The Best Places in the United States

The bagels here are kettle-boiled and hand-rolled, and the owner once won New York's Bagelfest twice, which is its own kind of declaration. This is a counter-order bagel shop with a line out the door and spreads that work for both the plain-schmear traditionalist and whoever orders the avocado toast-but-make-it-a-bagel sandwich. A James Beard nominee two years running, and on Eater's Dallas essentials list. Get there early, or just accept the wait.

The 130 rooms here are bungalows scattered among heritage oaks, stained the same quiet brown so they nearly disappear into the hillside. This Forbes Five Star resort sits deep in Sonoma wine country, with vineyard views from two pools, an archery range, a yoga lawn, and an 11-treatment-room spa that will absolutely derail your itinerary. The terrace at the bar, with Mount St. Helena on the horizon and a local pour in hand, makes a compelling case for doing nothing at all.

A Guy Dill bronze anchors a circular marble lobby that feels less like a hotel check-in and more like a museum atrium you can sleep in. This Four Seasons occupies the top floors of a 48-story FiDi tower, which means guest rooms start at the 37th floor and the Golden Gate sits framed in the distance on clear days. The Ferry Building is a short walk; hoodies, perhaps not the move here. The Michelin Guide awarded it 2 Keys.

The rooftop pool is reserved strictly for guests, which is not a given in Los Angeles. L'Ermitage Beverly Hills is an independent boutique hotel with just over a hundred suites, and the whole operation is built around that number staying small. Staff learn names and preferences fast, the balconies overlook a quiet, tree-lined street, and the people checking in tend to prefer that nobody knows they're there. It holds a Michelin 2 Keys and a Forbes Four Star.

The grand lobby is all white marble, cherry blossom wall panels, and a sculptural fixture hanging in a 26-foot vaulted ceiling, a deliberate exhale from the massive LED tower blazing outside. Crockfords is a Forbes Four Star luxury hotel tucked inside Resorts World, and the contrast is the whole point. Rooms extend to villas and palaces, a dedicated ambassador is on call around the clock, and the casino, restaurants, and theater are right there when the calm wears off.

A cocktail bar tucked above a Local Foods in Rice Village, Lee's has a retro speakeasy feel and a menu serious enough to back up the vibe. The drinks lean bitter, briny, and bracingly complex, and a separate mini-cocktail list exists for when you just want a taste. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar and on Bon Appétit's best new bars list, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the menu before ordering.

Ski-in/ski-out from Empire Pass, with staff who will warm your boots and help you buckle them if you ask, which sets the tone for the whole operation. Montage Deer Valley is a full-scale mountain resort with craftsman-style rooms, a spa with indoor and outdoor pools, and year-round access to hiking, biking, and fly-fishing when the snow melts. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

A single, gigantic pancake made with locally ground cornmeal, mochi rice, and farmers' market fruit tells you most of what you need to know about this all-day cafe in Alhambra. The chef puts that same deliberate care into dinner, where a feast builds easily alongside sake and a wine list that somehow doesn't look like every other restaurant's wine list. Named to the New York Times' 25 best LA restaurants and a James Beard semifinalist.

Mediterranean villa architecture on the sand in Sunny Isles, roughly halfway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, which puts it closer to the water and further from the chaos than most South Beach options. This Forbes Five Star resort leans into the European feel with terraces, ocean views, and rooms large enough to include a full sitting room and an oversized soaking tub. Red lounge chairs dot the beach, and a separate family pool means the adults-only stretch stays that way.

Elliott Bay views stop conversations mid-sentence here, and the Bay Rooms are built around that fact, with floor-to-ceiling windows and marble soaking tubs positioned accordingly. This downtown Four Seasons sits steps from the Seattle Art Museum, with a 40-foot rooftop infinity pool and a coffee concierge who shows up at your door between six and ten. A Forbes Four Star hotel that takes the Pacific Northwest aesthetic seriously, pale woods and all.

A contemporary Japanese tasting menu restaurant on the Mississippi Gulf Coast sounds like a typo, but Ocean Springs has quietly harbored serious cooking for years. Vestige runs through glimmering plates of bafun uni and koji with the care of somewhere twice the size of this quaint dining room. Modern art on the walls, generously spaced tables, and staff who never make the elaborate feel intimidating. A James Beard Nominee for Outstanding Restaurant.

