How Vermont finalists Honey Road and Barr Hill fared in James Beard Awards

Vermont was shut out Monday at the James Beard Awards, as two finalists for the prominent food-industry honors did not win their respective categories.

Executive chef/co-owner Cara Tobin of Honey Road, the celebrated Eastern Mediterranean-style restaurant at Church and Main streets in Burlington, lost out in the Best Chef: Northeast category to David Standridge of The Shipwright's Daughter in Mystic, Connecticut. Other finalists in the New England-centric category were from Massachusetts, Maine and Rhode Island.

This was Tobin’s first time reaching the finals in the Best Chef: Northeast category. She was a semifinalist three straight years from 2018 to 2020. Nisachon “Rung” Morgan of Saap in Randolph won in the Best Chef: Northeast category in 2022.

Barr Hill, the distillery/bar/restaurant that opened in 2019 in Montpelier, was a finalist for a national award, Outstanding Bar. The company known for its self-titled gin, nominated for its first James Beard Award, lost to Jewel of the South, a bar in New Orleans. Other bars in the running were from Baltimore, San Francisco and Brownsville, Texas.

Contact Brent Hallenbeck atbhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.