The 32nd* Annual Restaurant Awards
Unprecedented times call for unprecedented categories. Our takeoutheavy awards celebrate the eats that got us through, and the best new spots that opened despite it all.
HERE IT IS: our most unorthodox Restaurant Awards in three decades. But while much is different, we also want to celebrate what’s the same. The big heart of the industry, its ability to push forward through tough times and the pure joy of eating out with friends and family. We raise a glass to all of you.
It was February 2020 and the judging for our 31st Annual Restaurant Awards had just concluded. Our amazing panel of judges had spent the previous 12 months scouring the city for restaurants that excited and enthralled them, revisiting the classics and re-revisiting the new rooms that were creating a buzz. And then... whomp.
Many of the restaurants we had hoped to fete were forced to close, our Restaurant Awards issue was put on indefinite hold, and B.C. and the world started the long process of first understanding and then fighting COVID-19. It was, on all accounts, a slog, and few industries suffered more ups and downs and downs—and more downs—than the restaurant sector. At the magazine, we did ultimately regroup and, through much heavy lifting, we put the 31st edition of the awards out last September, and held a virtual event. But even then, it seemed almost an exercise in nostalgia: a throwback to a time that may have been quite recent but also felt a million miles away.
Which brings us to the more optimistic outlook we’re enjoying right now. For the first time in 16 months, the industry seems genuinely hopeful that a corner has been turned and that normalcy (or, better, a new and improved normalcy like we kick around on page 42) is imminent. But for us—who are the stewards of this great tradition of celebrating the city’s restaurants— the question remained: What to do about our Restaurant Awards? It hardly seemed fair to judge the industry even in the most positive light when many of the candidates had spent the year barely keeping their head above water. But, on the other hand, to let another full year go by with no celebration also seemed unfair when so many deserved recognition for the sacrifices they undertook at every turn.
So, we hit on what follows here. We’re calling it the “32nd* Annual Restaurant Awards.” There’s only one category that has been carried over from previous years: Best New (because we thought it unfair for spots that had the courage to open during the past 16 months to have to wait another year to be lauded). For the rest of the categories, we tried to follow the trends that arose during the pandemic: they’re all takeout related, and they echo the way we were eating this past year.
A big thanks to our many Restaurant Awards judges, who volunteered their time to help us make this year’s awards a reality.