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The James Beard Foundation announced the semifinalists for the 2024 Restaurant and Chef Awards on Wednesday, Jan 24. The awards recognize the nation's best restaurants, chefs, food writers, and others in the hospitality industry.
Lita, an Iberian cuisine restaurant in Aberdeen by Chef David Viana and his girlfriend Neilly Robinson, was among the 30 semifinal nominees for the best new restaurant award. According to its website, the Route 34 restaurant specializes in Portuguese delicacies and opened in April 2023.
Two New Jersey chefs are also semifinalists for the 2024 best mid-Atlantic chef award. Dane DeMarco from Gass & Main in Haddonfield, and Nur-E Gulshan Rahman from Korai Kitchen in Jersey City made the list of 10 nominees.
Viana is Lita's executive chef and grew up in the Portuguese neighborhood of Little Lisboa in Newark. He was nominated in 2018 for the James Beard Foundation's best mid-Atlantic chef award.
Lita's website said Viana uses his talents "to bring new life to a cuisine that has suffered years of neglect and boredom."
"Using his grandmother’s recipes and reintroducing ingredients like piri piri, paprika, clove, allspice, cumin, and nutmeg to meats, fish, and other savory dishes, Chef David looks to recapture the taste of his youth and combine it with NJ fresh ingredients and modern techniques," the website said.
Along with its dishes from Portugal, Lita also has an "intimate neighborhood cocktail bar" called La Otra. The bar features a variety of Spanish and Portuguese wines, along with cocktail classes taught by bar manager Ricardo Rodriguez.
The James Beard Award nomination isn't the first national recognition for Lita. It was named one of the 50 best new restaurants by Esquire Magazine in 2023.
Esquire also recognized La Otra on its 50 best martinis of 2023 list, showcasing the bar's "Garden State Martini."
"They don’t call it the garden state for nothing," wrote Kevin Sintumuang of Esquire. "And so, naturally, one of the state’s best bars would have a martini that included the pride of many a Jersey farm: the tomato. Take a martini with manzanilla sherry instead of vermouth, add some tomato water, strawberry white balsamic and olive oil, and you’ve got a savory martini to pair with one of Jersey’s other great things on offer at La Otra: disco fries."
Gass & Main calls itself a "new American BYO experience" crafted by DeMarco. The restaurant on Kings Court promotes "funky and elevated plays" on traditional food, like macaroni and cheese with truffled gnocchi.
Korai Kitchen says it's the "first Bangladeshi eatery" in Jersey City. The Summit Avenue restaurant was featured in the Max streaming TV series "Take Out with Lisa Ling," which highlights Asian American cuisine.
The James Beard Award finalists will be announced on Wednesday, Apr. 3, and the winners will be awarded at a ceremony in Chicago on Monday, June 10.
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