Come summer, one wants to eat well, of course, but not weightily. This assortment of restaurants across the United States knows how to meet cravings while not overwhelming. Well, you might be overwhelmed by their deliciousness. That's never bad, right?
Cullum's Attaboy, San Antonio, Texas
Bev's Cafe & Market, Kennebunk, Maine
Annie Callan, former longtime pastry chef of San Francisco's legendary Zuni Café, and Nate Morris, former longtime chef of the same restaurant, moved east to Kennebunk, Maine a few years ago. Their new restaurant is a breakfast and lunch cafe, open Thursdays to Mondays. Quiche, big cinnamon buns drenched in icing, a take on a Whopper hamburger, endless uses of great local produce: Bev's is an easygoing spot well worth a detour.
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Meju, New York City
Korean food and all its blessed diversity is exploding across New York City lately. Meju, chef-owner Hooni Kim's eight-seat dinner lab for Korean-style fermentation, brings its own special vantage point. The menu is fixed and you prepay with Tock, the restaurant ticketing system. Much of the fermented components of the meal — the jangs (foundational sauces) and jeotgals (salted seafood) — are made in-house. Dinner at Meju will upend everything you think you know about Korean cuisine.
Ema, Houston
Stephanie Velasquez and Nicolas Vera run this brand-new cafe, a freewheeling exploration of Mexican cooking. Velasquez oversees the pastry program, and her conchas, in flavors like blue corn and chocolate, are already beloved. The savory side of Ema features plates like a Caesar salad with pumpkin seeds and masa croutons, roasted cauliflower in pipian rojo and carrot tacos.
Petite León, Minneapolis
A little French; a bit Mexican; a touch Italian: Petite León sprints across continents for its influences. At its core, the restaurant just aims to satisfy. For brunch, there is shakshuka and a tamal served like eggs Benedict. Come dinner, smoked salmon rillettes are served with Ritz crackers, and the steak frites is plated with both chile-laced bordelaise and chipotle butter.
L'Oursin, Seattle
A bistro that unabashedly embraces both the techniques of French restaurant cooking and the L'Oursin's Pacific Northwest locale. The drinks feature, say, Armagnac and pear brandy, and the food takes bistro classics like roast chicken and beef tartare and electrifies them with entrenched Washington State ingredients like nettles and mussels.
The Quinte, Charleston, South Carolina
Seafood is central to Charleston's cuisine; Jason Stanhope, after a years-long stint at the city's legendary Fig, is a chef staple of the Holy City. Put the two together at a new, mellow oyster bar with pickled littleneck clams, raw and broiled oysters and a drinks list heavy on bivalve-friendly cocktails and wines and all is going to be right with the world.
Irwin's, Philadelphia
Italian food is one of the great, familiar people-pleasers of eating out in the United States; natural wine continues to roll its trendy movement across the country. Irwin's merges the two in a breezy rooftop location. Crack open a bottle of orange wine, and snack on Sicilian-inspired snacks like eggplant caponata with semolina crackers and broccoli rabe with pecorino and anchovy.
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