The 101-story tower was designed by Jeanne Gang, making it the tallest building by a female architect, which is the kind of fact that gets dropped at every rooftop cocktail hour. This St. Regis hotel sits along the Chicago River in quiet Lakeshore East, with Lake Michigan views and a wellness floor running spa, pool, and gym. Millennium Park is a short walk; a small private park sits right behind the building for when you'd rather not walk anywhere at all.

The signature scent is Southern magnolia, pumped through the lobby before you even spot the flowers. This Forbes Four Star hotel occupies a Beaux Arts building that spent its previous life as a department store, and the bones show in the best way: grand marble, a lush courtyard with a fountain, and guest rooms that feel lifted from a proper New Orleans mansion. Canal Street is right outside when you need it, and the jazz lounge is right inside when you don't.

Bay windows framing the Mississippi River are a good place to start with The Windsor Court, a Forbes Four Star hotel that plants a bit of English countryside inside New Orleans' business district. The 316 rooms run sky-blue and cream, with traditional furnishings that somehow don't feel stiff. A full-service spa, pool, and The Grill Room round it out, the last one drawing the kind of crowd that actually made a reservation.

The view from the upper floors puts the White House close enough to make you feel briefly important. This Italian Renaissance hotel on Lafayette Square has been the discreet address of choice for presidents, diplomats, and people who prefer their name not in the papers, and it carries that old-world air without letting the plumbing get old-world too. Holds a Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

Homemade tofu and rotating banchan are the whole point here, a Korean banchan shop in Emeryville where the menu moves with the seasons in a way most restaurants only claim to. Persimmon kimchi in fall, sweet corn swirled with tofu in summer, snap peas and artichoke when spring shows up. Steve Joo, a Food & Wine Best New Chef, started with tofu and has built something genuinely singular around it. The fried dooboo set is the move.

Perched on Lady Bird Lake with the Congress Avenue Bridge just visible from the grounds, this Forbes Four Star hotel manages the rare trick of sitting in downtown Austin without feeling like it. A recent renovation refreshed the rooms and brought in a new restaurant and bar, both leaning into Texas-meets-Latin cooking. Visiting musicians and celebrities have long made it a preferred bolthole, which tells you something about the noise level in the lobby.

The floor-to-ceiling windows in the guest rooms frame Inner Harbor views that do most of the decorating for you. This Forbes Four Star hotel is a waterfront glass tower with a lobby art collection serious enough to slow you down before check-in. The fourth floor holds a 10,000-square-foot spa and the city's only waterfront infinity pool, which is the kind of amenity that makes it hard to remember there's a city outside.

A Long Beach panadería where the pastries draw on Mexican and Indigenous baking traditions, Gusto Bread makes a kouign-amann with nixtamalized corn folded into sourdough dough, which tells you everything about how the team approaches the classics. Conchas, multigrain loaves, and seasonal pastries round out the case. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Bakery, it draws visitors from well outside the neighborhood who planned their morning around it.

Cushioned chairs and walls hung with paintings and photographs give this South Loop seafood spot the feel of a 1930s Hollywood supper club, which is either kitsch or genius depending on your mood. The kitchen keeps things tighter than the decor suggests, letting quality ingredients carry seafood dishes with global influences. The Michelin Guide has it listed, and Artful Living named it one of the five most stylish restaurants in the country.

A tasting menu restaurant from Andrew Black, who took home the James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. The room reads swank, the menu shifts with the season, and the cocktails are the kind of thing where "oxtail fat-washed rye" appears on the list without irony. Oklahoma City has more going on than people assume, and this place is a fair part of why.

The Canlis salad gets made tableside, which tells you exactly the kind of place this is: old-school fine dining with a capital F, perched on a cliff above Lake Union with views that earn their keep. A five-course prix fixe leans into Northwest ingredients with a quiet nod to the restaurant's Hawaiian roots. Food & Wine named it among the top US restaurants in 2025, and the wine program has a hall of fame plaque to its name.

The wine list has a dedicated section for aged Madeira, which tells you something about the seriousness of the operation. This moody Poncey-Highland wine bar holds a Michelin selection and landed on Bon Appétit's best new bars list, but the kitchen pulls its own weight with snacks, shareable plates, and evening mains that feel seasonal without being precious. A James Beard semifinalist for Best New Bar, it draws the kind of crowd that actually reads the back label.

