According to Food & Wine Magazine, from rooftops with panoramic city views to exquisite hidden gardens, there’s a new crop of restaurants with terrific food and fantastic outdoor spaces popping up across the country.
the best Outdoor Dallas/ Fort worth CHICKEN SCRATCH
Chef Tim Byres’s fantastic new fried chicken restaurant shares its sizable backyard with his new bar, The Foundry, where bands play live music every weekend. MANSION RESTAURANT AT ROSEWOOD MANSION ON TURTLE CREEK Chef Bruno Davaillon, formerly of Alain Ducasse’s Mix in Las Vegas, serves luxurious dishes like wagyu beef tartare and foie gras with pistachio butter on the restaurant’s elegant, oak treeshaded red-brick terrace.
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New York
Dining THE NOMAD ROOFTOP
At his new restaurant The NoMad, “F&W Best New Chef 2005 Daniel Humm reinvents dishes like fruits de mer, creates new classics and borrows favorites from his Eleven Madison Park,” writes F&W editor in chief Dana Cowin. The restaurant’s rooftop has quickly become a coveted reservation, both for its phenomenal food and its view of the Empire State Building. SHAKE SHACK
Chicago
Restaurateur Danny Meyer’s take-out kiosk in leafy Madison Square Park has spawned 15 locations over the past four years. Its fantastic burgers have a cult following among Gotham burger geeks.
Boston
EASTERN STANDARD KITCHEN & DRINKS At this popular Boston hotel restaurant, chef-restaurateur Jeremy Sewall highlights East Coast seafood in dishes like New England haddock with spaetzle. The awningcovered sidewalk patio is flanked by colorful flowering plants in white wainscot flower boxes.
Although it’s located inside the members-only Soho Beach House, this restaurant and its tropical courtyard are open to the public. Italian-born Sergio Sigala uses his woodburning pizza oven to make small, football-shaped pies with toppings like goat cheese and black truffle.
SUGARCANE RAW BAR GRILL At this Latin restaurant with an 850-square-foot outdoor terrace, chef Timon Balloo (an F&W People’s Best New Chef 2011 nominee) juxtaposes unlikely ingredients to create phenomenal dishes like scallop crudo with apple, truffle and jalapeño.
TEMAZCAL TEQUILA CANTINA Helmed by two-time James Beard Award-winning chef Todd Hall, this taqueria-tequileria’s 60-seat terrace overlooking Boston Harbor has become a Liberty Wharf summertime hotspot. OLEANA At the decade-old Oleana, chefowner Ana Sortun serves her Eastern Mediterranean menu in a honey-colored dining room and a foliage-covered 50-seat yard in residential Cambridge.
Austin LA CONDESA
With a 120-seat bi-level terrace that boasts views of the Chicago River and the Loop, this is the legendary steak town’s ultimate outdoor spot for superjuicy dry-aged beef.
Laura Sawicki (an F&W Best New Pastry Chef 2012) uses herbs, chiles, corn and tropical fruits to put brilliant Mexican twists on classic desserts at this modern restaurant and tequileria in downtown Austin. With its classic white Eames Eiffel chairs and cantilevered wood awning, the patio is one of the city’s most stylish outdoor spots.
BIG STAR (PICTURED)
CONTIGO
Highlights of this supercool “honky tonk” taqueria from Paul Kahan (an F&W Best New Chef 1999) include excellent pork-belly tacos and greasy-good queso fundido (a glorious melted-cheese appetizer studded with chorizo). Dim lighting, fashionably disheveled bartenders and country music encourage down-and-dirty drinking of highbrow and lowbrow beers, but there are also exceptional cocktails by Violet Hour mixologist Michael Rubel. Both are best sipped on a large patio that has sleek metal tables and cheery bright yellow chairs.
Co-owner Ben Edgerton aims to recreate the spirit of his family’s hunting ranch at this small-plates spot in fast-developing East Austin. A meal in its cedar elm-shaded sprawl of picnic tables feels like an escape from the city. The meat-heavy menu features charcuterie made with chicken, beef, pork and quail from nearby farms.
CHICAGO CUT STEAKHOUSE
Miami
CECCONI
New O rleans
BAYONA At this longtime local favorite in the French Quarter, Susan Spicer (an F&W Best New Chef 1989) serves globally oriented dishes, including her famous grilled shrimp with black bean cake. Open almost year-round, the fruit tree-lined courtyard has a charming water fountain.
BACCHANAL FINE WINE & SPIRITS This hole-in-the-wall wine store/tasting room/ restaurant lives up to its name. Every night, a live band performs in its lush courtyard, and winemakers host free tastings on Saturdays.
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