Credit: Ken Blaze
Today, the 2019 James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists were announced and two Cleveland names made the list. Jeremy Umansky’s Larder Delicatessen (1455 W. 29th St., 216-912-8203) earned a spot in the Best New Restaurant category.

“I’m completely shocked,” Umansky said soon after learning the news.

He joins Jill Vedaa, chef-owner of Salt in Lakewood, on the list, with Vedaa earning a spot in the Best Chefs: Great Lakes Region category for the second year in a row.

On Wednesday, March 27, this lengthy list of semifinalists will be whittled down to a much more competitive list of finalists. Those finalists will learn their fate at the big James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago on Monday, May 6.

We’ll follow up with this story on March 27. 

This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2019.

For 25 years, Douglas Trattner has worked as a full-time freelance writer, editor and author. His work as co-author on Michael Symon's cookbooks have earned him four New York Times Best-Selling Author honors, while his longstanding role as Scene dining editor has garnered awards of its own.

2 replies on “Larder Nabs a Spot on James Beard Awards Best New Restaurant Semifinalists List”

  1. Jeremy’s customer service skills leave a lot to be desired. If he knows that YOU know his prices are too high…and they are…and you end up buying a couple of inexpensive things instead of a lot of take-out, he will sneer at you and treat you like a piece of catshit he found on the floor. He was such an asshole to both me and my wife that I will never set foot in that yuppie foodie fake deli again, under any circumstances. Modern ethnic delicatessen my ass…not at those prices! My uncle owned a deli in Pissburgh, and the city I grew up in had delis up the wazoo, so i KNOW ehat a real deli is. The Larder isn’t one of them. it’s about as much an ethnic deli as a kitchen-table poker game is to a Vegas casino. Anyone who thinks they’re going into a “real deli’ when they go into this joint has never set foot in the real thing. Don’t be fooled! And I hope he loses.

  2. Ohio City (NOT gonna call it by that stupid phony name of Hingetown) has a lot of people with deep pockets who don’t mind spending more for food, so he is only charging what he can get away with. Lower prices don’t pay the bills or keep the lights on. He does what he has to do, because of where he is. he chose the neighborhood because he knew the affluent won’t bitch about being gouged. His “ethnic deli” wouldn’t succeed in a lot of other Cleveland neighborhoods. Ohio City is not the real Cleveland.

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