The cheeseburger on a housemade English muffin has become something of a Houston landmark, but at this EaDo bistro the menu makes every decision feel equally consequential. Nancy's Hustle holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand and a James Beard semifinalist nod, and the cooking is seasonal and bold without being precious about it. The room stays packed and loud most nights, which somehow only adds to the fun.

Kin is a tasting-menu restaurant where dinner is served at a communal table, so you'll be making small talk with strangers between courses, whether or not you came for that. The menu changes monthly and leans on Idaho ingredients. The chef won a James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mountain, the first Idaho chef to do it. The bar next door does cocktails and shareable bites for people not ready to commit to a whole evening.

A butler, a bottle of champagne, and a ceremonial saber await at this grand hotel two blocks from the White House, where the nightly sabering ritual sets the tone. The coffered ceilings and Palladian windows date to an opening presided over by Coolidge, and the corner of 16th and K has been D.C.'s definitive power address ever since. A Forbes Four Star property, and the kind of place foreign dignitaries treat as a given.

The marble lobby and English motor court set the tone for this full-service Gold Coast luxury hotel before you've even checked in. Art Deco bones, fireplaces in the guest rooms, white marble baths, and only ten rooms per floor mean it never feels like a convention block. Staff famously decline tips, which either says something about the service culture or about Chicago. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

Frank Gehry designed the building, and the tenth-floor lobby faces his Walt Disney Concert Hall across the street, so the views start before you check in. This luxury hotel in Downtown L.A. holds a Forbes Four Star and runs like an urban resort: rooftop infinity pool, a spa, a public art collection, and two José Andrés restaurants on site. Rooms lean mid-century modern with marble bathrooms and enough tech to feel like a spaceship.

The carts still roll here, which is the whole point. Yank Sing is a dim sum shop in the Financial District that holds to the old push-cart service at a time when most places gave it up. Staff wear headsets and radio the kitchen when something you want hasn't come around yet, a detail that somehow makes it feel both retro and efficient. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand. Expect a wait at peak hours.

A 13-story Sol LeWitt mural dominates the atrium lobby, bouncing blue and purple across a cable-and-aluminum sculpture, which is quite the check-in distraction. This all-suite hotel in Battery Park City sits closer to Wall Street than to anything edgy, but the rooftop lounge on the 16th floor, with Hudson River and Statue of Liberty views, softens the corporate geometry considerably. Forbes Four Star.

Two marble counters run the length of the kitchen, fronted by mounds of ice holding oysters, clams, and Champagne in roughly equal proportion. Penny is an all-bar seafood restaurant above Claud in the East Village, and the whole point is watching things get shucked, sliced, and dressed in front of you. It landed on North America's 50 Best Restaurants list. Most seats are walk-in, so arrive before doors open if you'd like one.

Swordfish schnitzel doesn't show up on many Southern seafood menus, but Dean Neff, a James Beard Outstanding Chef nominee, has that kind of restless disposition. Seabird is a full-service seafood restaurant on the Wilmington waterfront, nautical in feel without leaning on the clichés, serving dinner and weekend brunch. The catfish and grits crowd and the caviar deviled eggs crowd somehow occupy the same room, and neither seems bothered by the other.

A cannon hangs above the bar, which should tell you everything about how Smuggler's Cove calibrates its energy. This tiki bar on Gough is a three-floor rum fever dream of dangling puffer fish, skull-lined crates, rigging, and a salvaged Trader Vic's Boathouse sign hiding in the basement. The menu runs deep into obscure Caribbean and Pacific spirits, and the bartenders know the material cold. A James Beard Outstanding Bar nominee.

Twelve seats, one seating, and roughly ten courses tracing the Philippines' complicated history with the Pacific Northwest. This intimate tasting room in South Seattle builds menus around heirloom grains, fermented local produce, and house-rolled miki noodles while serving up genuine cultural context alongside every plate. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Chef, the chef here makes the backstory feel inseparable from the food, which is a harder trick than it sounds.

The quinoa-chickpea-walnut burger that made Brooks Headley famous is still on the menu at this vegetarian burger shop in the East Village, now in a bigger room with vintage diner bones. Nothing here pretends to be meat, which turns out to be the whole point. The Michelin Bib Gourmand and a New York Times top-100 spot follow naturally from cooking that treats bold seasoning and smart texture as the actual job. Save room for dessert; Headley came up as a pastry chef.

