The Best Places in the United States

The name is short for "saint," not "street," which tells you something about how seriously they take the bit. A tile-lined slice shop up front gives way, through an actual curtain, to a dim room with dark wood and funk on the speakers. East Coast-style pies, a tight cocktail list, and chicken Parm that earns its place on the menu. Ranked seventh on 50 Top Pizza's Slice USA list, this Magazine Street spot has done real work putting New Orleans on the pizza map.

Carlton, Oregon has about 2,000 people and one extraordinary dinner reservation to chase. Hayward is a farm-to-table restaurant whose room, all blond wood and warm earth tones, reads more Lower Manhattan than Willamette Valley wine country. The menu is short and seasonal, built around whatever's thriving nearby, which means every visit lands differently. Named a New York Times Restaurant List pick and a James Beard Best New Restaurant nominee.

The pyramidal glass skylight hovering over eight tiers of cast iron railings is the kind of thing you look up at and forget what you were doing. This Financial District boutique hotel, a Michelin Key holder, occupies an 1881 building whose atrium alone draws people who aren't even staying. Rooms have the soaring ceilings the Victorian bones promise, and the neighborhood keeps things quieter than Midtown without feeling remote.

Pearl shells in the bathrooms are not the usual Financial District flex, but the Paspaleys, an Australian pearl-harvesting family, own this 180-room luxury boutique hotel and it shows throughout. The Beaux-Arts building has been around forever, once housing the original New York Stock Exchange, and it now holds Aboriginal art, vintage family photos, and a lobby lounge stocked with coffee-table books. It holds a Michelin Key.

Each cocktail on the menu is credited to the specific bartender who created it, which is either a charming act of transparency or a very public performance review. This neighborhood cocktail bar and casual kitchen in the Heights has a wraparound patio that fills with locals who treat it like a living room. The team behind Anvil runs the place, so the drinks are taken seriously even when the vibe stays loose.

Wood-firing and smoking do most of the heavy lifting at this fine dining spot on Milwaukee's east side, where the chef draws on Southern roots, time on the line at Gramercy Tavern, and a stretch in New Orleans to shape a menu that reads rustic but cooks with real precision. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the James Beard Foundation named the chef a semifinalist. The garlic focaccia and the charred beef tartare each make a convincing case on their own.

A small-plates restaurant in Walker's Point where the chile crisp deviled eggs tend to set the tone for the rest of the meal. The menu wanders from massaman curry to duck confit agnolotti without apology, and the cocktails are craft without being a whole thing about it. A portion of each featured drink goes to a rotating charity, which covers a lot of ground between Doctors Without Borders and the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association. A James Beard semifinalist, twice over.

Grass-roofed hillside suites, creekside cabins, and cliffside rooms with views over Alexander Canyon give this Auberge resort on 4,000 acres outside Park City three genuinely different ways to sleep in the same landscape. Stone, glass, and wood are arranged to keep the mountains and canyon doing the decorating. Horseback riding, fly fishing, and heliskiing fill the days. It holds a Forbes Five Star and a Michelin Key.

A 5,000-bottle wine cellar sits beneath a modern American dining room in a residential Des Moines neighborhood, and the kitchen leans hard on an on-site garden for its produce. The chef couple behind it trained at Michelin-starred restaurants abroad before landing here, which may explain the tables booked out for months. The dessert menu runs from a $4 chocolate-fig bar to a $100 banana split, which tells you most of what you need to know about the range.

A handwritten sign on the door warns that the fried chicken takes at least 15 minutes because it comes out of the fryer to order. This West Philly Ethiopian chicken shop coats its birds in a teff-flour buttermilk batter, then finishes them in either a fiery berbere or a lemon-turmeric version the co-owner invented for her kids. Injera and doro wot round things out for the traditionalists, but the chicken is what the line is about.

The pastrami gets brined, pepper-and-coriander rubbed, and smoked before it lands on house-made rye sourdough at this Mueller BBQ shop and deli. Texas Monthly and the New York Times have both taken notice, and the James Beard committee named the team a semifinalist. Concrete floors, wooden-slat booths, and a menu that wanders happily between brisket by the pound and matzoh ball soup. No fuss about it.

