie gras) and topped with gold leaf, Armagnac caviar, shaved chocolate truffle and a Champagne mousse (but not that kind of mousse).
Wine List Highlights
Wine director Sam Tuttle has worked at restaurants such as Grand Award winner Flagstaff House and Best of Award of Excellence winner Tavernetta (both in Colorado), as well as Chicago’s celebrated Alinea . At Oak Park, his 3,000-bottle wine cellar excels in picks from California and France, particularly Bordeaux, with prized bottles such as Guigal’s La La cuvées, Penfolds’ Grange and 17 vintages of Château Mouton-Rothschild Pauillac. Already representing hundreds of selections, the wine program is something Tuttle plans to significantly expand over the next five years.
The Oakville Grill & Cellar
163 N. Green St., Chicago
Telephone (773) 309-2300
Website theoakville.com
Best of Award of Excellence
True to its name, The Oakville Grill & Cellar brings a bit of Napa Valley wine country to Chicago. The restaurant debuted in 2023 in the Fulton Market District as one of the newest endeavors from Lettuce Entertain You, the expanding restaurant group behind Best of Award of Excellence winner RPM Steak and its sibling locations as well as new Best of Award of Excellence winner Tre Dita. Being a grill, the Oakville places a strong focus on prime cuts of steak, which are served in a bright space with white stone walls, cozy leather seats and a wood beam–lined ceiling.
What’s on the Menu
For his American fare, chef Tim Havidic sources beef and other ingredients from ranches and farms across California and the Midwest. Several of the Oakville’s dishes are grilled over oak wood, another nod to the restaurant’s name, including SoCal steak frites with a garlic aioli, a barbecue sauce–glazed Berkshire pork chop with locally sourced grits and a center-cut tenderloin filet from Creekstone Farms with whipped potatoes. Other standouts on the dinner menu include burrata with black raspberries and potato salad deviled eggs, as well as a trio of pizza options and mains such as pan-roasted sea scallops, a mushroom-eggplant ragù and a dry-aged steak burger. The Oakville also offers a gluten-free menu and brunch on the weekends.
Wine List Highlights
The restaurant’s 750-wine list is exclusively Californian, representing more than 50 Golden State appellations in a 3,500-bottle cellar. The diverse selection honors both well-known producers and emerging players in the state. Leading names such as Heitz and Williams Selyem are featured alongside newer but undeniably impressive wineries such as Accendo and Realm. The nearly 50-page wine menu also digs deep into blue-chip Napa Cabernet, with multiple vintages from Colgin and Dominus Estate, among others.
Chateau ZZ’s
1500 Brickell Ave., Miami
Telephone (212) 254-3000
Website chateauzzs.com
Award of Excellence
Founded by restaurateur Jeff Zalaznick and chefs Mario Carbone and Rich Torrisi, Major Food Group (MFG) is a leading force in U.S. hospitality, overseeing an ever-growing collection of restaurants that include Grand Award winner The Grill in New York City and four Best of Award of Excellence–winning Carbone locations across the country. Opened in December 2023 in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood, Chateau ZZ’s is MFG’s first Mexican restaurant and it has already earned a reputation for excellence.
What’s on the Menu
Executive chef Jonah Resnick and chef de cuisine Dame Kane offer a menu that celebrates Mexican cuisine through seafood dishes such as steamed striped bass adobo and whole-fried snapper, meat dishes such as grilled chicken verde and crispy porchetta, and a range of steaks that can be served grilled or al pastor style. The tostadas are also a draw, with such inventive flavor combinations as lobster and jalapeño, Wagyu beef and truffle, and caviar and crema. Diners can complement any meal with a selection of sides, including roasted poblanos, spinach ajo (garlic spinach) and arroz (rice) pilaf.
Wine List Highlights
Major Food Group beverage director Patrick Wert and corporate wine director John Slover’s 250-label list shows strength in Argentina, California, France, Italy and Portugal. On offer are many steak-friendly reds such as Nickel & Nickel’s Napa Valley Cabernet and Giovanni Rosso’s Langhe Nebbiolo. There are also sparkling mainstays such as Dom Pérignon Champagne and Provençal rosés alongside a host of refreshing whites, including Sauvignon Blancs, Vinho Verdes and bottlings of Pinot Grigio from leading Italian estate Elena Walch.
Coeur
330 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale, Michigan
Telephone (248) 466-3010
Website coeurferndale.com
Award of Excellence
As energy and ingenuity have been rekindled in U.S. restaurants in recent years, more and more chefs are heading to smaller markets to create standout restaurants. Take chef Jordan Smith, who came to the Detroit area after stints in New York City at Grand Award winner Daniel and in San Francisco at Best of Award of Excellence winner Quince. In 2023, in the Ferndale suburb of Detroit, he opened the intimate fine dining restaurant Coeur, which has already earned an Award of Excellence in recognition of its exceptional wine offerings.