Cleaver is a steakhouse just off the Strip where the portraits are Napoleonic-era military figures, except the generals are Queen Latifah and Jack Black. The bar's cocktail menu is sorted by era, starting in the mid-1800s, and the bar team took a Spirited Award in 2024 for Best U.S. Restaurant Bar. Expect big groups, big appetites, and a mac and cheese with pork belly in it.

Green chile-jack croissants and elote danishes filled with roasted corn and crema make clear what kind of bakery this is: one that bakes from the region, not the Pinterest board. The Burque Bakehouse is a neighborhood artisan bakery with a farmers-market past and a regular line of locals who apparently have good morning routines. It earned a James Beard Outstanding Bakery nomination in 2024 and a semifinalist nod in 2026.

Skillet cornbread arrives with a steak knife and honey butter, which tells you most of what you need to know about Erick Williams's Southern restaurant in Hyde Park. The dining room is warm and unhurried, the kind of place the university crowd treats as a standing Thursday plan. Williams holds two James Beard Awards, and the Michelin Guide gives it a Bib Gourmand. The cooking is rooted and serious without ever feeling like a lecture.

The brick-and-skylight nave of a former bakery on La Brea sets the stage for one of those all-day operations that actually pulls off both halves. Mornings belong to the pastry counter, where the team's James Beard Award-winning work draws lines before the doors open. By evening the open kitchen is running a Southern European Mediterranean menu for a full dining room that never quite empties.

Floor-to-ceiling windows in the library look out over Chicago Avenue, which sets the tone for a hotel that frames the city as part of the decor. It sits on the Magnificent Mile in the Gold Coast, and the rooms and public spaces carry the cool, contemporary feel of a recent top-to-bottom renovation. The art collection leans Chicago, the staff leans warm, and the whole thing earns its Forbes Four Star without ever seeming to try.

Wooden apples sit in every guest room, a nod to Blue Duck Tavern's famous pie downstairs, which tells you this hotel has its own personality. The Park Hyatt Washington sits quietly in the West End, with Tony Chi's neutral, minimalist interiors making 220 rooms feel closer to a private residence than a convention block. Forbes Four Star. A Tea Cellar stocked with global varietals keeps things interesting between monuments.

The salmon-pink Champagne lounge and the sky-blue rooftop bar tell you everything about this hotel's register before you even check in. Sitting right on Marion Square in the heart of Charleston, Hotel Bennett is a new build that wears its Southern elegance without apology, from the mural-lined rotunda to rooms so soft they feel like sleeping inside a cloud. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key round out the credentials.

Pine trees and a three-acre lake frame this Forbes Five Star hotel in Cary, close enough to RDU that a delayed flight barely stings. The Umstead is the kind of full-service resort that earns a weekend on its own terms, with a spa, an upscale restaurant, and hiking trails threading through an adjacent nature park. The crowd tends toward quiet money rather than loud occasion.

Formica tabletops and vinyl chairs set the scene at this Garden District breakfast spot, which serves nothing but breakfast and takes that mandate seriously. The menu runs from yogurt and granola to loaded grits, biscuits and gravy, and a riff on the fast-food McMuffin with sage sausage and gooey American cheese. A James Beard semifinalist that manages to feel nothing like one, in the best way.

Kwame Onwuachi named this pan-African Caribbean restaurant after his older sister, and it carries that kind of personal weight through every dish. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrap the dining room inside Lincoln Center, the kitchen is open, and the playlist runs hip-hop while oxtail arrives in a pot big enough to make a scene. It's fine dining without the hush. North America's 50 Best Restaurants lists it among its top 40.

A ten-acre Italianate estate in the middle of Austin, which is either an absurd premise or a great one depending on how you feel about Ken Fulk's maximalist touch. The mansion, satellite buildings, and formal gardens have been folded into an Auberge Collection hotel without scrubbing any of the old glamour out. The oval pool sits among manicured hedges, and the whole place operates like a country house that simply refuses to acknowledge the city outside. A Forbes Four Star and two Michelin Keys.

This is a French fine dining room on the 11th floor of a half-size Eiffel Tower, which means you eat duck confit while the Bellagio fountains do their thing below. Window tables face The Strip, and the staff has seen enough dessert proposals that a ring on a plate barely registers as news. Dress like you're being photographed, because you will be. AAA gives it Four Diamonds, and the bar handles the cheaper, quicker version.

