Esquire Chooses Its 20 Best New Restaurants

John Mariani tells us what to put in our mouths.

When he's not busy trading insults with Anthony Bourdain, John Mariani busies himself eating a lot of food for Esquire. The fruits of his labors can today be seen in Esquire's annual best new restaurants list, published in its latest issue. Mariani's top pick?

ABC Kitchen, which earned the designation of Restaurant of the Year. Mariani's other New York picks skewed Italian, with SD26 and Maialino representing supposedly the best of what the city has to offer (Maialino we can understand; SD26, not so much). The rest of the list -- which Eater obtained -- follows below.

Esquire's Best New Restaurants of 2010

ABC Kitchen, New York
Bibiana, Washington, DC
Bistro Niko, Atlanta
Cook & Brown, Providence
Culina, Los Angeles
Epic, Chicago
Frances, San Francisco
Gather, Berkeley, CA
Haven, Houston
Julian Serrano, Las Vegas
Kalu Asian Kitchen, Charlotte, North Carolina
Longman & Eagle, Chicago
Maialino, New York
Menton, Boston
Miller Union, Atlanta
O-Ku, Charleston, South Carolina
Red O, Los Angeles
Samar, Dallas
SD26, New York
WP24 by Wolfgang Puck, Los Angeles

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