A painting of Mos Def watches over the counter at this white-walled thin-crust slice shop on Larkin, where skate photos and a boombox fill out the vibe. The pizza is the main event, but the sandwiches, including a mortadella melt with cheese and pesto, have earned their own press. They bake the bread in-house now, which tells you something about how seriously the team takes the side project.

The bottle list skews Greek, which in practice means you'll be asked whether you'd like to explore natural wines from the Peloponnese before you've even taken your coat off. Krasi is a mezze and wine bar in Back Bay where the food is built for sharing and the room runs loud and convivial. The chef earned a James Beard nomination for Best Chef: Northeast, and Wine Enthusiast named it among their Forward 50. There's a cocktail bar downstairs for a nightcap.

The tandoori octopus with masala potato mash is a reasonable preview of where this modern Indian restaurant is headed. Chef Jassi Bindra, a Chopped champion, treats the menu as a place to be playful, moving from A5 wagyu skewers to quail biryani to a cocktail menu called "Drink My Dessert." The room sits in The Woodlands, polished and date-night ready, and the kitchen keeps pace with both the ambition and the occasion.

A cash-only bánh mì counter on Larkin Street that's been feeding the Tenderloin forever. The line spills out the door at lunch, and the sandwiches cost about what a latte does elsewhere in the city. The rolls shatter when you bite them, and the filling is generous enough to ask for a second napkin. Nobody lingers, so grab one and eat it on the sidewalk like everyone else. Bring small bills.

The handwritten menu changes so often it might be different by the time you finish reading it, which is either thrilling or exhausting depending on your disposition. This cozy New American restaurant in Hazel Park, helmed by chef James Rigato, runs on mismatched vintage plates, eclectic decor, a gothic wine cave, and produce largely grown by Rigato's partner. Named to USA Today's Restaurants of the Year list in 2025.

Half a mile of private Gold Coast beach sets the terms here before you've even checked in. The Beach Club is a Forbes Five Star resort where cabana-style rooms face the Atlantic, three pools compete for your afternoon, and the main restaurant pours ocean views with every meal. When the sand loses its hold, there's championship golf, pickleball, tennis, a marina, and a spa that regulars treat as a destination on its own.

White-brick walls and wrought-iron accents give this luxury hotel a European resort feel that sits a little incongruously at the foot of Camelback Mountain, which is sort of the whole point. The ownership group includes an NBA star and a country legend, and the crowd has taken note. Art Deco rooms come stocked with hand-selected books, five restaurants range from poolside to rooftop, and the spa is serious about it. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key.

This Neapolitan pizzeria in Cleveland Park has the kind of certification from Naples that sounds like it should come with a notarized stamp, and it takes the paperwork seriously. The pies come out blistered and soft, with buffalo mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, and anchovies applied without apology. It's casual and loud with families, and the chef was a James Beard semifinalist for Outstanding Chef.

Pizz'amici is a tavern-style pizza shop in West Town, where the thin, cracker-crisp crust gets charred on the bottom and cut into squares. It's a nostalgic room with a pepperoni Negroni on the menu, plus tall focaccia and sausage and peppers for the old-school completists. Tables go quickly, so plan ahead or order carryout, which is easier than winning the lottery and only slightly less crowded.

Curried goat over sweet potato gnocchi is the dish that quietly explains Nina Compton's whole project here. This Caribbean-inflected restaurant sits inside a converted coffee warehouse in the Warehouse Arts District, all exposed brick and mosaic tile, and the menu pulls together her St. Lucia roots, New Orleans flavors, and stints in Florida kitchens. The bar holds its own, and the service runs warm enough that a James Beard Outstanding Hospitality semifinalist nod makes a certain sense.

The bread comes from Amelia's next door, and at this neighborhood restaurant it earns its place at every table, not just in the basket. The menu rotates daily around Indiana farms and whatever the season demands, so regulars never quite order the same meal twice. Chef Alan Sternberg has been a James Beard semifinalist multiple times over, and the 2025 nod for Outstanding Hospitality explains the room as much as the food does.

The bones of a 19th-century brewhouse, chimney stacks and all, give this mid-sized hotel its industrial-chic personality before you even check in. It holds a Michelin 2 Keys distinction and sits inside the Pearl, a riverside stretch that has become San Antonio's most interesting neighborhood, with farmers markets, a CIA campus, and a cluster of serious restaurants all within walking distance.

