The 2024 Flood's Awards

All you children, gather 'round. The results are in

Dec 23, 2024

If you look back to the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards, like I so often do, there’s one result that should jump off the page. Steely Dan’s Two Against Nature, their first studio album after a 20-year hiatus, somehow went home with the “Album of the Year” title, beating out Eminem’s Marshall Mathers LP and Radiohead’s Kid A. Let the record show I have perfectly neutral feelings about Steely Dan — I’ll even admit they have some jams — but this selection was an egregious offense. Did the voters really think this was the best album? Was it a make-up call from their 1982 snub? Awarded as a way to honor their legacy? We’ll never know.

Award shows — the Grammys in particular — have captured my attention for years. They’re undeniably entertaining — the pageantry, the performances, the awards. But they’ve always lacked the level of transparency I desire and feel viewers deserve. What do these categories mean? Who’s voting? On what basis is something “better” than something else? I figured I should take matters into my own hands.

Welcome to The 2024 Flood’s Awards, the 2nd Annual. It’s an award show with 11 categories and one singular voter (me). The Flood’s Awards are built for entertainment, but they’re also incredibly well-considered, and quite transparent. No politics, not a popularity contest – just a badass collection of restaurants, dishes, albums, and songs (in my opinion).

Choosing winners was… hard. Narrowing down the broad field to the nominees you’ll see below was even harder. Everything listed, winner or not, is a major hit — I promise you that.

Today’s post is a longer one, with quite a few images. For the best viewing experience, I highly recommend scrolling through The 2024 Flood’s Awards on Substack’s browser or app. And if you haven’t already, please subscribe to Mr. Flood’s Party — it costs you nothing! Your support lights me up!

Restaurant of the Year

The best restaurant visited for the first time in 2024

Winner: Choza Mexico City, Mexico
Why it wins: There isn’t a restaurant I’ve thought about more this year than Choza. From the minute I queued up outside the slightly incognito entrance in Roma Norte, I knew I was in for something special. It’s a restaurant like no other — a music-driven experience featuring open-fire, high-flavor cooking on a buzzing open-air rooftop. I can still hear the hypnotic, cosmic beats spinning on vinyl. I can still feel the spice of the Chiang Mai sausage lettuce wraps. I can still visualize the haze that fills the air — a blend of smoke from the fire and floral incense. Choza doesn’t just hit, it lingers.

Café of the Year

The best café visited for the first time in 2024

Winner: post Mexico City, Mexico
Why it wins: Less isn’t just more at post, a minimal café on a quiet street in Roma, less is everything. The offering is simple: light roast espresso, optionally con agua or con leche. The product, however, is meticulously soured, beautifully roasted, and perfectly extracted. It’s dare I say… a perfect cortado — smooth, creamy, and balanced. The space is serene — sort of a Japanese aesthetic with clean lines and sleek metal counters and stools. post wins because it’s a change of pace from Mexico City’s vibrant, fast-paced café culture — a slowed-down, chilled-out experience with perfect coffee.

Best Bar

The best bar visited for the first time in 2024

Winner: Queen Mary Tavern Chicago, Illinois
Why it wins: In what felt like the year the martini fully returned to prominence, the best one served to me was at Queen Mary Tavern — ice cold, incredibly strong, changing ever-so-slightly with seasonal flare. That alone doesn’t win you best bar honors, but it doesn’t hurt their case. The dark room, the tastefully done maritime decor, the friendly staff that wants you to enjoy the hell out of your experience, the seafood towers with perfect oysters and smoked whitefish dip — that’s what pushes QMT over the edge. Queen Mary is what I consider the perfect neighborhood bar — a place you could post up for hours and never feel like you should be anywhere else.

Best Bakery

The best bakery visited for the first time in 2024

Winner: Laurel Bakery Brooklyn, New York
Why it wins: If you asked me to assemble a list of my 10 favorite bakery items this year, at least 5 come from Laurel. Ramp & cantal “escargot”, pain suisse, cardamon pain de singe, tuna on focaccia, almond pain d’epice. Laurel is executing masterful, French-leaning baked goods with just enough creativity, but without the maximalism or exotic flavor profiles. Much of what I love about Place des Fêtes, Redwood Hospitality’s restaurant that preceded the bakery, has found its way into the feeling and ethos of Laurel: warm, thoughtful, easy-going, sleek, precise, and hospitable.

