this year’s “Best New Restaurants” rankings (page 50), the latest crop of newcomers is the strongest in recent memory — certainly since the of the pandemic. “There’s a new frugality that I feel has helped with people’s creativity,” Kessler says. “A lot of these places offer stripped-down menus. They’re not trying to do everything. They have like 10 items, but make them really well. They’re cooking the food they want to cook.”
