City: Miami, FL

Category: Restaurants

Telephone: (305) 573-5550

Address: 130 NE 40th St. in the Atlas Plaza

Description: Consistently ranked as not just one of Miami’s best restaurants, but one of the country’s, chef and owner Michael Schwartz’s playful farm-to-table approach keeps the restaurant’s 90 seats filled daily. Despite the restaurant’s “eat local” attitude, don’t expect any sort of self-righteous smugness. In almost every review of the restaurant, the word “unpretentious,” or one of its synonyms, appears. Schwartz has a knack for turning low-brow American staples into serious culinary masterpieces. A few favorites include his thick-cut potato chips and pan-fried onion dip and the pastry chef Hedy Goldsmith’s homemade Pop Tarts with a rotating variety of fillings such as Nutella. Whether it’s pasta, jams, or sodas, Schwartz is adamant about making everything in-house. A wood-fired oven churns out everything from thin-crust pizzas to pork shoulder. Other notable offerings include hominy (corn with the bran and wheat removed) nuggets, crispy sweet and spicy pork shoulder, and a pan-roasted poulet-range chicken. The dinner menu is divided by portion size into snack, small, medium, large, and extra-large sections with medium entrées falling in the $14 to $20 range and large entrees in the $21 to $30. The restaurant’s cocktails are just as fanciful and delicious as its entrees. There is also a pleasantly accessible wine list. Open daily for lunch and dinner and for brunch on Sun, reservations (which can be made through the restaurant’s website) are a must. To try your luck, you can show up at 7 p.m. and take a shot at snagging a seat at the back of the bar.