Lists

Spruce, Bix, Dining Room at the Ritz All Dropped from the Chron Top 100

Photo: Chronicle

Whenever we’re tempted to believe that the Chronicle’s Top 100 isn’t such an influential canon of Bay Area dining anymore, we think back to an overheard quote from a child to his mother, published in Leah Garchik’s column (albeit in the Chron) just last year: “It’s been a tough day. Could we go to one of the Top 100 restaurants with a one-bell rating?” Michael Bauer’s annual spring revision of this best-of list is certainly an event on par with the release of Michelin Guide updates around here — and for many who’ve been reading Bauer reviews for a couple of decades, it probably carries more weight. And so, being the dutiful chroniclers of the local food scene that we are, we ran out to buy our physical, inky copy of the paper this morning, knowing that the new list will be (sadly) embargoed online through Tuesday.

Mr. Bauer had to make a lot of tough choices this year to make room for the 26 newcomers and new promotions that he announced on Thursday. As he writes in his intro to the list, “2010 should go down as the most exciting year of Bay Area dining in more than a quarter century,” in other words his entire tenure at the Chronicle, which means that “some very deserving restaurants had to go” off of the list. Among the not-so surprising cuts from the 2011 list are Spruce, which is undergoing some changes in the kitchen that Bauer uses as an easy excuse to open up a slot for someplace new; The Dining Room at Ritz, which we knew wasn’t going to make it after an egregious update review that is still making publicists wince with sympathy and titter with schadenfreude; Beretta and Tipsy Pig, which were never all that amazing food-wise, and likely only made it on in the first place for their cocktails and lively scene; and Flora, which has had the unique pleasure of having two Bauer updates this year, both of them bad.

Among the more surprising cuts are Etoile at Domaine Chandon, which only last year saw its young chef Perry Hoffman cooed over by the Chron as a Rising Star; Wexler’s, for the same reason with chef Charlie Kleinman’s 2010 accolades; Wood Tavern in Oakland, which as far as we’ve seen is still serving solid food, and which hasn’t received a Bauer update since they opened to three stars in 2007; Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant in Forestville, which has a Michelin star; and longtime mainstay on this list Bix, which Bauer probably shed some tears over before letting go, Sophie’s Choice-style.

Since we already knew the new additions, we begin below with some Harper’s-style indexing on the changed list, and then with all of the players cut from this season’s team. Further below, the full 2011 Top 100 Restaurants.

New San Francisco restaurants that opened in 2010 named to the list: 13

Number of restaurants outside of S.F. proper added or promoted: 8

Number of restaurants outside of S.F. proper dropped from the list this year:
10

Restaurants that appeared on older Top 100 lists that were re-promoted after being demoted: 6 (À Côté, Bistro Aix, Farallon, Fifth Floor, Gitane, Ubuntu)

Number of restaurants that were cut because they closed since April 2010: 0

Number of sister restaurants that are sharing spots on the list in order to make room for others: 5 (Chez Panisse/Chez Panisse Café, Barbacco/Perbacco, Boot & Shoe Service/Pizzaiolo, Picco/Pizzeria Picco, Terra/Bar Terra)

All the restaurants cut in 2011:

Beretta
Bix
Café La Haye, Sonoma
Chez Papa Resto
Chow (and Park Chow, etc)
Etoile, Yountville
Farmhouse Inn & Restaurant, Forestville
Firefly
Flora
Frascati
Hog Island Oyster Co.
Limon
Madrona Manor, Healdsburg
Murray Circle, Sausalito
Neela’s
Nombe
Press, St. Helena
Spruce
The Dining Room at the Ritz
Tipsy Pig
Vik’s Chaat Corner
Wexler’s
Wood Tavern
Yoshi’s San Francisco

The complete new Top 100:

A16
À Côté
Absinthe
Acquerello
Ad Hoc
Adesso
Amber India
Ame
Angele
Aziza
Baker & Banker
Bar Agricole
Bar Jules
Benu
Betelnut
Bistro Aix
Bistro Don Giovanni
Bocadillos
Bottega
Bouchon
Boulevard
Bourbon Steak
Camino
Canteen
Chapeau
Chez Panisse/Café
Coco500
Coi
Commonwealth
Corso Trattoria
Cotogna
Cyrus
Delfina
Dopo
Dosa
Farallon
Fifth Floor
Flour + Water
Foreign Cinema
Frances
French Laundry
Gary Danko
Gialina
Gitane
Greens
House of Prime Rib
Incanto
Ippuku
Jardiniere
Kaygetsu
Koi Palace
La Folie
Mamacita
Manresa
Marlowe
Masa’s
Michael Mina
Mission Chinese Food
Morimoto
Nopa
Nopalito
O Chame
Oenotri
One Market
Osteria Stellina
Perbacco/Barbacco
Pesce
Picco/Pizzeria Picco
Piperade
Pizzaiolo/Boot & Shoe
Plum
Poggio
Prospect
Quince
Range
Redd
The Restaurant at Meadowood
Ristobar
Rivoli
Rosso Pizzeria & Wine Bar
RN74
Saison
Sante
Scopa
Slanted Door
Solbar
SPQR
Station 1
Sushi Ran
Swan Oyster Depot
Terra/Bar Terra
Town Hall
Ubuntu
Va de Vi
Waterbar
Willi’s Wine Bar
Yank Sing
Zarzuela
Zero Zero
Zuni Café


The Top 100 Restaurants [Chron - embargoed ‘til Tuesday]
Related: Saison, Mission Chinese, Zero Zero All Added to the Chron Top 100; Commis, Not So Much [Grub Street]
Earlier: Aqua, Gitane, and Ubuntu Drop Off Chron’s Top 100; Adesso, Frances, and Nombe Join the List [Grub Street - 2010]

Spruce, Bix, Dining Room at the Ritz All Dropped from the Chron Top 100