Up and Coming Food Cities?

I'm working on a travel piece that needs to be food-centric. I'm thinking of showcasing a town that's bursting onto the culinary scene (Las Vegas, Chicago and San Francisco excluded) for either a specific type or style of cuisine. Must be domestic.

I'm having a mental block. Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

Portland (Pacific-side) is getting a fair amount of press regarding its up and comeancy in the area of comestibles.

Can't say that here, Las Cruces, New Mexico fits the bill, a fact which gives me to conniption whenever I deign to think upon it.

(Aside--no joking, the local paper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, conducted a readership poll and in this border town, guess what won best taco, out of all the taco joints here? Um, that would be the great and mighty Taco Bell. And I'm supposed to eat in this town?)

i'll keep thinking, but Portland sounds like a good bet. I'll be there to check it and some friends out soon, if you want to send me on an errand,
parker

Walla Walla, WA. Reminds me of St. Helena CA in the late '80s...

(Aside--no joking, the local paper, the Las Cruces Sun-News, conducted a readership poll and in this border town, guess what won best taco, out of all the taco joints here? Um, that would be the great and mighty Taco Bell. And I'm supposed to eat in this town?)

Do you really take People's Choice seriously? Those polls are so easily ginned up that nobody should even think they reflect the opinion of the local population. It is a distorted popularity contest with owner/employeers motivating staff, family, friends and customers to participate.

I have confidence in the people of Las Cruces.

Regards,

Cathy2 wrote:Do you really take People's Choice seriously? Those polls are so easily ginned up that nobody should even think they reflect the opinion of the local population. It is a distorted popularity contest with owner/employeers motivating staff, family, friends and customers to participate.

I have confidence in the people of Las Cruces.
,

In some semblance of a city, I would never give a first or second thought to People's Choice, but I guess I had more faith in the grass-roots participation of this fair town. Of course, they do know their chile, and down the road Juarez knows its Bayless-ed-up (in a good way) Mexican in a few restaurants, both things I'll likely miss when moving from here in a few months.
-p

Cathy2 wrote:
Do you really take People's Choice seriously? Those polls are so easily ginned up that nobody should even think they reflect the opinion of the local population. It is a distorted popularity contest with owner/employeers motivating staff, family, friends and customers to participate.

I have confidence in the people of Las Cruces.

Regards,

One of the problems with any of the "Best of" surveys is that a greater quantity of people have eaten at the various chains than in some "hole in the wall" restaurant.

The SMART newspapers, like the Las Vegas Review Jouarnal, show the reader's choice AND the critic's choice , often including "runners up". Quite frankly, the LVRJ has been the most accurate source of good restaurants in my past trips there.

For the record, I think that I could spend a week in Las Cruces and find enough great restaurants to satisfy me for a week. Unfortunately, I generally only have a day or two in town.

Well, I might be a bit predjudiced, but you could certainly throw KC/Lawrence in the up and Coming stew for your region.
If you want a West Coast Small Town devoted to food and drink, you could come explore Ashland and the Rogue Valley of SW Oregon. 100 restaurants in a town of 20,000 with a myriad of food producers and wineries to go along with theater.
heres a few places for a start:
http://www.atasteofashland.com/
http://www.fullcirclebison.com
http://www.globalpantry.com/
here's our local wine producers association:
http://www.sorwa.org/
+ you could talk to Rogue Creamery about their Blue Cheese.
http://www.roguecreamery.com
now owned by two young guys who came to town to open a wine bar, but ended up buying Vella's other Cheese plant.
Bill in Southern Oregon

I don't know about up and coming, but I consider Charleston, SC to be one of the top 5 culinary destinations in the U.S.

Providence, RI, is becoming a world-class city as far as restaurants are concerned. It's a small city (under 200,000 people), but it has some spectacular eating places.

Not exactly under the radar,
but last time I was in Madison,
Wisconsin I was amazed by
the number of seemingly-great
places at every turn. Only had
a chance to try a few places,
but those I did, were quite good.

