On Fire

The Most Twitter-Endorsed Restaurant of 2012 Is Mission Chinese Food

Danny Bowien is on fire. (Not literally.)
Danny Bowien is on fire. (Not literally.) Photo: Mark Peterson

In New York, anyway: First We Feast rounds up the year in Twitter love for Danny Bowien and his crew at Mission Chinese Food. The restaurant, which hit the ground running in May and also figures prominently in Adam Platt’s Where to Eat 2013 in this week’s New York, has gotten emphatic nods from Anthony Bourdain, Andrew Zimmern, and Top Chef’s Gail Simmons. But that’s not all.

Some of the food world’s most critical folks, including former Times critics Frank Bruni and Sam Sifton, have fired off after-dinner tweets that are unabashedly enthusiastic and giddy. “In many ways,” the site posits, “it’s these off-the-cuff endorsements that speak to the infectious spirit of the place better than any review or profile ever could.” To wit: Jessica Alba and Charlie Rose, it turns out, have crushes on crushed Sichuan peppercorns, and while there may be some user overlap among these high-profile tweeters, the collective enthusiasm from aforementioned food people, including Rick Bayless, Tom Colicchio, Dave Chang, Eric Ripert, Questlove, Kate Krader, and many more have brought one restaurant recommendation to some (by our estimation) 5,309,490 people on Twitter. Wok, tweet, repeat indeed.

Computer Love: The Year of Awesome Twitter Endorsements for Mission Chinese Food [First We Feast]
Earlier: Empire of the Burning Tongue: How Mission Chinese Food Perfectly Encapsulates Our Post-Locavore Moment
Related: Here Is Adam Platt’s ‘Where to Eat 2013’

The Most Twitter-Endorsed Restaurant of 2012 Is Mission Chinese Food