The Spanish Revival facade on Ashford Avenue has been watching the Atlantic since the Vanderbilt family built it, and the foyer still delivers: ocean visible straight through the lobby the moment the grand doors open. This is a full-scale luxury hotel with three pools, a spa, beach butlers, a tanning specialist (yes, really), and rooms across the historic building and two modern towers, all facing the water. Forbes Four Star.

A 23-foot sculpted head named Laura greets you out front, which sets the tone for this Century City luxury hotel. The curved midcentury tower got a full Fairmont makeover, and the rooms now run to floor-to-ceiling windows, marble bathrooms, and balconies angled toward the LA sunset. The spa mixes deep-tissue massage with red light therapy and power naps on an anti-gravity bed, and the rooftop pool earns its views. A Forbes Four Star property.

Momo Cafe is the Japanese bakery counter tucked inside Momonoki, and it takes croissants seriously enough to offer them filled with cream, coiled into circles, or just classically layered. The menu rotates, so a savory one with onion, gruyere, and rosemary might be there or might be a memory. Matcha lattes and mochi donuts round things out. A small alcove upstairs lets you eat while watching the ramen crowd below.

The Flatirons fill the windows of this polished downtown Boulder hotel, which sits close enough to Pearl Street that you can walk to dinner and back without a car. Rooms lean toward the understated side of luxury, and the Forbes Four Star spa handles the heavy lifting with a eucalyptus steam room, sauna, and a full treatment menu. Jill's Restaurant pulls from the Boulder Farmers' Market, which is either charming or expected, depending on your tolerance for Colorado.

A small neighborhood dinner spot in Botanical Heights where the menu pivots with the seasons, pulling from French, Spanish, and Italian influences without making a fuss about it. The patio draws a crowd, the bar turns out a martini people talk about, and regulars fill seats before the specials are even recited. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the chef earned a James Beard semifinalist nod.

No casino floor, no cigarette haze: the Waldorf Astoria sits inside the CityCenter complex as a quiet outlier on the Strip. The 47-story hotel leans hard into the lobby, where 11,000 square feet of Italian Calacatta Gold marble meets a custom crystal chandelier and two-story ceilings. Renovated rooms run to deep-soaking tubs and floor-to-ceiling views of the city below. The 23rd-floor bar is the right place to watch the neon from a comfortable distance.

Braised celery hearts with smoked beef tongue are a menu mainstay here, and they tell you everything: this is a French brasserie that means it. The chef owes more to Paris than to the French Quarter, though Gulf fish and red beans find their way in. His business partner runs one of the sharpest wine programs in town. The New York Times put it on their restaurant list in 2023, the same year Bon Appétit named it one of America's Best New Restaurants.

Crispy Gài is a casual Thai street food counter on Exchange Street, in a downtown where the air otherwise smells like lobster rolls and gift-shop candles. The fried chicken here comes in a handful of styles, including a Sichuan-spiced one that numbs your lips and a Hat Yai version buried under fried shallots. Get the dipping sauce flight, since it runs from sweet and tart to funky fish sauce, and The Infatuation has ranked the wings among the country's best.

The wine list runs from cult Champagnes to obscure Loire Valley producers, which tells you a lot about what you're walking into. Davenport is a cozy neighborhood restaurant on East Burnside where the cooking is technique-forward without being theatrical, rotating through whatever ingredients are at their peak. The room is sophisticated without making anyone feel underdressed, which in Portland is harder to pull off than it sounds.

Red Wagon is a casual neighborhood pizzeria in south Minneapolis that treats flour like a perishable, using local grain milled within about three days of becoming dough. The crust comes out chewy and a little nutty. The toppings travel further than the flour, from a fig balsamic spiral to a pie dressed like a bánh mì. Order at a counter, wear whatever, and expect the carrots to be pickled with more care than your last haircut.

San Tung is a Chinese spot on Irving Street where the fried chicken wings, sticky and sweet and shatteringly crisp, show up on nearly every table in a dining room that's always full. The noise level forgives toddlers and tired grown-ups alike. Order a few plates of wings up front, since one round never survives a family-sized table, and expect to wait for a seat.

