Restaurant Awards Hall of Fame: Cioppino’s

Restaurant: Cioppino’s
Category: Best Italian/Best New
Record: 17 Gold Medals between 2004 and 2020

Running an acclaimed fine Italian restaurant is sort of like being a famous gunslinger back in the Old West: there’s always some young whippersnapper looking to ride into town and take your title. But, since 2004, that’s mostly been an exercise in futility for anyone challenging Pino Posteraro for dominance in the realm of cooking Italian food at the highest level (he was knighted by the president of Italy in 2018, to underscore the point). His Yaletown room (recently redone, as if to prepare for another 17 years of Golds) seems like one of the pillars upon which our local industry is based—setting unreasonably high standards for both customers and chefs, and then exceeding them.

“Pino is always the first one in and last one out. His dedication to his craft is second to none. I’m honoured to be his friend.”—Angus An, Maenam