What’s on the Menu
Smith’s dishes have a distinctly French accent to them, with a bit of Californian and New American influences. Recent à la carte offerings at Coeur include Calabrian chile–seasoned mussels with crostini, potato-Comté croquettes with a burnt leek dip and a spicy steak tartare topped with capers. As for larger plates, some standouts have included gnocchi with English peas, cod with pickled enoki mushrooms, steak frites cooked in ramp butter and a house burger topped with rémoulade. There is also a five-course tasting menu for $89 (with an additional $45 for wine pairings or $25 for nonalcoholic beverages), which changes every few weeks and spotlights seasonal produce.
Wine List Highlights
Like its cuisine, Coeur’s wine program is centered on French and American selections, showing strength in Burgundy, California, Champagne, Oregon and the Rhône Valley. Sommelier Sean Crenny (formerly of New York City Grand Award winner Per Se) also highlights Michigan wineries such as Shady Lane. Especially notable are the by-the-glass offerings, which include 3- and 5-ounce pours of reserve options served via a Coravin preservation system, with the likes of Château Cheval Blanc and Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars in the rotation.
Lilou
428 S. Gay St., Knoxville, Tennessee
Telephone (865) 577-1700
Website lilouknoxville.com
Award of Excellence
The team at Lilou in Knoxville, Tenn., refers to the restaurant as a “French retreat on Gay Street”—downtown’s historic main thoroughfare. The restaurant looks to France for inspiration both on its menus and in its decor. Situated within Hotel Cleo, Lilou’s dining space features paintings that hearken back to bygone eras of France alongside a bright chandelier, crown molding and, in true brasserie style, a white-tiled floor.
What’s on the Menu
Head chef Benjamin Tilatti cooks up a menu of playful contemporary takes on French brasserie fare, while also drawing inspiration from his upbringing in Basque Country and his years of culinary training in fine restaurants across France. A Lilou standout is Tilatti’s modern take on escargot, with slow-cooked snails served in a persillade emulsion (rather than rich garlic butter) and topped with crisped pork belly and chestnut mushrooms. Other notable dishes include the écrevisse (crawfish) and squid ink ravioli with frizzled leeks, the canard (duck breast) with an apricot gastrique and the morue (North Atlantic cod) with a piquillo pepper puree. Lilou also delivers on the dessert front with profiteroles, tarts, meringues and crème brûlée.
Wine List Highlights
The Lilou wine list is exclusively French and showcases just about every corner of France, from Alsace to Jura to the Loire and Rhône valleys. Wines from regional icons such as Trimbach and Chapoutier are featured alongside Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne selections from other well-known names such as Ruinart and Albert Bichot.
Miru
The St. Regis Chicago, 401 E. Wacker Drive, Floor 11, Chicago
Telephone (312) 725-7811
Website mirurestaurant.com
Award of Excellence
Another new restaurant from Lettuce Entertain You, Miru opened in 2023 inside The St. Regis hotel along the Chicago River. From its 11th-floor location, Miru (which means “to look” in Japanese) offers sweeping views of the Windy City skyline and nearby Navy Pier. As for the food, think fine Japanese dining with a focus on shared plates spanning the categories of sashimi, maki, nigiri and beyond.
What’s on the Menu
Chef Hisanobu Osaka mastered both French and Japanese cooking while working with leading chefs Daniel Boulud and Masaharu Morimoto. That experience is expressed at Miru in such dishes as the Japanese A5 Wagyu beef tartare, the duck confit yakisoba and the king crab crispy rice with gochujang aioli. Also notable is the trio of prime steak cuts, which include a 6-ounce center-cut filet, a 10-ounce New York strip and a 5-ounce serving of A5-graded Miyazakigyu Wagyu beef. On Wednesdays, Miru hosts the Bluefin Tuna Experience, with a seven-course tasting menu that showcases lean to fatty cuts of bluefin tuna.
Wine List Highlights
Like the food menu, wine director Kathleen Hawkins’ beverage program also shows Japanese influence, with a strong focus on ginjo and daiginjo sakes. The 230-wine list (representing a 2,200-bottle cellar) shows strength in Champagne, with bubblies from Krug, Moët & Chandon and Louis Roederer on offer. Fans of red wine will be pleased with the Pinot Noirs from California and Burgundy, including DuMOL’s Wester Reach and Domaine des Comtes Lafon’s Volnay.
Ripple Wine Bar
2000 Madison Road, Cincinnati
Telephone (513) 321-1100
Website ripplewinebar.com
Award of Excellence
In 2019, restaurateurs Matt and Kathleen Haws opened Ripple Wine Bar, a restaurant in Covington, Kentucky, that gained a reputation for tasty small plates and substantial by-the-glass offerings. Four years later, the duo opened a second Ripple Wine Bar, in the O’Bryonville neighborhood of Cincinnati. Like its sibling location, Ohio’s Ripple Wine Bar takes its name from a Grateful Dead song and is an inviting hangout known for tapas-style dining and good vibes.