The ninth floor penthouse suites have their own private elevator, which tells you everything about how The Dupont Circle Hotel pitches itself. It's a Doyle Collection boutique property with a midcentury-meets-contemporary feel, planted squarely between embassy row and the White House. Downstairs, the bar carries a serious Irish whiskey list and the coffee counter runs striped pink-and-white cups. The Michelin Guide awarded it one Key.

The Sicilian square here comes sauce-on-top, which is either the detail that makes you understand everything about Brooklyn pizza or the one you'll spend a whole slice arguing about. L&B Spumoni Gardens is an old-school Gravesend pizzeria where the outdoor tables fill up on summer nights with people who clearly know to finish with the almond spumoni. The crunchy, charred corners have been the point since forever.

Old Salt Outpost is a casual burger counter on Last Chance Gulch with a menu so short it barely counts as one. The smash patties come with pickles and onions and nothing else, browned nearly to blackened and soaked in tallow, from beef raised on Montana ranches. The Infatuation has put it on its lists of the best burgers and the best potato dishes in America, the latter for the hand broken potatoes.

Beehives on the roof and a bike valet at the door, which tells you everything about where this Uptown Charlotte luxury hotel has placed its bets. The Ritz-Carlton holds a Forbes Four Star and keeps a lively house: The Punch Room for cocktails, BLT Steak for a serious cut, Bar Cocoa for chocolate afternoon tea, and a wine boutique where you blend your own. The lobby fills before Hornets games, and the weekday power-lunch crowd arrives with an appetite for Scotch.

The Robert A.M. Stern limestone tower rises 42 stories over Peachtree Road, though you'd almost miss it tucked behind the Del Frisco's out front. This is a full-service luxury hotel in Buckhead, which means Lenox Square is walkable and the indoor pool, three-floor spa, and English courtyard gardens are waiting when you're done. A Forbes Four Star property, it earns its keep with personal concierge service and a marble lobby that feels genuinely unhurried.

Ski-in-ski-out access is the whole pitch here, and Four Seasons Vail delivers it without apology. The hotel holds Michelin's 1 Key and a Forbes Four Star, runs from elegant rooms up to six-bedroom private residences, and sits squarely in the middle of the walkable village. The spa was fully redone recently and has the largest treatment rooms in the valley. Après-ski at The Remedy draws locals, which is usually a good sign.

A glass of manzanilla arrives before you've quite settled in, which tells you everything about the pace here. Toro is a Spanish tapas bar that's been a South End fixture forever, and the room earns its noise, with bone marrow, croquetas, and paella rotating through tables of people who clearly planned this weeks out. The all-Spanish wine list and good cocktails keep things moving, and the music is loud enough that nobody's whispering.

The wellness resort that essentially invented the genre, set against the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson. Canyon Ranch is an all-inclusive spa and fitness destination where the itinerary can run from sunrise hikes to integrative medicine consultations, and nobody judges you for doing neither. It holds a Michelin 3 Keys distinction. The vibe is less "punishing cleanse" and more "genuinely rethink how you live," which was a radical idea when it opened and remains a persuasive one.

The Veranda Lounge's botanical cocktails and small plates give you an excuse to linger, but the rooms are reason enough to stay at this 50-room boutique hotel in Charleston's French Quarter. It's a new build that doesn't embarrass the historic streetscape around it, and the interiors split the difference between antique good looks and quietly high-tech comfort. The Michelin Guide awarded it two Keys.

Mesquite and pecan wood smoke drifts out of the open kitchen at this Chihuahuan-rooted restaurant inside Tempe's Culdesac neighborhood, where the grill does serious work on meats, peppers, and open-faced quesadillas. The team behind Tacos Chiwas built something more personal here, moving from taqueria to family table. Moles, micheladas, and brunch dishes like concha French toast fill out a menu that runs morning to night. A James Beard Outstanding Restaurateur semifinalist in 2024.

Floor-to-ceiling illuminated pillars playing curated digital art greet you before you even reach the casino floor, which sets the tone for this sprawling Strip resort. The Cosmopolitan runs a serious collection of restaurants from celebrity chefs, popular bars, boutique shops, and a pool scene that converts to an ice rink come winter. The crowd skews stylish and self-aware, which fits a hotel that opened during a recession and never once acted like it.