Pop-Up of the Year

One night only, the most memorable pop-up event attended this year

Winner: Otto Berlin at Bar Laika Brooklyn, New York
Why it wins: It was a special night at Bar Laika back in April. The Berlin-based Otto team brought out all the stops for their first US pop-up, serving a menu of their signature dishes, along with a few one-night-only specials like buttery tilefish in a spicy buckwheat shoyu broth. It felt like the stars aligned having an acclaimed European restaurant visiting New York and choosing to host their dinner in Clinton Hill, of all neighborhoods. The Otto pop-up was a welcome sidestep from New York-centric hype, and a break from crazy reservation culture for one fleeting night.

The Hospitality Award

An instance of hospitality that went above and beyond

Winner: n/a
Why there’s no winner: Listen, I thought long and hard. I went through the list over and over, running back each of these experiences. Clement taking care of me and my parents at Fradei, pouring wine and making us feel right at home. Steve making a casual Sunday lunch feel like something so much more at Cafe Mado. Brendan telling ridiculous stories about wine producers and cracking open Tsingtaos with me and my friends at Salle Climatisée. James taking over the order and carrying the vibe at Rosella. Evan sharing his enthusiasm for badass restaurants with us at Beba. Jeff making sure all the right dishes were on the table at Nudibranch.

This is what it’s all about. This is the shit I love. This part of the restaurant experience, the hospitality, is massively important to me. These are impactful human connections that’ll stick with me forever, I really mean it.

Impossible to compare. Not fair to narrow. Each of these spots deserves the love.

Best Dish Under $20

The best thing I ate this year, priced under $20

Winner: Tomato + Cream Cheese Bagel, Apollo Bagels New York, New York
Why it wins: For a deceptively simple (and cheap, $7) item, especially compared to the salmon and whitefish options that surround it on the menu, the tomato + cream cheese bagel at Apollo Bagels offers a bite with so much complexity. There’s an initial crunch from the bagel, followed by nutty sesame, juicy tomato, tangy cream cheese, velvety olive oil, and an airy chew (sort of experienced in that order). Apollo has gotten an absurd amount of press and coverage, but this is one of those situations where you’ll take a bite and just think to yourself, “I get it.”

Best Dish Over $20

The best thing I ate this year, priced over $20

Winner: Chitarra with Sungold Sugo, Daisies Chicago, Illinois
Why it wins: After this dish landed and a few bites were had, I had to flag down our server and ask a few important questions: First, “How does this taste so good?” (the answer is, unsurprisingly, butter). The chitarra at Daisies — a late-summer special putting perfect sungold tomatoes to excellent use — was outworldly. Silky smooth and creamy, without using any cream (this was question #2). The chitarra had just enough bite, and the sauce — glossy, bright, sweet, and tangy — was wiped clean.

Best Album

The best album released in 2024

Winner: Hyperdrama — Justice
Why it wins: I often find three common characteristics across great albums: no skips, a couple of bangers, and a highly repeatable listen. Justice’s Hyperdrama, the French-electro duo’s first true studio album since 2016, checked all those boxes. It’s an album filled with grooving dance tracks, including the Tame Impala vocally-led “Neverender” and “One Night/All Night,” and darker, heavier, synth-driven electronic beats like “Incognito.” From top to bottom, I love the Hyperdrama journey — and I take it often. There are layers and elements I’m noticing with each subsequent listen. And for me, an album that continues to reveal its intricacies over time always holds a special place in my rotation.

Record of the Year

The best song released in 2024

Winner: places to be — Fred Again.., Anderson . Paak
Why it wins: This song… rips. It’s a hypnotic, high-energy banger. The pace, the drums, the banging melodic synths!! the piano twinkle, the bounciness, .Paak’s verse. I truly get amped every single time I listen. This song was the backbeat of my travels this year. It’s a tune that makes you feel like the main character — it adds a spring to your step and lengthens your strides. Plus, this video is so sick. Watching it puts the biggest smile on my face.

Best Live Performance

The best concert attended this year

Winner: Khruangbin at Forest Hills Stadium Forest Hills, Queens
Why it wins: The spell Khruangbin puts you under during their shows is nothing short of magic. This tour, A La Sala, was no exception. Their set had the perfect recipe – a bit psychedelic, definitely funky, sometimes mellow, always groovy. Even though the three-piece band appears to be free-style jamming, it’s a coordinated, carefully choreographed effort that seamlessly transitions and flows like lava. Under the stars at Forest Hills Stadium, with a crisp early fall breeze, you couldn’t have asked for a better scene.