We cover Chicago’s dining scene all year long, praising the good and admonishing the bad. But for all the stars we award, all the attention we bestow in print and online, we felt the need for a more concrete acknowledgment of the excellence we encountered during the previous year.
And so we created the Tribune Dining Awards, which honor (we hope) the restaurants and industry professionals who most impressed us in our dining and drinking travels. The 10 categories and winners below were selected, often after spirited debate, by a panel of Tribune staff members.
These are the first of what we intend to be a long line of end-of-year honors in multiple restaurant and hospitality categories. Some categories may change from year to year, but the spirit of saluting the best of the best will remain the same. We invite your feedback and your suggestions for future honorees.
— Phil Vettel, Tribune restaurant critic
The 2011 winners
Chef of the year: Anthony Martin, Tru
Restaurateur of the year: Scott Harris
“Cheap Eater” restaurant of the year: BIG & little’s
Pastry chef of the year: Patrick Fahy, Blackbird
Up-and-coming
chef of the year:
Jared Wentworth, Longman & Eagle
Beverage professional of the year: Charles Joly, The Drawing Room
Trendsetters of
the year: Matt Maroni and Phillip Foss
New restaurant
of the year:
Girl & the Goat
Classic restaurant
of the year:
Les Nomades
Neighborhood restaurant
of the year:
Nightwood
