Chenin, a 10-seat wine bar tucked inside Detroit’s Siren Hotel, was among the nominees in the Best New Bar category for a prestigious James Beard Award, hoping to add another nod to its numerous accolades since its opening a little more than a year ago.
But the award on Monday evening, June 15, in Chicago, ultimately went to Loma, a Providence, Rhode Island bar that pays homage to “Latin American timelessness and culture,” according to its website.
From Nick Arone, Chenin, lauded since its opening as a small but approachable spot, was among the five nominees for Best New Bar. Others were Bar, Please! in Boise, Idaho, Clemente Bar in New York, New York, Later Bye in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the winner, Loma of Providence, Rhode Island.
On Monday evening, the prestigious James Beard Awards took place at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago. It’s a night of hospitality industry stars where chefs and restaurants nationwide are lauded for what’s considered the Oscars of the industry.
Considered the highest honor in culinary excellence, the annual awards, celebrating its 40th year with the James Beard Foundation, recognize those chefs and restaurants nominated for their achievements and skills in several categories.
Chenin was the sole Michigan nominee to move on from a semifinalist for the highly sought-after award.Noted for its “relaxed approach to fine wine and small plates,” wrote Detroit Free Press dining critic, Chenin landed at No. 6 on the 2026 Detroit Free Press/Chevy Detroit Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list.
Arone, a hospitality industry veteran, was the Siren Hotel’s former food and beverage director.Previously, Chenin’s space was operated by Albena, which served a multicourse, chef-driven tasting menu.
At Chenin, its menu is a little less formal with piled high meaty sandwiches (its mortadella is popular), deep-dish pizzas and fresh pastas. Its wine program leans toward approachable bottles of natural wines.
Chefs and restaurant owners in Detroit and outstate in January were named semifinalists named for the prestigious James Beard Awards. Chenin was the lone semifinalist to move on as a nominee.
Those named as 2026 semifinalists, an honor in itself, were:
Best New Restaurant
Echelon Kitchen & Bar in Ann Arbor. This spot on Main Street opened early in 2025 and is known for its wood-fired dishes and seasonal menus.
Best Chef: Great Lakes
This category includes chefs from Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. In years past, the category was typically dominated by Illinois chefs. Among the more than 20 semifinalists, there are five from Michigan.Two chefs are from Detroit restaurants.Javier Bardauil of Barda in Detroit’s Core City is a semifinalist for the second year in a row. This is the third straight year that John Yelinek of Ladder 4 Wine Bar in a former Detroit fire station is a semifinalist.
Other Michigan chefs and first-time semifinalists are Andy Elliott and Emily Stewart, Modern Bird in Traverse City, and James Galbraith of PostBoy in New Buffalo near the Indiana border. More recently, the owners of Modern Bird made the New York Times list of America’s best.
In the last several years, Michigan has had numerous chef and restaurant semifinalists and finalists and a few winners.
At the 2025 James Beard Awards, two northern Michigan chefs, Jennifer Blakeslee and Eric Patterson of The Cooks’ House in Traverse City, moved on as finalist nominees. The two chefs went up against three Chicago chefs, who always have a strong showing in the category, and a chef from Cincinnati, Ohio, vying for a coveted James Beard Award, Great Lakes division, which also includes Indiana. Noah Sandoval of Oriole in Chicago took home the award.
Lyndsay C. Green, the Detroit Free Press’ dining critic, earned her second James Beard Award at last year’s James Beard Foundation Media Awards in the Foodways category. Green was nominated and won for her 2024 series on urban farming, titled “As Detroit sees a future in urban agriculture, some pushback harkens to a dark past.”
It was the third time she was nominated for a James Beard Award. In 2023, she won a media award for emerging voice.
Excitement from the 2024 awards included Clawson Sozai sushi chef Hajime Sato being named the Best Chef Great Lakes. Sato permanently closed his Sozai sushi restaurant in April, 2025.
At the 2022 James Beard Awards Restaurant and Chef Awards, Warda Bouguettaya, owner of Midtown’s Warda Pâtisserie, was awarded Outstanding Pastry Chef.
Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Chenin, Detroit’s only hope for James Beard Award, misses out
Reporting by Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Susan Selasky, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
