Frasca Food and Wine Lands on the National Eater 38 for the Fourth Year in a Row

This morning, Eater published its annual list of the country’s 38 best restaurants, and, for the fourth year running, Boulder’s Frasca Food and Wine made the cut. In his review, Eater restaurant critic Bill Addison calls Frasca’s “the most thoughtful service team in America.”

The announcement comes just as Frasca’s owners are preparing to reopen on Thursday their new Denver restaurant Tavernetta. The much anticipated Denver outpost closed from a kitchen fire just eight days after opening back in September.

Frasca’s placement among the country’s best restaurants started in 2014 when Addison launched his national 38 list. Addison recognized Frasca owners Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson for their exceptional balancing act of fine food and service: “Stuckey and his team know how to gauge guests and reset their moods with calming assurance. Their affable welcome sets the tone for a spectacular meal of specialties from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of northeastern Italy.”

Four years later, praise for the 13-year-old restaurant remains largely the same: “Bobby Stuckey guides the most thoughtful service team in America; soulful northeastern Italian dishes and a profoundly deep wine list make for euphoric dinners,” Addison writes.

Frasca is joined by just a handful of other restaurants around the country that have made the list all four years, including Chicago’s Alinea, San Francisco’s Benu, and Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York.

Over its lifetime, Frasca has received numerous national nominations and awards, including James Beard Best Chef Southwest 2008 for Mackinnon-Patterson, as well as Best Wine Program in 2013, and semi-final status for Outstanding Restaurant as recently as 2017. Stuckey and Mackinnon-Patterson now run Pizzeria Locale along with Frasca and Tavernetta. The two joined forces after first working together at the French Laundry in Napa.

• America’s 38 Essential Restaurants 2017 [Eater]
• Frasca Food and Wine Makes the National Eater 38 for the Third Year in a Row [EDEN]
• James Beard Semi-Finalists Include Four From Colorado [EDEN]
• All Eater Denver Coverage of Tavernetta [EDEN]