Photograph of Jeffery Harris by Jeremy Kramer, Hideki Harada by HATSUE, Sarah Dworak by Catherine Grace, Mike Stankovich courtesy Longfellow, David Willocks courtesy The Baker's Table
Five local restaurant industry professionals—four chefs and one bar owner—have been nominated in the country’s most prestigious awards program celebrating culinary excellence.
Hideki Harada of Kiki, Sarah Dworak of Sudova, and Jeffery Harris of Nolia Kitchen made the list in the “Best Chef: Great Lakes (IL, IN, MI, OH)” category while David Willocks of The Baker’s Table is nominated in the “Best Chef: Southeast” category. This is also the second year in a row that Mike Stankovich of Longfellow is in the running in the “Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service” category. The Over-the-Rhine bar owner was a finalist in the category when it was launched last year to recognize “a service professional who creates and serves cocktails or other offerings such as low- and non-alcoholic beverages” and who “has set high standards; demonstrates creativity and consistency in innovation, hospitality; is making efforts to create a sustainable work culture; and has served as an exceptional example or mentor for other beverage professionals.”
“[I] love the fact that five people from our region/area are nominated,” Stankovich says. “I am proud of my family, staff, and guests, first and foremost. If they don’t show up, none of it matters. Cincinnati has flown under the radar for too long!”
Harada and Harris are also repeat nominees—they were each nominated in the “Best Chef: Great Lakes” category in 2023 and 2024, respectively, and Nolia Kitchen was nominated in and a finalist for the “Best New Restaurant” category in 2023—while this is Willocks’s and Dworak’s first nominations.
“I’m stunned to be nominated as a semifinalist, and so proud to be representing Eastern European cuisine and my family’s history at the same time,” says Dworak, who owned Wódka Bar in Over-the-Rhine before closing the establishment and opening Sudova on Court Street downtown in August 2024. “The nominations speak to the diversity of food and culture that our city has to offer, which makes Cincinnati an interesting place to live and visit.”
Finalists will be announced on March 31 and the awards ceremony will take place on June 15 at the Lyric Opera in Chicago.
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