What’s on the Menu
Chef Justin Askins offers a seasonal menu designed to complement a host of wines. Working closely with local farms to source ingredients, he creates sophisticated small plates such as poblano peppers stuffed with goat cheese and chorizo, beef Wellington popovers served with a tarragon aioli, and homemade Moroccan chicken meatballs with a Mediterranean tomato sauce. On the “Set Two” section of the menu are larger-portion dishes, including tahini-glazed Scottish salmon, blackened shrimp with Cheddar grits and a lobster roll with sweet potato chips. Ripple Wine Bar also provides a solid lineup of cheese and cured meat selections.
Wine List Highlights
Wine director Gabriella DiVincenzo’s list draws from a 1,250-bottle cellar, which shows strength in California but represents a wide range of regions, styles and producers. Some gems on the list include Champagne from Drappier, Chardonnay from Rombauer, Brunello di Montalcino from Conti Costanti and Margaux from Château Giscours. That’s not to mention the choice Amarone, Côte-Rôtie, Napa Cabernet, Rioja and natural wine bottlings, plus the nearly 40 wines available by the glass.
Rollati Ristorante
181 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose, California
Telephone (408) 444-4080
Website rollatiristorante.com
Award of Excellence
San Jose isn’t a city short on dining options, and among them you will find a warm and comforting dining experience at Rollati Ristorante. Near City Hall and St. James Park, this downtown spot opened in 2023 and is the first Italian restaurant from Vine Hospitality, the Bay Area restaurant group behind two Best of Award of Excellence–winning LB Steak locations, Award of Excellence winner Meso Modern Mediterranean and a quartet of Award of Excellence–winning Left Bank Brasseries. Rollati Ristorante serves as an homage to Vine Hospitality CEO Obadiah Ostergard’s Italian heritage.
What’s on the Menu
While Vine Hospitality’s portfolio is largely rooted in French cuisine—thanks to its chief culinary officer, renowned French chef Roland Passot—Rollati Ristorante’s menu is classically Italian American. Executive chef Sam Gimlewicz prepares traditional staples such as eggplant rollatini, fried mozzarella and meatballs in marinara—and that’s just covering the antipasti section of the menu. For mains, look to a range of pizzas and handmade pastas as well as such entrées as charred salmon oreganata over farro, rabbit agrodolce atop polenta and duck breast served with a parsnip puree. Rollati Ristorante’s standout dish is unquestionably its “thousand-layer” lasagna, which has an optional beef short rib ragù add-on for $8.
Wine List Highlights
As with the cuisine, Italy is the star of wine director Serena Harkey’s 120-label list, representing a cellar of 1,625 bottles. On offer are Barolo, Franciacorta, Langhe Nebbiolo, Nero d'Avola, Rosso di Montalcino and other bottlings from producers such as Sicily’s Rapitalà, Bolgheri’s Ornellaia and Piedmont’s Michele Chiarlo. Golden State wines also make an appearance, such as Frank Family Chardonnay and Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon.
Sereia
3540 Main Highway, Miami
Telephone (305) 967-8152
Website sereia.miami
Award of Excellence
The Miami restaurant scene has been growing quickly in recent years, and there always seems to be more room for newcomers. Enter Sereia, which opened in March 2024 in the waterfront Coconut Grove neighborhood. The restaurant spotlights coastal Iberian cuisine while drawing inspiration from the culinary experiences of star Portuguese chef Henrique Sá Pessoa, who opened the restaurant in collaboration with southern Florida’s Sault Hospitality.
What’s on the Menu
Sá Pessoa highlights raw seafood on his menu, including market oysters by the half-dozen with piri piri and a mignonette, snapper tartare with avocado and an apple dressing, and a Royal Ossetra caviar service for $150 that comes with toast points and crème fraîche. Some of Sereia’s small bites include peixinhos da horta (tempura green beans with tartar sauce), pão com tomate y paleta Iberica (grilled Portuguese bread with tomato and Iberian smoked pork shoulder) and pica pau (seared filet mignon with a garlic-mustard sauce and pickled vegetables). For mains, expect the likes of barriga de porco (confit milk-fed Yorkshire pork belly with potato mille-feuille), arroz de carabineiro (scarlet prawn rice with scallions) and an 11-ounce Snake River Farms Wagyu beef strip steak with piquillo peppers.
Wine List Highlights
Wine director Jose Cruz’s 200-label list (drawing from a 1,200-bottle inventory) is similarly focused on the Iberian Peninsula. Alongside Ribera del Duero, Rioja and Vinho Verde bottlings are sparkling wines from Raventós i Blanc, Lisboa reds from Quinta do Monte d'Oiro and tawny Ports from Kopke, to name just a few.
Edited by Chris Cardoso, Collin Dreizen, Julia Larson, Olivia Nolan and Megan Tkacy
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