It's is time now—drumroll, trumpets, gongs—to announce the winners of the 2015 Eater Awards. In over a dozen categories in 24 cities, the winners comprise a diverse group of the finest and most interesting chefs, operators, and characters in the continent that have defined this year in dining. We applaud them. You are hereby instructed to applaud them.
To recap, Eater's local editors in 24 cities nominated candidates for five major local categories: Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, Bartender of the Year, So Hot Right Now Restaurant, and Stone Cold Stunner. Eater readers then voted to narrow the field to a final three in each category. From that final three, the Eater editorial team chose one to move forward and the Eater.com braintrust got together to decide the national winners. Without further ado, here's who came out on top in Minneapolis.
Eater Awards 2015
Restaurant of the Year
Nominees: Spoon and Stable, Revival, Saint Dinette and Surly's Brewer's Table.
Winner: Spoon and Stable
Chef of the Year
Nominees: Gavin Kaysen, Jorge Guzman, Mike DeCamp, Thomas Boemer, Landon Schoenefeld
Winner: Thomas Boemer
Bartender of the Year
Nominees: Elliot Manthey (Spoon and Stable), Trish Gavin (Il Foro), Tyler Kleinow (Marvel Bar), Tim Leary (Tattersall), Nate McLemore Raczkowski (Hola Arepa)
Winner: Tim Leary
So Hot Right Now
Nominees: Dark Horse, Eastside, 4 Bells, Tattersall Distilling
Winner: Eastside
Stone Cold Stunner
Nominees: Constantine, Betty Danger's Country Club, Eastside, Revival, The Commodore
Winner: Eastside
Saddest Closure
La Belle Vie