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Classic restaurants stand as timeless reminders of culinary excellence, having weathered the test of time to become more than just eateries.
These establishments, steeped in tradition and laden with stories, are a testament to the enduring allure of exceptional dining experiences. With a history that stretches across decades, the top classic restaurants transcend ordinary food service, evolving into local cultural landmarks that have witnessed the ebb and flow of changing times.
In every state, these esteemed restaurants blend both a hint of nostalgia and a nod toward the future.
Food & Wine has recognized the standout classic restaurant in each state:
“There were FOMO-provoking dishes long before social media had them traveling around the world, people planned vacations just to eat (do you even New Orleans?), and America had celebrity chefs and must-see cooking shows, back when it was mostly PBS doing the heavy lifting. And we are still so fortunate, truly, to have so many of those restaurants, and even some of the chefs, with us still, from that long-ago era. We're talking about the classic restaurants, which, let us say, for the sake of drawing a line, are the ones opened right around the millennium and earlier (ideally, way earlier.)
This nearly 17,000-word survey features nearly 250 restaurants, from furthest Alaska to sunny South Florida. It represents an attempt at examining each state's unique fingerprint on this vast, remarkably diverse thing that we call American food. It draws on years of experience traveling around the country on assignment, as well as the deep back catalog of Food & Wine's annual Best New Chefs and Best New Restaurants franchises, alongside countless feature articles.”
In Arizona, the noteworthy title goes to the following:
“Pretty much every pizza lover knows the story by now. Bronx-born Chris Bianco ended up in Phoenix on a whim, back in the '80s. He was only supposed to be visiting, but ended up deciding to stay, soon after opening a pizza place inside a local supermarket, which answers the question, how did one of the country's greatest pizza joints, Pizzeria Bianco, ended up in the middle of the Sonoran Desert? Today, it remains one of the Valley's most important restaurants, alongside much older greats like the mid-century Durant's, a bordello-like (so much red!) steakhouse on Central Avenue opened by a former Vegas pit-boss back in the 1950s.
Make sure to enter through the back door, like the locals do. At the much more casual Fry Bread House, an everyday Native American staple gets the royal treatment, served alongside good pozole and menudo since the early 1990s, which is nearly yesterday compared to Tucson's El Charro Cafe, said to be America's oldest Mexican restaurant, laying claim to the invention of the chimichanga, otherwise known as the deep-fried burrito.
The Santa Fe Railroad is very much a part of Northern Arizona's modern history; at the Fred Harvey-designed La Posada hotel in Winslow, The Turquoise Room pays tribute to peak train, and you can still ride the rails to get there. Amtrak's Southwest Chief, connecting Los Angeles with Chicago, stops right out front.”