by | July 27, 2026
The James Beard Awards Snubbed Florida, Again. Our Readers Didn’t.
From Miami to Sarasota to St. Pete, readers named the restaurants that deserve the national stage.
Last month, after the James Beard Awards once again managed to look out across this big, beautiful, salt-rimmed state and see nothing worth rewarding, we asked Key Lime readers to help us make our own list. Tell us, we said, which Florida restaurants deserve a Beard.
And I’m very appreciative that you answered.
A few of your responses made an especially strong case. One of them is just down the street from me in Miami: Walrus Rodeo. “The bone marrow, the beef carpaccio, and the overall setting and service are excellent without being pretentious,” the reader wrote.
All true, I’d say. Walrus Rodeo has always seemed more interested in the food than the performance, especially considering the per capita number of Miami restaurants with a disco ball must shatter the national average. At Walrus Rodeo, the team of chefs Luciana Giangrandi, Alex Meyer and Jeff Maxfield seem to cook with a singular focus: make things that taste really good. That might seem like an obvious thing for a restaurant to do, but so often places get lost in tableside presentations and fire dancer performances and things that don’t involve simply making dishes we want to eat.
That also appears to be the theme at another reader’s suggestion: “I believe Indigenous in Sarasota and chef Steve Phelps deserve a James Beard Award because they embody everything the award represents: culinary excellence, innovation and a deep commitment to community. Chef Phelps has spent years championing sustainable seafood and local agriculture, creating a dining experience that is uniquely Floridian and deeply connected to the region’s natural resources. Indigenous isn’t just a great restaurant—it’s a model for how restaurants can lead with purpose, support local producers and inspire a more sustainable future for American cuisine.”
Hard to argue with any of that. Phelps has been cooking the kind of food Beard voters claim to care about: regional, responsible, deeply tied to place. Indigenous doesn’t need to borrow anybody else’s idea of importance. It has its own. The restaurant feels rooted in Sarasota in a way that can’t be faked.
Then came this note: “Allelo in St. Pete—it’s one of the first restaurants to come before the Michelin Guide, and it has been snubbed. The wine program is incredible. Their menu truly stands out. But to say that they have the best Greek salad ever is something.”
A best-ever Greek salad is exactly the kind of claim that’ll make me flag a restaurant on Google Maps for the next time I’m on Florida’s west coast. Not because awards should be given out for lettuce and feta alone—though honestly, stranger things have happened—but because a restaurant that can make someone talk like that about a salad is doing something right.
One reader also suggested Ted’s Montana Grill, and while I haven’t been, I admire the swing. The Beard Foundation doesn’t reward chains, which might be a loss, considering how much I like the burger at Houston’s.
So maybe this is where we begin. Not with a ceremony. Not with a medal. Not with waiting around for a foundation in New York to understand what’s happening in Sarasota, Miami, St. Pete and the rest of Florida. Maybe we begin by naming the places ourselves.
Walrus Rodeo, Indigenous and Allelo: While I can’t give you a James Beard Award, I can say well done. Our readers have endorsed what you’re doing, right down to what may be the world’s best Greek salad.
For more Florida fare worthy of fanfare, click here.
About the Author
Eric has been a journalist in Florida for two decades, including stints at newspapers in Fort Pierce, Stuart and Sarasota. His role at Flamingo includes everything from interviewing chefs to first-line editing on cover stories and penning our monthly culinary newsletter, Key Lime.
