Buzz

By Kara Baskin

Food & Wine magazine has revealed its annual list of the country’s top 10 new restaurants —and a Boston spot made the cut (literally): South Boston’s Fox & the Knife ranked seventh on the list.

The Italian restaurant opened in February, run by Karen Akunowicz, longtime chef at the South End’s Myers + Chang. In 2018, she was named Best Chef: Northeast at the James Beard awards in recognition of her work there. Akunowicz spent her younger years in Modena, Italy, staging at a trattoria; she also worked at Michael Schlow’s now-closed Via Matta and as sous chef at Ana Sortun’s Oleana.

This is the first time the magazine has ranked restaurants instead of simply naming 10 contenders. Food & Wine editor-at-large Jordana Rothman curated the list, flying a reported 30,000 miles to 24 cities nationwide to scout possibilities.

“When Jordana called me, I was shocked and I couldn’t stop crying. She came to visit us when we were really only two weeks old, and the fact that could see so clearly what we’re trying to do and that she understood it while we were getting it all right meant so much,” Akunowicz says. “I always say that we’re a little neighborhood restaurant doing our thing, trying to bring a little bit of Italy to our corner of South Boston. To have her see that means so much.”

“Each of the 10 Best New Restaurants that made the list inspired us with their dedication to their communities and the work cultures they’ve created,” editor-in-chief Hunter Lewis said in a release.

For the full roster, visit www.foodandwine.com.