Vote Now for Philly’s Restaurant Empire Builder of the Year

Welcome to day five of the ninth annual Eater Awards, honoring restaurant and bar industry talent across the country. Here’s how the Eater Awards work: All 24 Eater cities and the national site will award prizes in multiple categories, including but not limited to Restaurant of the Year, Chef of the Year, and Design of the Year.

In each category, editors will choose an editor’s choice winner and readers will vote for a reader’s choice winner — all to be announced on December 5, 2018. Editor’s choice winners will receive an illustrious tomato can trophy, as is the tradition around here. Eater will further the fanfare by running a feature about every editor’s choice winner throughout the course of the coming year.

Now it’s time to vote for the reader’s choice winner in the Empire Builder of the Year category. The nominees include Marcie Turney and Valerie Safran, who revealed plans to add to their restaurant empire with new projects on East Passyunk Avenue and added chef George Sabatino to their team; Michael Schulson and Nina Tinari, who debuted Giuseppe & Sons and have steakhouse Alpen Rose opening early next year, plus a Rittenhouse restaurant in the pipeline; Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook, who this year released a cookbook, opened another Federal Donuts, and announced plans for a Rittenhouse restaurant; and Philly’s original restaurant empire builder Stephen Starr, who added The Love to his lineup.

Polls will be open for 24 hours and will be strictly policed for funny business. Cast your vote: