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Pizzeria Portofino Wins Best New Restaurant
This was a hotly contested category, and not just because we placed 12 restaurants on the ballot instead of the five in most of the other categories. Last year was a strong one for Chicago newcomers, and even narrowing the field to a dozen was difficult. You voters proved to be as conflicted as we were; fewer than 20 votes separated second place from sixth, and there was no shame being in the middle of the pack. Nevertheless, there was a clear winner: Pizzeria Portofino, the riverside Italian place that spent most of last summer playing to standing-room-only crowds, finished well ahead of second-place Galit, the Lincoln Park Middle-Eastern restaurant that was wildly popular in its own right, and the Moody Tongue Dining Room, the South Loop newbie helmed by chef Jared Wentworth. 317 N. Clark St., pizzeriaportofino.com.