3 Tampa Bay Area Restaurants Up for National Honors

Chefs and restauranteurs don’t get Academy Awards, but they can win accolades from the James Beard Foundation. This year, three Tampa Bay area eateries have been nominated among the best of the best in the annual culinary recognition program.

For the past 25 years, the foundation, which is dedicated to culinary excellence, has picked the most outstanding establishments from across the country to earn national honors in such categories as Outstanding Restaurant and Outstanding Chef. The selection process begins with an open online call that enables people to submit up to two entries per category. This year’s process began last October and resulted in 35,000 submissions from across the country, according to the foundation’s website.

With submissions in, the list was presented to the foundation’s Restaurant and Chef Awards Committee, which includes critics, writers and editors, to cull the numbers down to a manageable list of semifinalists.

When all was said and done, three Tampa Bay area establishments made the semifinal cut. They are:

• Bern’s Steak House, Tampa – Semifinalist in the Outstanding Wine Program category
• The Refinery, Tampa – Greg Baker, semifinalist in the Best Chef: South category
• Indigenous, Sarasota – Steve Phelps, semifinalist in the Best Chef: South category

Finalists will be announced on March 24. The program concludes with the 2015 James Beard Awards gala in Chicago on May 4, during which the winners in each category will be announced.

What Tampa Bay area restaurant do you think should have made the list? Tell us about it by commenting below!

Photo courtesy of The Refinery

See Also:

The Refinery Named Among the South’s Best Eateries

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