Jordan at JuneBaby shortly after it opened last year.
Image: Sara Marie D’Eugenio
The day after chef Edouardo Jordan received two James Beard nominations—one for Best Chef: Northwest, the other in the national Best New Restaurant category—New York Times food critic Pete Wells unleashed a full-on review of JuneBaby, Jordan’s ineffably great southern restaurant in Ravenna. The critic digs into three dinners’ worth of pigs ears and catfish over grits and comes to the elegant conclusion that “Many restaurants start with a chef’s personal story. JuneBaby traces that story back to where it meets the country’s.” He awarded the restaurant three stars, a rating that puts it in the company of notable Manhattan destinations like Momofuku Ko, Gramercy Tavern, and Masa.
Jordan and JuneBaby are no stranger to accolades, even national ones, but this one is particularly notable because it’s the first time Wells has bestowed stars (and so many stars!) on a restaurant in Seattle. He’s arguably the country’s best-known dining critic, with the 9,000-word New Yorker profile to prove it, and expanded his purview to include a select few national restaurants back in 2016.
It’s not surprising that JuneBaby wowed a man whose benchmark is the country’s epicenter of dining. That doesn’t make Jordan’s talents any less impressive.
|
|
|