Dallas Can Boast the Most

While pondering the sheer magnitude of some of the culinary review topics that I have tasked myself with, I began to wonder which U.S. city has the most restaurants per capita. So, I did a bit of research and came up with some interesting nuggets of knowledge to pass on to you. The city websites of San Francisco, California; Madison, Wisconsin; Washington DC; and Shreveport, Louisiana all claim this title, but as far as states go, The National Restaurant Association (NRA) says that California certainly has the most restaurants, overall with 87,225 dining establishments. New York State takes second with 58,027, Texas has 53,631, Florida sports 41,901, and Pennsylvania comes in with 31,466 restaurants, making up the top five states. The top five restaurants per capita U.S. cities, with a population of over 100,000, according to the NRA, are: #5 - Austin, Texas with 1,088 eating establishments and a population of 690,252, making their people to restaurant ratio 634 to 1; #4 - Louisville, Kentucky which has just over 500,000 people and 1,089 restaurants, making their ratio 510 to 1; #3 - Madison, Wisconsin has 221,551 people and 437 restaurants which makes their ratio 506 to 1; #2 - Wichita, Kansas with 360,715 people and 739 eating destinations has a ratio of 488 to 1; and #1 with a bullet and a drum roll.... Dallas, Texas!!!! with a population of 1,250,950 eaters and 2,666 eateries, has ratio of 469 people to each restaurant! Yeah! Were #1. So take this into consideration when reading reviews and "Best of Dallas" lists. For critics and reviewers, this is a veritable cornucopia, or feast, if you will, of places to try, but it also becomes a daunting undertaking when trying to compile a "best of" list of popular dishes like pizza, burgers, tacos, etc. Much of this info was gathered from the NRA website (http://www.restaurant.org/) and from an excellent article by Kevin Fields at http://www.articlealley.com/article_108023_26.html. Get out there and try them all and let us know what you think is the best in Dallas!

Greg