Best Formal
It’s easy to look at Gold-winning Boulevard’s deep-pocketed owner and think, well, the pandemic was a cakewalk for them. But anyone who ordered takeout from this spot in the early days was greeted by GM JP Potters—and seen out by him too, as he walked your bags to your car himself—while acclaimed chefs Alex Chen and Roger Ma toiled away making meatballs for patrons and selling prime meat at cost. Three people, that was it. As the months clicked by, the offering from BLVD Provisions expanded (exceptional chowder, make-your-own sea bream in salt crust) and the fact that Boulevard—with its level of greatness that has dominated these awards in the past few years—was able to translate its excellence into takeout was a source of near normalcy for many. Across town, JC Poirier’s St. Lawrence, our Silver winner, took a little longer to figure out how to recreate their intricately devised meals into a takeout format, but when they did, wow. That telltale blue bag holding the multi-course extravaganza mirrored the restaurant’s renewed commitment to table d’hôte dining at the highest level. And rounding out the podium was the tour de force of Top
Table2U, an Avengers-esque grouping of CinCin, Blue Water, Elisa and Thierry that quickly became an essential service, be it for a bag of flour or a Holstein striploin, and continued delivering a wide array of perfectly executed dishes at an even wider array of price points.