The New York Times has released its 2025 list of the 50 Best Restaurants in America, highlighting a diverse mix of dining spots ranging from small barbecue joints to fine-dining tasting menus and historic establishments. Selected by 14 reporters and editors after visiting 33 states and dining at over 200 restaurants, the list celebrates culinary excellence, creativity, and hospitality, with more than half of this year’s picks being new.
The only Maryland restaurant on the list is The Wren in Baltimore, an intimate pub-style spot at 1712 Aliceanna St. that offers free seating for 18 guests at the bar and 18–20 in the lounge dining area. The restaurant focuses on seasonal European-inspired country cooking with a daily changing menu prepared by experienced chefs.
A perfect pub requires excellent draft beers, exquisite cocktails, great whiskeys, a few well-chosen wines and food prepared with superb ingredients and meticulous care. The Wren must have been taking notes. With just 20 bar stools and a cozy lounge for drinks, the room looks like any other dim, welcoming Fells Point tavern. But Will Mester, the chef and an owner, working with a couple of induction burners and a small convection oven, produces lovely, seasonal pub fare. The chalkboard menu changes daily, but on a cool April evening it offered rich, tender duck rillettes served with a pile of gherkins and thick-cut bread, smoky grilled leeks blanketed in tangy anchovy butter, a soft spring onion omelet oozing with Lancashire cheese, and a full-throttle beef-and-ale pie with a rich lard crust and buttery mashed potatoes. For dessert, a flowery, light apple cake and perhaps a wee dram. ERIC ASIMOV
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/dining/best-restaurants-america.html