I second the choices of both Charleston and Providence.

15 years ago, when I first started traveling back and forth between New York and Providence for a consulting gig I was working, it was a culinary deadman's land. My how that has changed.

Charleston is unique because, until the recent departure of Johnson and Wales Culinary School for Charlotte, they were training a whole generation of chefs to cook serious food using local ingredients indigenous to the southeast coast. While fish and other seafood play a major role in the cuisine of that area, there is a real penchant among those chefs to cook local game also including, but not limited to local duck, local quail and dove, and local sweet corn, other summer vegetables and fruit.

Having mentioned the relocation of Johnson and Wales to Charlotte a couple of years ago, it certainly is ripe for undiscovered exploration as its first J&W class ventures out into the world of work in that former culinary wasteland. Charlotte has also developed a strong Central American community in the last ten years as it has needed labor for the unbridled building boom that has taken place there.

If you wish to explore that marketplace, I would strongly suggest making the acquaintance of Tricia Childress who is the restaurant critic for the local "Creative Loafing" weekly. She's very knowledable on both chow and fine dining.

I guess some of my choices would be:

1) Las Vegas - both on-Strip but particularly OFF-Strip
2) Providence - both high- end and low-end
3) Nashville - far more than the Southern standards
4) Albuquerque

Did Johnson and Wales really move from Providence? When I was there last year, they were going strong. I think what they did was to open three additional campus locations. From the J&W website:

Johnson & Wales' four campuses are located in Providence, Rhode Island; North Miami, Florida; Denver, Colorado; and Charlotte, North Carolina.

These are all fantastic suggestions, thank you so much!

I'd love to do Providence, but that's a little far for my piece, so I'm seriously considering Portland and Ashland.

Any one have any specific recommendations for either of these towns?

bbqboy, can you give me any tips on specific restaurants? I know it's all about locally produced ingredients, but is there a specific cuisine I need to experience in Ashland?

JL, Johnson and Wales actually closed its Charleston School in favor of Charlotte a couple of years ago. But, not before supplying Charleston with some outstanding chefs and outstanding restaurants.

In the 20 or so years that they were in Charleston, they were in a warehouse in an area on the east side of the city that regentrified during that period. I imagine that the relocation was a result of rising operating costs related to commercial lease space in Charleston. At the same time, the city of Charlotte had a 20 year old white elephant retail mall in its burgeoning downtown area that had been through various ownership and management failures in its life. Thus, was willing to lease that space probably for a fraction of what the renewed long term lease costs would be in Charleston

To the best of my knowledge the J&W Hotel and Coference Center as well as the school is still going strong in Providence

YourPalWill wrote:JL, Johnson and Wales actually closed its Charleston School in favor of Charlotte a couple of years ago. But, not before supplying Charleston with some outstanding chefs and outstanding restaurants.

I misread you rpost.

portland is respectable although i've found that the wonderful bounty to be had doesn't translate to the plate as much as i'd like. i've had better luck @ the ethnic than upscale.

extramsg has an excellent primer and dining guide on his website extramsg.com. just go to the home page and scroll down a bit.

If you're still searching, there's an interesting thread on CH ("Best North American Food Cities"), with a couple of suggestions off the usual radar. (Fresno?):

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/361397? ... ica%20best

Will LTH get credit in the article? Not to be mean spirited, but I ain't playing if we don't even get a note.

Not that I have any recs for that Portland. The other one, yes, but since it seems to be routinely appearing on lists of 10 best cities to visit in 2007, I am not sure if it qualifies as undiscovered.

Such lists seem to be getting more and more eclectic these days, which is all good. Anyway, Portland Maine is a great food city.

jazzfood wrote:portland is respectable although i've found that the wonderful bounty to be had doesn't translate to the plate as much as i'd like. i've had better luck @ the ethnic than upscale.

extramsg has an excellent primer and dining guide on his website extramsg.com. just go to the home page and scroll down a bit.

