Foodie News
Haven gets national nod as one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants
Many are deserving, but few make the list.
Esquire's restaurant coverage is probably as highly regarded as any magazine without the word "food" (or "appetit") in the title, and correspondent John Mariani's opinions and dining habits have inspired controversy, but everyone tunes in to see who he crowns in his annual Best New Restaurants list.
This year's version was released on Monday and features a Houston hotspot — Randy Evans' Haven.
"I got a call from John about a month and a half ago, asking for photographs and a recipe," says Evans, who talked to CultureMap from New York, where he's attending the Esquire Awards at SD26.
"It's like one Sunday we are getting the My Table Award [for Best New Restaurant] and the next one it's this. It's a year of hard work paying off."
Evans said Mariani visited Haven in April after attending a special event at Tony's, and that one thing stood out for the traveled writer.
"He really liked the music," Evans said, noting Haven's mix of Texas singer-songwriters.
Evans hasn't seen the full write up yet (Eater has a list of the 20 restaurants from across the country that made the list, including New York's ABC Kitchen as Restaurant of the Year and Dallas' Samar by Stephen Pyles), but that "being in there is enough for me."
"Those are some heavy hitters, I mean, Jean Georges [Vongerichten] ... that's huge. Any time you're on a list with those guys, you're doing something good," says Evans.
Randy, we can't help but agree.