Best New Restaurant 2024
Words by SOPHIE BROCHU
Photography by ALLISON REVELLE
Produced by MORRIGAN MAZA, GOOD CULTURE CREATIVE
WE ALL HAVE DIFFERENT WAYS of talking about hospitality in the restaurant industry, but if you were to ask me what constitutes great hospitality, I might start with the feeling I get around family. I would tell you about comfort and generosity. The way my late father-in-law would break out my favorite red wines from the “cellar” on our visits to north Georgia or the spread of New York-style bagels and lox at Aunt Audrey’s in Westchester, New York. Great hospitality gives people a sense of belonging, which is to say, it makes them feel at home away from home.
It’s relatively easy to accomplish this among close friends and family. It’s another thing to make strangers feel this way.
Meanwhile, Saint Bibiana, the marquee restaurant at Hotel Bardo, seeks to transport diners on a luxe European summer vacation with chosen family. It’s also how the hotel chose to kick off its Instagram presence back in the spring of 2023 — months ahead of its fall 2023 debut — with washed out shots of the Italian coastline. The series of boats, buoys and cliffs was a clever tactic to tease out a feeling of la dolce vita and create a sense of place, long before the doors were even open.
If a sense of place is ingrained in the idea of hospitality, the team behind Bibiana and Hotel Bardo wants you to know exactly where you are. Soft peach hues of the dining room (or rather a series of rooms), the dripping pink chandeliers and the plush sage upholstery of a rounded banquette set the tone. The way the sunlight spills onto the white marble tables through arched windows. Like their Instagram account, the design and aesthetic are carefully curated. It may not scream “home” per se, but it screams Saint Bibiana. It’s a restaurant with an identity and a sense of place, both of which are integral in creating a strong foundation for great hospitality.
According to legend, the patron Saint Bibiana was buried near her home on the Aventine Hill in fourth century Rome. The ground around her grave sprouted with healing herbs that were used to treat hangovers.
“Our design narrative, service delivery and menu work together to evoke a sentiment often found along the Mediterranean and Adriatic coastlines, in treasured resorts where experiences are exceptional and effortless,” says managing partner Jon Kully.
Anyone who has worked at any craft or art at length will tell you that it takes a lot of effort to be effortless.
In an era of unprecedented events and incessant doomscrolling, it’s no wonder we all have an appetite for escape. We want a story, an experience, a few hours where we can sit down at the table and be taken care of. And this is what Saint Bibiana does so well.
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On our very first night out together since our 11-month-old daughter was born, Andrew and I had a chance to revel in the short-lived escape that is Saint Bibiana. The table was flooded with Lambrusco cocktails, raw oysters and mignonette, and grilled calamari in a guanciale-spiced tomato sauce that I’m still thinking about five weeks later. There were olive oil-washed martinis, bowls of pipe rigate verde and cavatelli sardi with spicy Sicilian ’nduja. There was Dover sole piccata topped with lemon and capers, and charred romanesco with crushed almond and chili flake. There was more, of course there was more, and then dessert — a grand finale of gelatos, sorbets and pastries.
Pay the price of overindulgence and perhaps Saint Bibiana will offer her healing powers as you head out into the swampy night, back to reality, work, doomscrolling, news, is the baby crying?, the things that need doing — that dinner, already so far away, like a dream or a distant memory that comes rapping at your brain.
After all, a great vacation can recharge us, and then, after being away for a bit, it feels nice to return home.
Born and raised in Savannah, Sophie Brochu is back in her hometown after 13 years in Chicago. She and her husband own Brochu’s Family Tradition (2024 Winner Best Fried Chicken and Runner-Up Best Oysters and 2023 Winner Best New Restaurant). A musician, writer and philosophy major, Sophie wants to talk about local alligator sightings, the book you’re reading, and why sharing a meal with loved ones releases dopamine. Andrew and Sophie met working in a restaurant in Chicago.
