The 2026 James Beard Award semifinalists were announced on Wednesday, and once again, Philadelphia-area restaurants and chefs are well-represented.<\/p>\n
In the category of Outstanding Restaurateur, Greg Vernick of Vernick Fish was nominated again.<\/p>\n
For Outstanding Restaurant, Kalaya in Fishtown was nominated.<\/p>\n
In the Emerging Chef category, Frankie Ramierz of Ama received a nod, and for Outstanding Bar, the Lovers Bar at Friday, Saturday Sunday was nominated.<\/p>\n
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Restaurant and chef nominees will be announced on Tuesday, March 31, and winners will be celebrated at the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards Ceremony on Monday, June 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
See the full list of semifinalists below:<\/p>\n
Outstanding Restaurateur<\/p>\n
Greg Vernick, Vernick Philadelphia (Vernick Food & Drink, Vernick Fish, and Vernick Coffee Bar), Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Outstanding RestaurantEmerging Chef<\/p>\n
Frankie Ramirez, Am\u00e1, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Best New RestaurantOutstanding Pastry Chef or Baker<\/p>\n
Justine MacNeil, Fiore, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Outstanding Bar<\/p>\n
Lovers Bar at Friday Saturday Sunday, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Best New Bar<\/p>\n
Almanac, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service<\/p>\n
Dan Suro-Cipolloni and David Suro-Pi\u00f1era, Tequilas and La Jefa, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Best Chef<\/p>\n
Russ Cowan, Radin’s Delicatessen, Cherry Hill, NJ<\/p>\n
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Ian Graye, Pietramala, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Jesse Ito, Royal Sushi & Izakaya, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Dwain Kalup, La Fia, Wilmington, DE<\/p>\n
Randy Rucker, Little Water, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Amanda Shulman, Her Place Supper Club, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n
Omar Tate and Cybille St. Aude-Tate, Honeysuckle, Philadelphia, PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 James Beard Award semifinalists were announced on Wednesday, and once again, Philadelphia-area restaurants and chefs are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[30835,45921,45922,69,71,70,43655],"class_list":["post-93197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-greg-vernick","tag-outstanding-bar","tag-outstanding-restaurant","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-vernick-fish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}