The beef pho kolache alone explains why this Cambodian-influenced bakery and coffee shop landed on the New York Times' list of best bakeries in the country. Chef Vanarin Kuch, a Top Chef alum and James Beard Outstanding Bakery semifinalist, builds a menu where Southeast Asian flavors drift easily into French, Mexican, and Brazilian territory. The Salty Cambodian latte, finished with condensed milk and sourdough butter, has regulars skipping the cortado for good.

Four private floors tucked inside the Fairmont Austin, the Gold Experience is essentially a hotel-within-a-hotel, with its own reception desk, its own lounge, and a quieter remove from the rest of the building's thousand-plus rooms. Guests still get access to the wood-fired Garrison and the other restaurants below. A Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star suggest the upgrade is not purely theoretical. Downtown Austin sits just outside.

The butcher case up front, stocked with antelope salami and wild boar terrine, gives you a fair warning about what kind of restaurant this is. Dai Due is a supper club-style Texan spot where nearly everything on the plate, from the meat to the olive oil, comes from within state lines. The chef takes that constraint as a creative challenge rather than a marketing line, and the results run pleasantly strange. The Michelin Guide awards it a Bib Gourmand.

Reservations are required on weekends, which tells you something about how seriously Tulsa takes this farm-to-table restaurant. The chef behind it is a James Beard Outstanding Chef nominee who left the West Coast to actually farm before pivoting to feeding the city. Multicourse tasting menus anchor the weekends, while Wednesday and Thursday open things up to a la carte. Tuesday is burgers and Barbera, which is either brilliant or a fever dream, and possibly both.

White tablecloths and cream walls give Crevette the look of a classic European brasserie, but the cooking runs along the coasts of Spain and France with enough color to make you forget Manhattan is outside. This is a proper seafood restaurant, lively and full, with the bar pulling its own crowd. The team behind Lord's and Dame keeps the room humming and the martini list pointed.

Princess Diana in Eagles gear hangs on the wall, a neon sign says "Never Grow Up," and somehow the kitchen is turning out steak au poivre and egg sandwiches that New York Times critics put on their Philadelphia shortlist. This all-day café runs from thick malted pancakes in the morning through hoagies built with fine-dining precision at lunch, into a full dinner menu at night. Whimsy is the decor; the cooking means it.

A library with working fireplaces sits at the heart of this alpine resort, which puts it squarely between the gondola and lift at the base of Aspen Mountain. The 179 rooms lean into dark woods and leather club chairs, and the St. Regis butler service means someone is quietly attending to details you hadn't thought to request. The kind of crowd that plans a ski trip the way others plan a wedding fills the place all season.

The hotel occupies the upper floors of Mandalay Bay without sharing its casino floor, which is the whole point. Rooms run to desert-toned calm and Strip views; the private pool stays mercifully quiet by Vegas standards. Veranda handles California-brasserie duties, PRESS pours the cocktails, and the spa holds a Forbes Five Star. A Michelin Key and Forbes Four Star for the hotel itself.

One seating a night, about twenty guests, and chef Ling Qi Wu cooking in front of you: that's the whole deal at this dinner party-style Chinese tasting menu tucked into a strip mall on Research Blvd. Dumplings arrive shaped like animals with fillings like steamed lobster and crawfish with XO sauce, and duck with foie gras and caviar shows up alongside a bao bun with a cutout in it, somehow both silly and serious. The Michelin Guide has it listed.

Soup dumplings, made by hand, are the reason to find this Chinatown storefront, which has been a Philadelphia institution for long enough that regulars still refer to the old address. It's a casual Chinese restaurant with a broader menu than the xiao long bao headline suggests, running through stir-fries, noodles, and a full roster of house-made dumplings. The newer space added a bar and private dining room, but the vibe stayed mercifully unfussy.

The chef spent a decade deep in ramen research on Reddit before opening this tiny Logan Square shop, and the menu reflects that obsessive focus: four ramens, a monthly rotating special, and nothing else. Everything, noodles through broth through tare, is made from scratch. Reservations drop and vanish within hours, which is its own kind of endorsement. Bon Appétit named it one of America's best new restaurants in 2024.

