Three Austin restaurants are on Bon Appetit magazine’s list of the 20 Most Important Restaurants in America: Franklin BBQ, run by Aaron Franklin, and Uchi and Uchiko, two Japanese restaurants run by Tyson Cole.
"It's a list of the spots where chefs want to eat today, the places on the forefront of what is happening in dining at this moment," list curator Andrew Knowlton explains.
Tyson Cole says while he and Aaron Franklin serve very different styles of food, their restaurants share similar origins.
“He was like, ‘Look, I’m only going to serve the best brisket I can find. And I’m going to be the only person smoking it. I’m the only person cutting it. And every single bite that someone has is going to be from my hand,'" Tyson explains. "That’s what Aaron did from the beginning and that’s why he’s so successful. And that’s the same thing I did with Uchi from the beginning. It’s just one guy was slicing fish. The other guy was slicing brisket.”
Uchi, Uchiko and Franklin were the only Texas restaurants on Bon Appetit’s list. The magazine's most important restaurant was David Chang's Momofuku in New York City.