The open kitchen anchors a room where wood floors and exposed ductwork split the difference between industrial loft and neighborhood restaurant. J.C. Holdway is a Southern-leaning American dinner spot in downtown Knoxville, the kind where buttermilk biscuits arrive topped with braised pork belly and the pasta is house-made. The New York Times put it on their Restaurant List, and the chef is a James Beard semifinalist. Tennessee ingredients run through nearly everything.

A Knoxville pizzeria that bets everything on sourdough, with 12-inch Neapolitan-style pies split into red, white, and build-your-own. It's casual, jeans-and-sneakers territory, though it takes reservations, which a slice joint would find hilarious. Starters run to a pickle plate and mushroom pâté, and the gelato board changes often. The Michelin Guide lists it as a Bib Gourmand.

The L-shaped marble bar and brass fixtures in the Flatiron Hotel's ground-floor Italian restaurant set a tone that's polished without being stiff. The kitchen butchers whole animals in-house and sources from local farmers' markets, running the results through wood-fired pizzas, handmade pastas, and solid main plates. The Michelin Guide has given it a Bib Gourmand, which here means you eat very well and still recognize your credit card statement afterward.

The sunny yellow exterior and orange canopy on the corner of Melrose are hard to miss, which is fitting because neither is the pizza inside. Nancy Silverton's pizzeria has been an LA institution forever, with bare wood tables, skylights, and a Bib Gourmand to its name. The pies come out of the oven with puffy, golden edges, and the seasonal dessert selection runs deep enough to cause genuine indecision.

The Original Muscle Beach sits just out front, which tells you something about the neighborhood this hotel walked into. Floor-to-ceiling windows frame the Pacific, the pool deck pulls everyone outside, and rooms come with marble soaking tubs and yoga mats in case you'd rather not think about the gymnasts next door. Michael Mina runs the Mediterranean restaurant. A Michelin Key and a Forbes Four Star.

The bread is the whole philosophy here: Union Loafers is a bakery-turned-full-service restaurant in Botanical Heights where naturally leavened loaves set the tone for everything else on the menu. The pizzas split the difference between New York chew and Neapolitan char, and the sandwiches built on house bread give you a very good reason to show up before dinner. St. Louis-style pizza is conspicuously absent, which some locals treat as a provocation.

Dolly's is a bakery-cafe on Rockaway Avenue that also runs a soft serve window, and the soft serve is where the strangeness lives. The blueberry pancake one comes with an actual pancake on top, so you can eat the dessert and its inspiration side by side like a tiny experiment. Flavors rotate through cereal and banana pudding, and it's all cheap, casual, and eaten standing up. The Infatuation has listed it among the best bakeries in NYC.

Vindicktive is a Belltown beer bar built the opposite way from most sports bars: you come for the wings and the game is background noise. The skin shatters like a potato chip over juicy meat, and the flavors run from buffalo to salt and vinegar. It's a blue-cheese-only house, so ranch requests will be received with a long, quiet look. The Infatuation put the wings on its national list, which tracks.

Nong's is a casual counter-service Thai spot that grew out of a one-dish food cart and still mostly sticks to the plan: poached chicken over rice cooked in the schmaltz, with a cup of clear broth on the side. The ginger sauce has the kind of following that has Portlanders keeping a bottle in the fridge door like a family heirloom. It's cheap, easy, and the city's default answer to a cold.

Lost Larson is a Scandinavian-leaning bakery and cafe in Andersonville that mills its own flour, which sounds like a bit until you see the loaves. The pastry case looks like a Great British Baking Show finale, all tarts, cardamom buns, and savory croissants. Order at the counter, grab a sandwich or an afternoon bun with Earl Grey sugar, and expect to linger over coffee longer than you planned.

Sugar Moon is a takeout-only bakery in Logan Square, so there's no table to claim, just a sidewalk line that starts forming a good half hour before the 9am opening and doesn't care about the weather. The reward is a curried cauliflower croissant or a Nutella-pear brioche bun, plus scones that crumble the way scones should. Pastry runs cheap, the wait costs you a Saturday morning, and it's been named among the country's favorite bakeries by The Infatuation.

