{"id":880438,"date":"2026-06-20T11:53:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/880438\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T11:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T11:53:11","slug":"nyc-restaurants-take-home-prestigious-james-beard-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/880438\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC restaurants take home prestigious James Beard awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three restaurants from the five boroughs took home awards at the annual James Beard Foundation awards<\/a> in Chicago Monday, showcasing global cuisine amid federal attacks on immigrants.<\/p>\n

Lei<\/a>, a wine bar, restaurant and brain child of Annie Shi in Chinatown was honored in the Best New Restaurant category, Korean-born chef Hooni Kim of Meju<\/a> in Long Island City took home the award for Best Chef in New York State and Lee Campbell of Borgo<\/a>, on the border of Kips Bay and the Flat Iron District, was recognized as the Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service.<\/p>\n

Some of NYC\u2019s local culinary professionals honored by the foundation said they found inspiration from their heritage outside of the U.S.\n<\/p>\n

Shi and Lei\u2019s chef, Patty Lee, giggled as they accepted the\u00a0Best New Restaurant award<\/a> along with wine director Matt Turner.\u00a0The management team of the small, twenty-something-seat restaurant on Doyers Street seemed surprised at the national recognition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI already took off my heels\u2014I\u2019m in flats\u2014we didn\u2019t expect to be up here,\u201d Shi said during the award ceremony. \u201cLei started as a really personal dream, and it is what it is today because of the people who are up here, Matt Turner, our wine director, and Patty Lee, our chef.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lei developed out of Shi\u2019s nostalgia for the home-cooked Chinese dishes she grew up with in Rego Park, Queens, and her love of wine. Already successful in two other ventures, King in SoHo and Jupiter at Rockefeller Center, Lei was Shi\u2019s inaugural solo project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many incredible restaurants of all shapes and sizes so it makes it especially meaningful that our little wine bar was recognized in this major way,\u201d Shi said in a statement to amNewYork.<\/p>\n

Shi dedicated the award to the team at Lei, which includes a staff that is exceedingly proficient in wine and a menu that strives to contribute to the neighborhood\u2019s culture rather than diverge from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are so lucky to be a part of our community, which is Chinatown,\u201d Shi said when receiving the James Beard award. \u201cAnd this is a declaration and an ask that you all support your local Chinatowns wherever you are because that\u2019s what makes this country great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeiLei wine bar boasts an extensive wine list and an expert staff able to walk guests through pairings with their Chinese inspired menu. Photo: Evan Sung<\/p>\n

The James Beard Awards also highlighted pioneers who have returned home to NYC like Campbell, who took a hiatus in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia ahead of signing on at Borgo in the Flatiron district.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Campbell won the James Beard Foundation\u2019s Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service award and is known as a pioneer in NYC\u2019s wine scene. She didn\u2019t attend the Chicago awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

Shi wasn\u2019t the only NYC James Beard winner to highlight their NYC neighborhood. Kim proudly recognized the importance of a Queens restaurant, Meju, standing out amid the elite Manhattan and Brooklyn luxury culinary scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud to be representing, not Manhattan, not Brooklyn, but Queens, New York,\u201d Kim said. \u201cMost chefs\u2014cooks, we work at the great restaurants in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but most of us, we live in Queens. Meju is a restaurant in Queens, and I live across the street and I consider Queens my home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim called Queens the ethnic food capital of the world and honored the mom-and-pop food culture of the borough, telling small, independent restaurants, \u201cThis is for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three restaurants from the five boroughs took home awards at the annual James Beard Foundation awards in Chicago…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":880439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,31955,990,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,988,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-880438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-amny-weekender","tag-food","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-restaurants","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116782302840247281","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}