Jeff's Top 20 Meals Of 2013

I love doing this list every year - work takes me all over the country to meet with restaurant clients and do food research; eating takes up a good amount of my time, and it's fun to look back at all the great places where I was lucky enough to eat. These aren't ranked, but rather are in chronological order:

Tombstone BBQ - Park City, Utah
The 'Dr. Pepper Short Rib' - if I recall correctly, it was braised for a while in Dr. Pepper, then finished on the smoker.

Smitty's BBQ - Lockhart, Texas
If there's a better beef sausage, I haven't found it.

Faidley Seafood - Baltimore, Maryland
World's greatest crab cake. Stand at the bar and pair it with some fried clams.

Hut's Hamburgers - Austin, Texas
Nothing fancy, just a classic burger.

Grand Central Oyster Bar - New York, New York
One of my absolute favorite places in the city...oyster pan roast! (And fried clams)

Nightingale 9 - Brooklyn, New York
Amazing Vietnamese food from our friends just down the street at Seersucker.

Porky's Pit - Manchester, Tennessee
Very excited that we discovered this BBQ hut to break up our regular drives between Atlanta and Nashville.

Franklin Barbecue - Austin, Texas by way of New York, New York
This year, we found a great way around the hours-long line at Austin's Franklin Barbecue - just hang out with Aaron Franklin when he's cooking for an Event at Hill Country BBQ in New York.

Keen's Steakhouse - New York, NY
Stone-cold classic steakhouse atmosphere, with perfect steaks to match.

Barbuzzo - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
My favorite pizza this year - asparagus & truffled farm egg.

Swan Oyster Depot - San Francisco, California
There's no better setting to have oysters for breakfast.

Pizzeria Toro - Durham, North Carolina
Clam pie!

Taqueria Chapala Jalisco - San Antonio, Texas
One of my favorite cheese enchiladas anywhere. Add a barbacoa taco and a big bowl of refried beans, and your total bill comes to less than five dollars.

Pok Pok - Portland, Oregon
The Fish Sauce Chicken Wings deserve all the hype they get.

B&G Oysters - Boston, Massachusetts
One of my all-time favorite restaurants. Always our first stop straight off the plane when in Boston.

Hog & Hominy - Memphis, Tennessee
Our usual plan here is to let Chefs Andy and Mikey just keep sending plates out. Here's our first course.

Steve's Lunch - Cleveland, Ohio
Old-school Cleveland lunch counter with top-notch chili dogs.

Alder - New York, NY
wd-50's more casual sibling, it's made its way into our must-visit New York restaurants. Below: foie gras and watermelon on Ritz crackers.

Neptune Oyster - Boston, Massachusetts
One of our hardest decisions when eating here is whether to have the lobster roll dressed with butter or mayo. Butter won out:

Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen - Memphis, Tennessee
It's hard to beat a seven-course meal from the guys who also run Hog & Hominy. Pastas are as good as anywhere:

Logo & Website Design - Zeal Restaurant, Atlanta, GA

We recently designed the logo & website, and shot the food for the newly-opened Zeal restaurant in Atlanta:

Website Design - Heirloom Kitchen, Old Bridge, NJ

We just launched the website for Heirloom Kitchen - check it out:

Mahall's - Cleveland, Ohio

Whenever possible, stop in for a drink at Midwestern bowling alleys. You might come across stuff like this:

Federal Donuts - Philadelphia, PA

Why don't we see this combo more often - fried chicken and donuts? We have a new can't-miss when in Philadelphia. 

 

 

San Antonio Food Signage

We recently spotted some nice food-related artwork in San Antonio:

 

 

Eating In Portland

Jeff recently spoke at Typecon in Portland about vintage record label design:

We spent the rest of our time eating. A few of the highlights:

Blueberry, bourbon & basil doughnut from Blue Star:

Cocktails at Gruner:

Carbonara pasta at Grassa:

Drinks at Clyde Common at The Ace Hotel:

Oysters at Woodsman Tavern:

Wings at Pok Pok:

Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium 2013 - Oxford, MS

Just a few of the fantastic things we ate at this year's SFA Symposium...

The Friday night catfish fry at Taylor Grocery, in Taylor, MS:

A meal from Asha Gomez blending Southern India with the American South:

A big skillet full of fried chicken from the legendary Prince's Hot Chicken:

Delaney Barbecue - New York, NY

Thanks to the good people at Delaney Barbecue for opening Smokeline, their new outpost on Mahnattan's High Line park. Top notch brisket:

October 17 - Southern C Summit

Come join us in Nashville on October 17 - we'll be talking about Green Olive's first 15 years...