As is the tradition at Eater, our closeout of the year is a survey of friends, industry types, bloggers, and readers. We've already covered Top Standbys, Favorite Newcomers, 2012 in One Word, Best Neighborhood, Biggest Surprises, Best Meals and Restaurant Breakups. And now it's time for the final question.
[Photo: Cal Bingham]
Q: What are your dining world headline predictions for 2013?
MC Slim JB, restaurant critic, The Phoenix: Humanity's heavy footprint on the planet will continue to adversely affect how we eat: drought, floods and violent storms will contribute to famine and higher food prices. We'll see more big outbreaks of food-borne illness due to our over-reliance on antibiotics and factory farming. I expect we'll see more and more seafood species disappearing from overfishing. The swelling ranks of the newly-prosperous middle class in places like India and China will drive up oil prices, in turn driving up food prices, and their accompanying rise in the consumption of meat, wine, and luxury foods will make those things more expensive, too. I hope this will serve as a wakeup call for us to get more serious about sustainable energy, fishing, and agriculture, as well as global warming, but I'm not optimistic on that score. Okay, I need to go eat a locally-grown turnip now. Happy New Year!
Marc H., Boston's Hidden Restaurants and Boston Restaurant Talk: The FroYo craze will see a crash of epic proportions, Fort Point will become the new Seaport District, farmers' markets will continue to increase in popularity, and someone will finally give me a $500 gift certificate to o ya.
South End blogger BosGuy: Small plates go away and more ethnic restaurants that are not French or Italian.... Seaport district continues its impressive growth and becomes one of the city's hottest places to open a new restaurant.
An anonymous industry insider who we'll call Litchi Bear: Can escargot make a comeback—please?
Aaron Kagan, editor, Eater Boston: High-End Chefs Continue to Open Casual Restaurants; Meatballs Come to Boston; YumeWoKatare Does Lunch; Local Chefs Delve Deeper Into Rootsy, Hyper-Regional New England Cuisine; Dessert Goes Savory; Cracking The Affordable, High Quality Vegetarian Restaurant Code.
Rachel Cossar, ballet dancer with the Boston Ballet and food blogger at foodista on pointe: Boston is going to make a killing!!!!!!!!!!
Tom O'Keefe of BostonTweet: To no surprise the Seaport District/Fort Point area will continue to explode in 2013. We already know of two restaurants opening in 2013 from nationally known chefs, and another from two favorite local brothers.
Jacqueline Church, local food writer: Braising will start appearing on menus more, replacing comfort foods like mac n cheese which is so over done. Braising offers comfort, as well as stellar flavors with so-called lesser cuts. No sous vide required. A win for customers and for kitchens.
Damien Smith, community manager for Yelp Boston: "Microns: Because Now, Even Air Is Too Overpowering" or "'The Secret Is Bitters,' Says Every Chili Cook Ever."
TJ Connelly, DJ for the Red Sox and founder of onthebar: "CITY GOES WILD FOR BURGER TACO RAMEN."
Jennifer Che, blogger at Tiny Urban Kitchen: Increased popularity of food trucks, food tricycles, etc. as well as more "brick & mortar" versions of well-established food trucks
I'm also hoping looking forward to more and more unique and interesting Japanese dining options. Maybe artisanal soba or tempura will become the next hot thing? (One can always hope . . .)
· All coverage of Year in Eater [~EBOS~]