Rooms here start at 500 square feet, which in downtown Denver is its own kind of statement. The Ritz-Carlton is a full-service luxury hotel dressed in navy, cream, and dark wood, with Frette robes, deep soaking tubs, and rainforest showers doing the heavy lifting. Elway's steakhouse runs from breakfast through dinner on the ground floor. The Forbes Four Star property draws suits on weekdays and the charity-gala crowd on weekends, with staff sharp enough to handle both without missing a beat.

Kelly Wearstler designed every inch of this 32-story hotel in the Second Street District, and it shows, in the best way and the slightly self-conscious one. Where most Austin hotels lean into their scuffed boots, the Proper is unapologetically urban, with locally inflected decor that never lets you forget someone very stylish made every decision. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key back up the polish. Dining and cocktails keep it lively well past checkout hour.

A barely-there sign on Beacon Hill marks this casual Guamanian restaurant and bar, which is either accidental humility or the universe's way of filtering out TikTokers (it has not worked). The menu follows the chef's biography through Filipino chicken adobo tacos and Guam-style corn soup, but the achiote-orange empanadas, stuffed with raisined beef and served in a pool of fina'denne', are what drew a James Beard semifinalist nod in 2025.

The Patterson House is a cocktail bar that moved up to the top of a Gulch building and traded its old library-and-cigars gloom for a sweeping room hung with deep purple curtains. After dark they pull the drapes back to show the city lights, which suits a Manhattan fine. The food menu is big enough now that the pork chop might be your whole date night, not a warm-up for dinner.

The color-splashed facade in Wynwood is hard to miss, and the line of regulars out front means you won't either. This all-day kosher bakery and cafe runs on naturally leavened breads and pastries, with sandwiches, soups, and salads filling out the menu. The seasonal concha tends to disappear fast. A James Beard nominee for Outstanding Baker, Zak Stern trained on organic farms across Europe before bringing the whole project back home to Miami.

Five hundred acres of manicured Florida grounds sit at the headwaters of the Everglades, which is a strange and quietly wonderful fact about a resort this polished. The Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key, with championship golf, a Five Star spa, lakefront trails, and a celebrity chef restaurant on site. Disney is close enough to be convenient and far enough to feel optional.

The rib cap roulade sitting in a shallow queso-ish pool of Jasper Hill cheese, acidified with miso chimichurri, tells you everything about what's happening at this seasonal Colorado dining room. The chef calls the cooking "seasonal Colorado cuisine," which means Southwestern and Mexican flavors running through a menu that keeps proposing combinations you're not sure will work. They do. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Chef followed.

A wood-burning oven anchors this fast-casual Levantine cafe in Georgetown, where the line out the door reorganizes itself around whatever Michael Rafidi's team pulled from it most recently. Mornings run on pastries and shakshuka; afternoons shift to stuffed pitas and batata tots with urfa sauce. By night it flips to table service and a dinner menu. The Michelin Guide gave it a Bib Gourmand, which tracks.

A petite East Village tasting menu spot where the produce comes from local queer farmers and the recipes go straight online for anyone who wants them. Chef Telly Justice runs two menus, one vegan and one omnivore, and Sunday brings a pay-what-you-want seating that fills fast. The kitchen leans hard into seasonal vegetables either way. Food & Wine named Justice a Best New Chef in 2025.

The car lift and air pump are still there, which gives this French bakery in a former auto body shop a particular kind of credibility. The laminated pastries are serious, the canelés are delicate, and the seasonal produce finds its way into croissants and Danish that justify the line. A James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Bakery, it has also landed on The New York Times' list of the best bakeries in the country.

The line forms on Third Avenue before the door unlocks, which tells you most of what you need to know about this no-reservations Vietnamese neighborhood spot in the East Village. The baguettes for the banh mi come out of the oven fresh, and the pho runs on housemade noodles. The New York Times named the banh cuon among its favorite dishes of the year, and Michelin handed it a Bib Gourmand.

Housed in a renovated rail depot, Kimball House is a seafood restaurant and serious cocktail bar with tufted leather booths, a carved mahogany bar, and a raw bar menu running past twenty oyster varieties, complete with tasting notes so you don't have to guess. Esquire named the Kimball House martini among America's finest, which should tell you something. The kitchen runs seasonal, and dessert regularly steals the table's attention. A Michelin Selected restaurant.

The building's previous life as a massage parlor is part of the lore here, and Midnight Cowboy leans into it: press the Harry Craddock buzzer at the unmarked Sixth Street door, then slip into a dark booth for cocktails built around a mystery and spirituality theme. It's a reservation-first speakeasy, intimate by design, with a menu deep enough to require genuine deliberation. Food & Wine named it one of the top bars in the US.

