Why these Arizona restaurants are the best in America, according to Bon Appétit magazine
Andi Berlin
Bon Appétit magazine just put out its list of 50 best new restaurants in the United States, and two Arizona restaurants made the cut. Bacanora in Phoenix and Bata in Tucson were named among the country's buzziest spots, held up as examples of "how thrilling restaurant culture is at this moment."
The list was put together with the help of the magazine's staff as well as a team of contributors, who would "text each other with near-maniacal glee that we’d just experienced a transcendent bagel with marshmallow fluff and warm banana tahini jam ...," wrote Restaurant Editor Elazar Sontag in the introduction.
Bacanora is back in the national spotlight
Rene Andrade's genre-bending Sonoran restaurant Bacanora, which opened spring 2021, has been in the national spotlight after it was named a James Beard Award finalist.
It also made "Esquire" magazine's America's 40 best new restaurants last November, and I gave the restaurant a rare 5 star review in "The Arizona Republic" this March, for the way the intimate Grand Avenue space is changing the country's perceptions of Northern Mexican cuisine.
A new Tucson restaurant also made the cut
Bata is the highly awaited gourmet concept from the owners of Reilly Craft Pizza & Drink, a popular Italian restaurant built into an old funeral home in downtown Tucson. (If you go, you absolutely must get the Brussels sprouts.)
For Bata, siblings and co-owners Tyler, Courtney and Zach Fenton have created a restaurant that's both vegetable forward and features live fire cooking similar to a Japanese robata grill.
I haven't managed to get down there to try it yet, but the Bon Appetit piece called it out for its "expansive, minimalist industrial space" and an "à la carte menu feels like one for a true food nerd." A dish of note? "A flaky malawach flatbread might come with a smoked carrot butter, cured egg yolk, and labneh dip."
The restaurants are broken up into regions, with other notable restaurants from the West including Good Good Culture Club in San Francisco, Yangban Society in Los Angeles and La Diabla Pozole y Mezcal in Denver.
Here's my list:The 5 best new restaurants in metro Phoenix of 2022 — so far
Reach reporter Andi Berlin at amberlin@azcentral.com. Follow her on Facebook @andiberlin, Instagram @andiberlin or Twitter @andiberlin.