by Whitney Filloon 
This morning brought a livestream announcement of the 2014 James Beard Award semifinalists for restaurants and chefs — that is, the lengthy list of nominees released before being whittled down to a smaller list of finalists next month. This year brought nods for locals Matt McCallister of FT33, Lucia’s David Uygur and Spoon’s John Tesar in the Outstanding Chef: Southwest category; Casa Rubia for Best New Restaurant; Abacus and The Mansion on Turtle Creek were both acknowledged in the Outstanding Service category; and Cafe on the Green in the Outstanding Wine Program category. Last year semifinalists from Dallas included Nick Badovinus for Outstanding Restaurateur and Tei-An’s Teiichi Sakurai and former Oak chef Jason Maddy for Outstanding Chef: Southwest, but sadly none made it to the finalist stage; better luck this year, perhaps? It’s certainly a strong showing for newcomer Casa Rubia, which also won the number two spot in Texas Monthly restaurant critic Pat Sharpe’s list of best new restaurants in Texas that was released yesterday. Head on over to Eater National for the full list of semifinalists. · JBF Announces 2014 Restaurant and Chef Semifinalists