A pastel Italian villa dropped into Houston's Uptown neighborhood, Hotel Granduca plays the part with enough conviction that you half-expect to hear Vespas. It's a Forbes Four Star hotel with a private-residence feel: chauffeur service, personal trainers, a heated outdoor pool, and multiple spots to dine tucked into the veranda, conservatory, and club room. Quiet and self-contained enough to forget the city exists outside.

The clock tower that once held the city's tallest point now holds Ian Schrager's boutique hotel in the Flatiron District, a collaboration with Marriott that somehow kept its cool. Rooms sit above Madison Square Park, which means the 360-degree views range from good to unreasonable depending on the floor. Chelsea, NoMad, and Greenwich Village are all within easy reach, though the hotel itself gives you decent reasons to stay put.

Marble-top bar, globe pendants, and coffee-brown tables give this Basque restaurant on the Lower East Side a midcentury feel that somehow never reads as costume. The room runs loud and convivial, the way a good tapas night should, and everything is built for sharing. The wine list leans deep into small Spanish organic and biodynamic producers, which is either very convenient or a very pleasant trap, depending on your evening.

Il Canto is a takeout counter in the Financial District, a Mediterranean spot best known for a breakfast burrito that has a lot of cheese going on. Scrambled eggs and creamy chipotle aioli come wrapped around it, and for a couple extra dollars you can add sausage, bacon, shrimp, potatoes, or beans. It's served all day, so the suits in line at noon don't have to pretend they're there for the Mediterranean part.

Mama's Luncheonette is a daytime takeout window in Cow Hollow that has built a following on things wrapped in foil. The breakfast burrito comes stuffed with smashed tater tots, soft scrambled eggs, avocado, and cheddar, and the thick-sliced house brisket is an add-on you'll want to say yes to. The salsa arrives in a small cup, so ask for extra. There's also a chicken caesar wrap, because lettuce deserves a tortilla too.

Red leather banquettes, white tablecloths, a snappy U-shaped bar, and a shiny open kitchen pack into fifty seats on Dickerson Pike. This is a French-leaning dinner spot where smoke drifts in from a Basque-style wood-fire hearth and the wine list has Brooklyn credentials. Philip Krajeck's third Nashville restaurant has landed on the New York Times' list of Nashville's 25 best, which for a room this quietly romantic feels about right.

This is a Vietnamese bakery counter tucked inside the Hong Kong City Mall, more prep station than dining room, and it takes cash only. The case is stacked with small snacks, from banana-leaf sausages to rice balls, but the bánh mì đặc biệt is the one people circle back for. It runs about five bucks, which makes ordering two on the first visit more sensible than greedy. It turns up on The Infatuation's list of Houston's Chinatown restaurants.

Toyori is a casual ramen shop on Bellaire Boulevard in Houston's Chinatown, where the dark walls and utilitarian booths hand all the drama to a floor-to-ceiling gold mural. The menu reads a lot like every other ramen menu in the neighborhood, which makes the consistency bowl after bowl the whole trick. The meal ends with a tiny probiotic drink, a small cute gesture that somehow feels like a dessert course.

An old Schlitz tavern in Bay View that smells like someone's grandmother has been cooking since morning. This cash-only Serbian dinner spot runs on its own clock, which means a 45-minute wait is fairly standard and nobody seems to mind. Goulash, moussaka, chicken paprikash, and flaky böreks fill out a menu built for cold weather and real hunger. An old-school institution doing exactly what it has always done.

This is a Viet-Cajun crawfish house on Bellaire Boulevard, where you wear a bib and gloves big enough to look like a bit. The crawfish come boiled with lemongrass and ginger, and the turkey necks arrive pre-spiced. The room works like a sports bar that lost the plot, with the Astros on every TV and a Darth Vader helmet in the corner nobody will explain. It's casual, loud, and messy, and the check stays reasonable.

The name honors San Pasqual, patron saint of cooks, and someone in the kitchen grinds masa from heirloom corn every single day. This energetic Capitol Hill Mexican restaurant is built around the hearth, and the chefs spent two years working with local farmers just to secure the right herbs. Everything lands in the middle of the table for sharing. It landed on North America's 50 Best list, and getting a reservation still takes some planning.

