Pizza at Mel’s. Photo by OK McCausland for Resy

Dining Access Hit ListNational

Ten Restaurants That Define Great Dining in Summer 2022

By

If there’s anything we’ve learned after the past two years it’s that dining out should delight us. It should not make us think too hard, or work too hard. It should not champion form over function.

This isn’t a knock on innovation, so much as acknowledging two things: one, chefs leaning in on both beloved foods (Hot Hot-Dog Summer, anyone?) and styles of dining that don’t make us feel stuffy.  And two, the net effect of the Great Sweatpanting of 2020 and 2021, which provided the insight that trying too hard, or making patrons try too hard, isn’t a good look for a restaurant. The era of fun, in other words, is on us.

And lucky for us, examples are proliferating of how American dining today has met just this moment — just in time for summer. That makes our latest Dining Access Hit List a testament to the joy of dining out right now: 10 restaurants across the country that frame remarkable talent without asking you to dig too far into the clothes closet, or to mind too many manners. (Do mind a few, though,) These all have discovered a secret sauce for great dining without pretense. And also lucky that, since the best tables are hard to come by this summer, all are bookable with Global Dining Access by Resy.

So whether you’re heading across the street or across the continent, don’t miss the downshifted tasting menu at D.C.’s Little Pearl; indulge in burgers and Burgundy at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Tavern; be delighted by a remarkable slice of regional Indian at Besharam in San Francisco; or witness a postmodern steakhouse revival at Chicago’s Boeufhaus.

That and so much more makes up our Hit List for summer 2022.  Get booking.