I just moved to Portland (OR) recently and I'd basically agree with this. The produce here is fantastic - I've been eating out a lot less and cooking a lot more.

There are some good restaurants here, though - extramsg's tip sheet really is a great primer

If you're visiting from Chicago (and like pizza), I would heartily recommend a visit to Apizza Scholls, just because there is nowhere like it in Chicago - really amazing NY/New Haven-style pizza. Seems a bit odd to visit Portand for East Coast style pizza, but it really is fantastic.

i happen to be working in portland now. if you come to my place, cinetopia, i'll hook you up. in fact, i'm doing an incredible rex hill wine dinner this eve (one of the reasons i'm here).

I'd highly recommend Viande Meats/Simpatica Catering in Portland. I wasn't able to eat in their dining hall, but I brought back some great house-cured pancetta (2 versions, 1 cured with juniper berries), guanciale, proscuitto, and venison pate. I *really* regret not buying more of that pate. The cured meats come from organic, heritage breed pigs that are fattened up on hazelnuts... dang.

The market in which Viande is located also has a very nice cheese counter with local products, and a fish counter that had some terrific smoked salmon bellies from wild caught fish. To me, Portland is a great food city. It's got great coffee, microbrews, wines, and restaurants. I bring a cooler when I visit. By the way, airport security will search your giant rolling cooler every single time, heh.

grace

http://www.simpaticacatering.com/

Viande Meats (inside City Market)
735 NW 21st Ave.
Portland OR
503 221-3012

dicksond wrote:Will LTH get credit in the article? Not to be mean spirited, but I ain't playing if we don't even get a note.

Not that I have any recs for that Portland. The other one, yes, but since it seems to be routinely appearing on lists of 10 best cities to visit in 2007, I am not sure if it qualifies as undiscovered.

Such lists seem to be getting more and more eclectic these days, which is all good. Anyway, Portland Maine is a great food city.

LTH always gets credit where credit is due! I wouldn't be half the eater I am today without LTH.

But I think it's been handed down that I'm going to Seattle and saving Portland for another time. An equally abundant city, I'm excited and I've been reading the other Seattle threads and getting some great ideas.

I'm definite on Salumi, and venues at Pike's Place (it's my understanding that Matt's is closed for renovations, though), maybe a trip out to Bainbridge.

So what do I have to eat in Seattle that I can't get anywhere else?

gmonkey wrote:So what do I have to eat in Seattle that I can't get anywhere else?

Ivar's Acres of Clams.

gmonkey wrote:So what do I have to eat in Seattle that I can't get anywhere else?

Geoduck.

You might also want to make note of the number of high-quality wineries in the city of Seattle and in suburbs like Woodinville.

A [url=http://www.diaryofafoodie.org/episodes/14/index.html]recent episode[/url] of [url=http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=10200]Diary of a Foodie[/url] included a segment on geoduck "hunting". They worked with [url=http://www.taylorshellfishfarms.com/]Taylor Shellfish Farms[/url]

The scene when they were shelling the geoducks was priceless.

[quote="LionRock"][quote="jazzfood"]portland is respectable although i've found that the wonderful bounty to be had doesn't translate to the plate as much as i'd like. i've had better luck @ the ethnic than upscale.


Yeah, i live in Portland too, and i gotta third that emotion...product is top notch, but it doesnt quite translate into the restaurant scene...oh well, i eat in a lot. places like Pok Pok (thai street food) apizza schools (damn fine pizza) simpatica (top notch catering/meats, etc), Paley's place (northwest, local)and le pigeon (bistro, offal) a true "portland" experience, are places worth noting.

when i originally came to portland to work, part of my research was just that, checking out the competition. truth is, i haven't been to any upscale place in portland that would be considered anywhere near the top in chi. thanks to extramsg though, he turned me on to the best food i've eaten here, but that has all been purveyors, ethnic or in the mkt and shops. mario's, shagun, pok pok, viande etc...

i do invite though, any portland locals to pm me. when i'm in town (like now) i promise to hook you up if you come to see me @ cinetopia.