A separate menu devoted entirely to Northern Thailand, with dishes that lean toward Myanmar, Laos, and South China, is the thing that separates this Thai restaurant from every other Thai restaurant in Las Vegas. The room is a casino-scale take on temple architecture, all red brick and paper lanterns, but the cooking predates the glamour by a long stretch and has never chased it. Wine Enthusiast put it in their Restaurant Hall of Fame, which tracks.

Ramen del Barrio is a counter-service ramen stall inside an Austin food court, where Mexican and Japanese cooking get blended without apology. Think carnitas tonkotsu and mole tsukemen, with paper lanterns overhead doing their best to convince you you're in Tokyo, provided you never turn around. It was a James Beard semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, which is a lot of résumé for something served in a food hall.

Barista Del Barrio is a counter-service Mexican spot on Grande Avenue where the burritos get pressed on the grill until they could pass for paninis, then arrive two to an order. The house chorizo runs heavy on red chile and sheds orange oil down your wrists, so grab extra napkins. The chef was a James Beard Semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest, which the paper-towel-and-cup-of-coffee setting politely ignores.

The Art Deco murals were under plaster for years while the restoration crew worked, which is its own kind of story. Now back on Park Avenue after a long absence, the Waldorf Astoria is a grand full-service hotel with residential-style suites, the Guerlain Spa, and a brasserie from chef Michael Anthony. The public spaces are the main event: silver corridors, soaring ceilings, and a Grand Ballroom that still knows exactly what it is.

Wahoo salami and cobia sausage are the calling card at this airy raw bar and seafood lunch spot in downtown Birmingham. The team behind the neighboring restaurant Helen runs it with the same eye for Gulf Coast ingredients and seasonality, turning a raw bar into something closer to a feast. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list, and the Michelin Guide awarded a Bib Gourmand. Come hungry enough for small plates and dessert.

The sweeping double staircase in the lobby sets the tone: this is an old-school grande dame hotel, the kind Charleston practically wrote the manual on. Rooms have been refreshed without losing their ornate classical details, and a pool with a retractable roof sits alongside a fitness center and designer shops. Forbes Four Star. It sits squarely in the historic district, within an easy walk of gardens and antebellum mansions.

A 130-foot smokestack rising from your hotel is either a red flag or a very good story, and here it's the latter. The Ritz-Carlton Georgetown occupies a converted incinerator building, red brick and black ironwork intact, tucked quietly between the C&O Canal and the Potomac. Inside it reads more loft than grand hotel, with a wood-burning fireplace in the lobby and Frette linens upstairs. A Forbes Four Star property.

The small tables at this modern New American restaurant come fitted with little drawers for your cutlery, which tells you something about how seriously things are taken here. Chef Randy Rucker runs a monthly multicourse tasting menu with a seafood lean and a French-Japanese sensibility, all from local ingredients. Counter seats face the kitchen. A James Beard semifinalist, and the floor-to-ceiling corner windows make the room feel like a decent consolation prize.

The cheese trolley alone could stop traffic, and at Gary Danko it arrives with the gravity of a state visit. This is old-school prix-fixe fine dining near Fisherman's Wharf, the kind where servers wear dark suits and the wine list requires a commitment. Three to five courses, ample choices at each turn, or hand it all to the kitchen. An AAA Five Diamond, and on Wine Enthusiast's Wine Restaurant Hall of Fame, if that helps justify the occasion.

Copper, oak, marble, and brown leather set the tone in the 297 rooms of this 21-story luxury hotel in SoBro, where the Pizzuti family's art-collecting instincts show up everywhere from the lobby to the porte cochère. Tennessee artists get prominent wall space, the rooftop pool draws a well-dressed crowd, and there's a full-service spa when Nashville catches up with you. A Forbes Four Star property.

The beach here is the widest strip of sand on the island, and the resort knows it, orienting everything around that fact. This is a Forbes Five Star, Michelin two-key property done in pistachio and rose, with a spa, multiple pools, and a beach club that quietly absorbs most of your plans. Mauro Colagreco runs the flagship restaurant, Florie's, where South Florida produce meets his Italian and Argentine instincts. Palm Beach is already the opposite of hustle.