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Quick Take:
The Yardy Rum Bar chef and owner, a James Beard semifinalist, believes his unique Caribbean-Pacific Northwest fusion caught critics' attention.
When The New York Times published its annual list of America’s top 50 restaurants Tuesday, Sept. 9, Yardy Rum Bar chef and owner Isaiah Martinez was shocked to see his Eugene establishment named.
“I was definitely surprised,” Martinez said Wednesday. “Everybody thinks I knew, but all I knew was that the writer had been here.”
Martinez said his staff had spotted Times senior editor Brian Gallagher during his visit, but not because Gallagher identified himself.
“We figured it out,” Martinez said. “We almost always know when there’s a writer in the restaurant. We Googled his name. I have his receipt at my house on my desk.”
After working at prestigious Bay Area restaurants earlier in his career, Martinez said he learned to spot the telltale signs of food critics — they often dine alone and order much more than one person would normally have. Staff would face consequences if a critic was in the house unrecognized and unannounced.
“In Eugene, we’re not really expecting food critics to be here, but I do try and know who they are, except the food influencers,” Martinez said. “I don’t know who all of them are. But my staff is trained to see if one person orders, like, five dishes and drinks a lot and orders bottles and is able to handle [it] then they’re probably a writer.”
Martinez thought the visit might result in “some sort of write-up,” but inclusion on the Times’ prestigious restaurant list was a surprise.
“He writes a bunch of different articles,” Martinez said, “so we thought it might be ‘good eats in Oregon’ or something like that.”
Martinez says he follows the Times’ top 50 list to get ideas and to “see all the cool places to follow on Instagram and get inspiration, to see who the big guys are and get inspired by them. But now, I’m like, it’s me.”
In the introduction to the list, Gallagher writes that the restaurants “all have delicious food and a mastery of craft, but also a generosity of spirit and a singular point of view.”
To create the list, 14 reporters and editors ate more than 200 meals in 33 states, mostly flying to get to the different locations. They wanted “a true picture of what’s happening in restaurants across the country” and showed up unannounced.
The attention brings mixed feelings for Martinez. While being on the list is “super-reassuring” for a chef who said he sometimes experiences imposter syndrome, he worries it will bring in people who only know his name from a national list, and people who have been supporting him since the beginning will have a harder time getting a table.
The Caribbean restaurant, which opened in its brick-and-mortar location in February 2024 after operating as a food truck, was one of only two Oregon restaurants to make the national list. Martinez believes the Times found Yardy through his James Beard nomination earlier this year, but he thinks his restaurant’s cultural uniqueness sealed the deal.
He explained that food critics don’t want to eat another burger, and his Caribbean-meets-Pacific Northwest fusion style is delicious and unexpected.
“What we’re doing is culturally kind of cool,” Martinez said. “When you go to an Italian restaurant, you know what you’re getting. But we have this weird Caribbean fusion spot that’s unexpected. I know what we do is good. I’m grateful, but I’m definitely shocked more than anything. The excitement hasn’t happened yet.”
Want to go?
Yardy Rum Bar
837 Lincoln St.
458-240-7564
https://www.yardyrumbar.com
