Oh, the majesty of spring — the fields and farms are popping off, and the weather, in much of the country, shifts from frigid to brisk. Maybe you start craving the best of spring’s produce bounty; maybe you want to explore flavors from East Africa; or maybe you want to experience how far a kitchen can push the heritage ingredients of New England. Your spring dining roadmap is ready for you.
Chez Panisse, Berkeley, California
Glazed turnips, roasted spring onions, huckleberry ice cream and Meyer lemons everywhere — spring at the country’s most famous farm-to-table restaurant means the greenest, brightest ingredients will be all over the venue’s two menus. Dine upstairs for a casual à la carte experience for lunch or dinner, or book downstairs for an elegant dinner of three or four sublime courses.
Suerte, Austin
Austin loves Suerte like Suerte love Mexico. The restaurant just celebrated its seventh anniversary, and it is difficult to imagine a time before Suerte existed in Texas’ capital. Masa, that dough central to Mexico cooking, is everywhere on the menu. Duck flautas in mole negro; mushroom-and-white bean tlayuda; smoked beef cheek tostada. The cocktails, like the Rosa Peligrosa with mezcal, smoked rhubarb, dry vermouth and hibiscus, celebrate Mexican spirits.
Smithereens, New York City
A freewheeling interpretation of New England cooking, Smithereens stars the sea in many guises. The centerpiece of the restaurant’s martini is seaweed gin, abalone is skewered and served with shiitake mushrooms, and for dessert, seaweed is candied and plated with licorice and citron. In the wrong hands, these flavor combinations implode. Here, the seas sing.
Danbi, Los Angeles
The cooking at Danbi totters “thrillingly between tradition and innovation,” said Los Angeles Times‘ restaurant critic Bill Addison. Imagine red snapper crudo with pear jam and kosho vinaigrette, bibimbap where the protagonist is uni and honey-butter potato chips made on-site. You have already envisioned Danbi into existence.
34 Restaurant & Bar, New Orleans
After decades opening restaurants, Emeril Lagasse has debuted a place that is anchored to his heritage, Portuguese food. The menu at 34 Restaurant & Bar dances across the Iberian peninsula, so there is Spanish pan con tomate and paella with shrimp and rabbit. Still, most of the menu has its roots in Portugal, with bacalhau (salt cod), piri piri chicken and pork and clams with vegetable pickle.
Baobab Fare, Detroit
The slogan: “From Burundi to Detroit.” The mission: Bring East African cuisine to the Motor City. Stew beef with tomatoes and serve with fried ripe plantains and spinach long-cooked with peanuts. Fry fish and serve with zippy sautéed onions and you have met samaki. Baobab Fare’s fans are legion, and the restaurant has “launched a spinoff product line, food truck and a forthcoming second location is planned soon,” Resy said. “Baobab has become the quintessential Detroit success story.”
Maurice, Portland, Oregon
Counter seating is both casual and a commitment because you often are in proximity to the action. At Kristen D. Murray’s homage to Norwegian and French cooking, there are tables, yes, but the counter is where the staff-to-diner magic happens. You feel as though that bottle of Weingut riesling was only ever yours, and those razor clams with seaweed butter and that Meyer lemon soufflé pudding cake were made strictly for you. In truth, they kind of were.
Ceibo, Washington, D.C.
Ceibo is a wide-ranging consideration of South American food, with an emphasis on Uruguay. The fainá is a fancified chickpea-flour flatbread loaded with lobster mushrooms and pesto. The national Uruguayan dessert of cheese and quince paste, Martín Fierro, is transmogrified into a tartlet lacquered with quince, filled with cheese mouse and showered with pecorino Sardo.