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Welcome

More and more these days, chefs are recognizing that eating well is about staying local — about getting foods as close to the source as possible, and thus getting the freshest, most environment-friendly, sustainable ingredients.

So in that vein, we thought that for this issue of Where to Eat we'd keep it local, too, by asking chefs and restaurateurs what they love most about the neighborhoods their restaurants are in. In every area, we got the lowdown from one great restaurant; they told us everything from how their eateries reflect their locations to what the vibe is like in their dining rooms on a typical Saturday night.

Hearing the restaurants described from the inside out — from the mouths of the people who run them - provides a new perspective on the city and its eateries. The approach yielded an entirely new look at how a kitchen and the clientele it feeds are intertwined.

Remarkably, when we asked our chef-subjects what most influenced their menus, the majority of them landed on one thing: the seasons. I couldn't agree more - and the season we're in right now couldn't be a better example of why. The current colder-weather menus are full of rich dishes that make the most of the available bounty of ingredients. You'll find the best of such menus in the following pages, along with our third annual edition of Where to Drink (which we threw in complimentary). All in all, it's the perfect way to dive into a season full of as many fresh dishes as fresh ideas.

Because after all, in talking about community restaurants as much as in cooking food, it's always better to go straight to the source.