A sea-foam green Victorian near downtown Eugene is an unlikely home for a West Indian rum bar, but here we are, and Oregon is better for it. Yardy started as a food truck and graduated to a cheerful brick-and-mortar where sorrel punch anchors the cocktail list and pholourie, fried chicken sandwiches, and twice-fried plantain jibaritos do the heavy lifting. A 2025 New York Times Restaurant List pick and a James Beard semifinalist.

Forty-nine Spanish hacienda casitas spread across 45 acres of rolling Rancho Santa Fe hills, each with a fireplace trimmed in hand-painted tile, beamed ceilings, a private garden patio, and a soaking tub big enough to take seriously. This Forbes Five Star resort sits far enough from the coast to feel genuinely removed, yet Del Mar and La Jolla are close. A spa, racquet sports program, and golf privileges round things out for guests who consider unplugging a full-time project.

The grand staircase descending from the Villard Mansion gates is the kind of entrance that makes you feel like you've arrived somewhere, even if you live nearby. This midtown luxury hotel spreads across a landmarked 19th-century mansion and a modern tower, with marble bathrooms, deep beds, and work desks in the standard rooms. The Triplex Suites climb to 5,000 square feet with Art Deco details and private rooftop terraces, if you're keeping score.

The lobby is a long, dim, Art Deco-inspired corridor that makes you walk past a very glamorous staircase before you find the front desk, which is a choice. This Midtown hotel is Sofitel's North American flagship, 29 floors a short walk from Bryant Park, and the whole thing leans into a Franco-New York elegance that stops just short of being a bit much. Rooms are quiet and well-dressed, and the staff keeps things moving.

A neoclassical tower in the middle of Midtown, half a mile from the Renzo Piano-designed High Museum and a short walk from Piedmont Park. Rooms run to leather headboards, velvet sitting chairs, and original work by Atlanta painter Caroline Bullock. Bar Margot, named after the Wes Anderson character, pulls in DJ nights on weekends. The spa's weekday happy hour treatment menu suggests someone had fun with the concept.

The art deco bones of this Walnut Hills live-fire Mediterranean restaurant are half the reason to book a table, the kitchen being the other half. The chef leans hard into the eastern Mediterranean, the kind of cooking where roasted vegetables become pita dips and hamachi collar gets a glossy glaze. Regulars have already claimed favorite bartenders, which for a restaurant this new is saying something. A 2024 New York Times Restaurant List pick and a 2025 James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist.

The vaulted stained-glass ceiling in the lobby alone makes a case for booking a room. This landmark hotel in downtown Nashville holds a Michelin two-key distinction and two restaurants from Jean-Georges Vongerichten, which is either a perk or a trap depending on your willpower. Guest rooms lean into Southern warmth without tipping into kitsch, and the building itself has been a fixture of the city long enough to feel genuinely rooted in it.

A Forbes Four Star hotel tucked into an East Palo Alto office park, which is either an odd choice or a very deliberate one depending on your relationship with Sand Hill Road. The lobby leans smart and modern, with digital art and velvet loveseats that soften the corporate surroundings. Two hundred guest rooms come with spacious bath suites and the kind of beds Four Seasons has built its reputation on. Quattro handles California-Italian; the lobby café handles the pre-meeting espresso.

Vanilla soft serve finished with olive oil from the owner's Italian vineyard tells you plenty about what kind of place this is: a neighborhood cookshop in North Naples where the kitchen is having fun and doesn't mind if you notice. The menu swings from caviar served with Bugles to chorizo potatoes with chipotle hollandaise, and the room is warm enough that first-timers feel like regulars by the second round. A James Beard Emerging Chef semifinalist.

The handmade tortillas, corn or flour, come out warm and the salsas live in a cooler you're invited to raid freely. This beloved Austin taco shop started as a food truck and the sisters behind it still run the show, turning out breakfast tacos loaded with eggs and chorizo alongside a mole negro chicken option at lunch. The migas taco, stacked with thick crispy chips, is hard to leave without. Order a La Bomba juice and you'll feel embarrassingly virtuous about it.