Yesterday we told you about Esquire's list of the best new restaurants in the U.S. for 2013. And we lamented the fact that, while two Dallas restaurants made the cut, no Houston eateries were on the list.
Imagine our delight, then, when Esquire's food and travel correspondent and the author of the list, John Mariani, reached out to us regarding our displeasure with his selections. He reminded us that back in 2000 Lee Brown, the mayor of Houston at the time, proclaimed October 19 "John Mariani Day" in appreciation of Mariani's recognition of Houston's dining scene. So because everyone -- even folks who wrongly choose Dallas over Houston -- deserves a fair trial, we gave Mariani a call so he could speak in his defense.
"First of all," Mariani told us, "I just want to address the fact that I name 20 restaurants in the U.S., so not every year is every city going to have one. This year I got to Austin for two or three days, and spent the same amount of time in Houston and Dallas. I found a number of places in each city that were certainly worthy."