Rosy Included on List of New York Times’ 50 Favorite Restaurants in the United States
Cleveland lands on the New York Times’ annual list of 50 favorite restaurants in America thanks to Rosy, the Ohio City live-fire bistro from chef Vinnie Cimino and Andrew Watts.
by Douglas Trattner | Sep. 16, 2026 | 1:04 PM
Courtesy Dylan Palchesko
To compile this year’s list of 50 Favorite Restaurants in the United States, the New York Times assembled a team of 16 reporters who traveled around the nation. In addition to all the expected places — Manhattan, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco — the tasters hit smaller towns such as Rogers, Ark., Montgomery, Ala., St. Paul, Minn., and Cleveland, Oh.
And rather than attempting the impossible and, let’s admit it, meaningless task of trying to determine the “best restaurants” in America, the Times describes the list as being their “favorite restaurants in the United States” right now. Some restaurants are new, some are old, but the list changes every year.
And one of them is Rosy, the live-fire bistro in Ohio City from chef Vinnie Cimino and partner Andrew Watts. The pair also operate Cordelia downtown.
“It’s incredible that Cleveland is on the list; I don’t know if we have ever made this list before,” says Cimino. “So to be able to be there, in the New York Times, it’s wild. Nobody expects us to make this list. It’s the coolest thing, to be able to put our city on the national stage.”
And lest you think that the reviewers received influencer-style special attention, they state, “We try to experience [the restaurants] the same way you do. We brave the reservation apps, we stand in the lines, we walk in unannounced. We pay for all of our food, and we don’t accept freebies.”
Cimino, who says that he had no idea a Times reviewer was ever onsite, adds about the list, “There’s no order, there’s no ranking, these are the places that stood out to us and that you should go and check out. I love that.”
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Douglas Trattner
For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.
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