Where to Eat Out This Fall: The Lo List!!!
15 new spots to check out this autumn, plus short reviews of Bartolo and Los Burritos Juárez
The Lo List: Where to Eat Out This Fall
One of the “fun” things about being a food critic is that you always magically attract attention at weddings and cocktail parties. You know, places where strangers feel compelled to talk your ear off while you’re trying to get a Wild Turkey at the bar.
“Oh you’re a restaurant critic, what should we check out this week? But wait, my wife and I don’t eat seafood.”
Honestly, I should start printing up answers on nice stationary and hand them out like business cards.
It should go without saying that I actually love giving this type of advice. I mean, that’s the job, right? It’s cool to connect with folks who dig eating out (just don’t tell me you hate spicy foods), and this whole dance keeps friends and family from asking me when I’m gonna settle down and have kids.
You might be surprised by this, however: I really like to chat about places I haven’t been to yet. Or restaurants that haven’t even opened.
Now don’t get me wrong; I’m not in the business of providing spurious advice. But maybe I’m curious about that new Thai spot with tabletop grills — not something you’ve seen in New York — and even though I haven’t published a review, I reckon you’re interested too. My new column is an attempt to correct for this.
So please give a warm welcome to The Lo List.
Here, I’ll mix quick takes on new restaurants I’ve visited, alongside notes on venues I haven’t dined at yet. I tested out a column like this back in the spring, but…it ended up reading just like a regular column.
This effort will be more scrollable and quick.
I’ve been hesitant to publish these sorts of missives. Telling my friends at a party — or a fellow critic at a bar — what places I’m keen to check out isn’t the same as telling thousands of folks who don’t know my sensibilities as well.
So let’s not call this a list of recommendations. Let’s not brand it as “openings” or a fall preview, great stuff that other publications do, but that I don’t have the manpower for just yet.
I like to think of The Lo List as a public wish list of sorts. A collection of new places I want to swing by. Combined with places I’ve been eating at recently and want to get back to. Sometimes, I’ll include a restaurant after I’ve heard great things from a trusted food journalist friend. Other times, I’ll be intrigued by the opening coverage from another newsletter on Substack.
Ultimately, these are all things we’re interested in. We want to know about movies before the critics file their columns and we want to talk about Broadway musicals before the previews start. The New York Times does a really good job with this in their annual “What Our Critics Are Looking Forward To” feature, and so I’ll try my hand at this too.
We can’t have cool conversations about restaurants unless we know they’re open in the first place. But like my other columns, I want to make sure that this is a proper piece of journalism. I don’t want it to feel like a product. I don’t do content.
Just the same, The Lo List will give you insight into the types of places I might end up writing longer reviews about…or that I want to include in my city guides like The Steak List or The Sushi List. So there’s a transparency component to all this as well. I’ll also offer feedback on dishes at newer venues that might need tweaking. Translation: This won’t be an effort in “cheerleading.”
Most of the following 15 venues get quick blurbs with firsthand (or secondhand) intel, but the entries on Bartolo and Los Burritos Juárez are proper mini-reviews.
Let’s get to it.
Bartolo | One of NYC’s best new shrimp dishes
