Stuffed: The 2009 Dining Awards
It’s been a brutal year for dining out, with recession-cowed consumers clutching their wallets, panning for bargains, and shunning the posh places they frequented in better times. Calamity loomed everywhere: storied old venues shuttered, crops failed, and an entire city block of beloved restaurants — Thornton’s, Umi, Sorento’s, Greek Isles, Rod Dee, and El Pelón — literally went up in flames.
But the news isn’t all dire: the intrepid industry soldiered on, tapping its creativity to give credit-constrained gourmands new reasons to keep going out. And most of us — despite grim job prospects, evaporating retirement plans, and that one friend who still thinks The Cheesecake Factory rocks — continued to seek out extraordinary food and drink. In this spirit, we pause to recognize the best and the worst of a tumultuous year in Boston dining, while looking forward with Obaman optimism to better days in 2010.
by MC Slim JB | October 05, 2009
