Best American Restaurants in America

Usually my sense of patriotism falls far below my regionalism, but right now being from South Carolina means "Mark Sanford" and being from America means "We almost beat Brazil in soccer" "We sentenced Bernie Madoff to 150 years" and "We're still mourning the loss of three of the most American Americans: a Charlie's Angel, the King of Pop, and Billy Mays."

So I'm feeling more pro-America these days. Enough to post this list of the top 50 American restaurants in America, as selected by OpenTable diners. They're in alphabetical order, so there are no clear rankings. They're mainly in the big cities you would expect, and I'm definitely suspect of the Capital Grille, which seems to have been selected 9 times, for different locations in the chain. That annoys me. Either it's rigged by their marketing department or chosen by uncreative OpenTable users obsessed with a culture of status and trendiness. Eh, I'm not feeling so American after all.

Maybe the patriotism will kick in again for the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest (though I tend to favor Kobayashi...so nevermind).

Sally's v. Pepe's

We're going to New Haven for the holiday weekend, home of the first hamburger in America, the Boy, and a world-class pizza face-off. In corner #1: Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana. Corner #2: Sally's Apizza. Down-the-street rivals that have both been in business for over 70 years (1925 and 1938 respectively).

Like Donny, I know I'm out of my element. So I'm trusting a local and we're going to Pepe's (expect a review next week). But I would be remiss in my attempt at pseudo-journalism if I did not mention that for the June issue of GQ, Alan Richman rated the top 25 pizzas in the US-- and Sally's came in 6 while Pepe's came in 12. Pretty impressive for a town of that size (San Francisco and Manhattan got 3 apiece). I've had Totonno's in Brooklyn, and seen Pizzeria Bianco on the Food Network, but never heard of the rest.

In his blog post ranking the top 10 pizza cities (New Haven is 7th) Richman also called out Bar, a stop on our itinerary, for serving mashed potato pizza, which is clearly an abomination.

Maybe we'll have the Great New Haven Pizza-Off this weekend and see if Richman's rankings stand.

Rachael Ray Ranks Hot Sauces

Frank's Red Hot won Best Overall. Don't know if we should be proud of the Buffalo-based shout-out or scream that it's fixed (Rachael is an Upstate NYer). My brother has always preferred Frank's, despite being in the South, where surviving fiery hot sauces are a badge of honor and the brands practically copulate, they're so pervasive. (See Tabasco, Louisiana Gold, Texas Pete, and every one that has the word "ass" in the name).

My personal favorite is Tapatio, but I tend to use it on only on Mexican dishes. Or I'm also a fan of Tabasco or Goya's chipotle hot sauces. I think Frank's would be a complete abomination on a burrito, so I have to dissent with RR regarding overall best-ness.

Thankfully she picked Sriracha (our household staple, as has been duly noted in previous posts) for best medium. I can attest to Sriracha's universality (marinades, pizza, omelettes, pasta, pho) and it's deliciousness. And I haven't even heard of the rest of them, so I can't weigh in there (Blair's must be famous because they make a $379 reserve bottle). And I am intrigued by the habanero chocolate sauce that swept the Best Dessert category...