Wildweed 1301 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine With a penchant for non-traditional pastas and sauces and some cool and funky artwork, Wildweed is worth checking out in its new, permanent home on Walnut Street. Chef David Jackman and his wife, chef Lydia Jackman, started Wildweed as the Sunday Sauce pop-up in Oakley in 2019, and it’s gone through a few iterations since. The duo decided to plant roots in OTR and opened their own brick-and-mortar space this July, with Bon Appetit naming it one of its must-visit restaurants for the summer of 2024. While the menu is pasta-centric, don’t call Wildweed an Italian restaurant. Instead of traditional Italian pastas, the menu highlights the best cultivated and wild-harvested products our region has to offer, like the Urbanstead Quark Mezzaluna, featuring wild mushroom, crispy garlic, chili oil, parmesan and mushroom XO sauce, or the Doppio Ravioli, with bean and cheese, braised lobster mushroom, basil and preserved lemon. You can dine in the main dining room, or book the chef’s counter for a unique experience that blends Wildweed’s culinary creations into a story of food and place. While you’re there, be sure to take time to appreciate the murals, including one of a variety of mushrooms, created by local artists. Photo: Jon Medina

One of Over-the-Rhine’s newest and most popular restaurants is being hailed as one of the best new restaurants in the country by Esquire Magazine.

Esquire released its annual list of “America’s Best New Restaurants,” which is compiled by four contributors who travel the country in search of the best new dishes. Wildweed, a pasta-centric establishment that opened on Walnut Street this summer, landed on this year’s list.

Helmed by chefs David and Lydia Jackman, Wildweed started in 2019 as the Sunday Sauce pop-up in Oakley and has gone through a few iterations — and over 225 pop-ups and private events — before opening in its permanent brick-and-mortar space in July. The menu features non-traditional pastas and sauces that you can enjoy à la carte in the dining room or via a tasting menu experience at their chef’s counter.

But while the menu is pasta-centric, don’t call Wildweed an Italian restaurant. Instead of traditional Italian pastas, the menu highlights the best cultivated and wild-harvested products our region has to offer, like the Urbanstead Quark Mezzaluna, featuring wild mushroom, crispy garlic, chili oil, parmesan and mushroom XO sauce, or the Doppio Ravioli, with bean and cheese, braised lobster mushroom, basil and preserved lemon.

It was those two dishes Esquire contributor Joshua David Stein praised in his review of Wildweed for the list, writing, “David alchemizes Ohio farms, fields, and forests into pastas of terrific personality and plates of great wonder. In a doppio raviolo, brown-buttered beans and local quark huddle under a zingy lemon sauce studded with foraged lobster mushrooms. But it’s the fresh basil that, like sun through stained glass, turns the plate divine.”

“We’re very grateful to get to continue to represent this community,” David Jackman said in a press release. “Any opportunity we have to shine a spotlight on the community that welcomed us so openly is an honor.”

You can see Esquire’s full list of the country’s best new restaurants here. You can also read CityBeat food critic Pama Mitchell’s review of Wildweed here.

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In 2023, Stein also named Cincinnati Chef Jeffrey Harris’ restaurant, Nolia, as one of the 50 best new restaurants in the country. 

Wildweed, 1301 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. More info: wildweed-restaurant.com.

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This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 10, 2024.

Katherine Barrier is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati’s journalism program and has nearly 10 years of experience reporting local and national news as a digital journalist. At CityBeat, she...