First Place:
Lemaire Restaurant
101 W. Franklin St.
649-4629
lemairerestaurant.com
Second Place: The Boathouse
Third Place: Portico Restaurant
Honorable Mention: L’Opossum
Before the recent global pandemic, the Jefferson Hotel’s upscale restaurant Lemaire was perhaps most popular for couples seeking a white-tablecloth, special-occasion dinner replete with grass-fed beef tenderloin and brown butter scallops.
While this remains the case, today diners can also enjoy the fruits of head chef Patrick Willis’ labor for every meal of the day, every day of the week.
“This has been a welcome change for both our hotel guests and the local community to enjoy some of their favorite Lemaire dishes over lunch or to experience Lemaire in a new way with a relaxing breakfast,” says the Jefferson’s director of communications, Jennifer Crisp. She says the Lemaire patio has also been “re-imagined,” so that guests can enjoy this tented al fresco space during all four seasons.
Italian River Road restaurant Portico received high praise during the past year for its charming – dare we say romantic – well-heated outdoor tents.
Since resuming in-person dinner service in September 2020, Modern French restaurant L’Opossum hasn’t missed a beat, with reservations hard to come by even if you’re booking a month out. That means if you’re trying to impress your lady with the restaurant’s famed Beef “Swellington,” you’ll want to start looking for that resy now.