From our BEST new restaurants of the decade feature:
Very few entrepreneurs have the courage that Matt Cho does. After initial success with Cafeteria and Co. and Sipyard, he set his sights on a bigger space that could handle more of his ideas. He partnered with Shai Mauth, the former owner of Xinh Xinh Cafe, to execute the menus, and in a flash, Urbana increased the number of restaurants it played host to by 20%.
It was a classic American diner, an East Coast sandwich shop, a poke stand, and a rice bowl joint, all in one. This past year, it capped it off by adding perhaps its crown jewel: 83 Vietnamese. This is a place that any group can agree on, and there’s a lot of value in that for me.
How it develops and changes over the next decade is anyone’s guess. If there is one thing Cho is known for, it’s that he’s full of ideas and surprises, and he doesn’t just talk about them, he makes it so. (Seth Fein)
Photo by Anna Longworth