Times-Pic Names Top Chefs, Restaurants for 2011

The Times-Pic released its 2011 Dining Guide in the Lagniappe section of yesterday's paper, offering up the paper's definitive list of the 100 Great Restaurants, as well as the more exclusive Top 10 Restaurants, the 5 Great New Restaurants, the the 4 "chefs to watch." Apparently hoping to temper the inevitable cries that different restaurants were left off the list, the Times-Pic's Brett Anderson noted that "New Orleans is, to be sure, home to more than 100 Great Places to Eat." Some were left off because they are "in transition," others because the paper's about to profile them in the next couple of months, and still others that appeared in years past dropped off because, well, they closed. That happens some times.

The list of 100 spans cuisines, with Anderson writing, "For the purposes of assembling the list, the word 'great' mutates," meaning that while a cheap and delicious banh mi can definitely be great, so can some of the city's best fine dining. That said, the Top 10 skews decidedly towards fine dining:

· Cochon
· Bayona
· Clancy's
· Domenica
· Emeril's
· Gautreau's
· Herbsaint
· La Petite Grocery
· Patois
· Restaurant August

Here's the "5 new restaurants to visit":

· Dominique's on Magazine
· High Hat Café
· Rue 127
· Sylvain
· Three Muses

And the 4 chefs to watch:

· Adam Biderman, the Company Burger
· Kristopher Doll, Ancora Pizzeria & Salumeria
· Bradley McGehee, Ye Olde College Inn
· Quan Tran, Tamarind

Congrats to all the restaurants and chefs who made these lists.

· Welcome to the 2011 New Orleans Dining Guide [TP]