To say it’s been a tumultuous year for many of us is perhaps an understatement. But when asked to survey the world of food and drinks over the last 12 months, it was easy to find some bright spots. These are the food trends that Eater staff were most grateful for in 2024, from small aesthetic pleasures to larger nostalgic comforts.
Cookbook clubs
I’ve been a part of a cookbook club since the middle of last year, but this year, they really blew up, with my friend Steph Lau’s cookbook club repeatedly going viral and even earning an appearance on Good Morning America. (She now connects people with local clubs through her newsletter.) The fun of a cookbook club is the collaborative effort: You’re meeting new people and connecting with friends in a setting in which everyone has contributed something to the spread. A cookbook club is a fantastic way to figure out whether a cookbook is for you, but the setup is just as good for making a daunting cookbook approachable: It would take me months of concerted effort to bake through Natasha Pickowicz’s More Than Cake, but through cookbook club, I tasted almost every recipe, all for the effort of a single flan. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter
Zombie restaurants
In 2024, beloved restaurants around the country resurrected after years of being either closed or dormant. Take Baroo in Los Angeles, which revived as a fancier tasting menu restaurant with a neo-Brutalist look five years after it closed in 2018. Following a three-year pause due to hurricane damage (aside from selling its beloved sandwiches in local markets), New Orleans icon Central Grocery finally reopened in December 2024. New York City’s oldest French bistro, Le Veau d’Or, sprung up on the Upper East Side after years away from the zeitgeist thanks to the intrepid duo behind the city’s modern It bistro, Frenchette. And while not a direct resurrection, Souplanation gained a “dupeplantion” lookalike, called Soup ‘n Fresh, in California’s Inland Empire. What this trend’s percolation means, more than anything, is that nostalgia still rules. In a time when fear, uncertainty, and inequity have infiltrated every aspect of American life, seeing the return of the restaurant that sustained your family after soccer matches in middle school, or the French bistro where your grandparents went on date nights, is something to hold onto when so much feels lost. We can’t let go of the past, and now, more than ever, we don’t have to. — Nicole Adlman, cities manager
Gummy mania
As a gummy candy connoisseur, I feel like I’m always on the hunt for the next great, bouncy confection and 2024 really showed out. New candy shops opened and we unapologetically consumed sweet treats in the form of candy salads. TikTok fueled the proliferation of Swedish candy in flavors like pomegranate strawberry and caramel banana, as well as spicy gummy worms glazed in chamoy; and what is arguably the greatest gummy candy of all time, Nerds Gummy Clusters, reached peak popularity. I can only imagine what new innovations 2025 will bring. — Kat Thompson, associate editor
Nostalgic dinnerware
Earlier this year, Jaya Saxena wrote about the recent uptick in French food fandom which brings to mind the brasserie plate — you know, the ones with the restaurant’s name written around the rim, or those sporting scalloped edges. And as the mismatched china trend continues on, I think we’re going to start seeing more souvenir plates thrown into the mix. Think of it as the next natural step for the restaurant matchbook and pen collectors. For the person who buys a restaurant souvenir plate, they serve as a reminder of that one awesome trip somewhere or a special occasion dinner out, and they’re a great conversation starter at dinner parties. Note to restaurants with particularly eye-catching plates (and glassware too): My advice would be to consider selling some of these before the pocketing of one post-meal catches on. — Nat Belkov, design director
Fluted drinkware
This year, I really appreciated just how much restaurants across the country relied on fluted glass drinking vessels. Ridged finishes provide an accessible elegance that aligns with a broad range of design styles and concepts, and it’s easy to find more affordable but similarly stunning dupes and plastic iterations that still hold their own on the tabletop. In dining rooms from Burlington, Vermont to Japan, fluted glass was a regular that deserves to stick around a while. — Jesse Sparks, senior editor
Nonalcoholic drinks on every restaurant menu
I know there have been complaints about the unreasonably high prices of many alcohol-free cocktails, but a trip to Europe — when the nights I didn’t want to drink left me with the choice between flat or sparkling water — made me appreciate the true breadth of options we have around nonalcoholic beverages at restaurants. Companies like Seedlip and St. Agrestis have made it easy for American bar programs to add at least one fun alcohol-free drink to their menu, but increasingly restaurants are getting creative on their own. Shrubs abound, and at a recent dinner at New York City Korean restaurant Moono I thoroughly enjoyed a “botanical splash” of persimmon, perilla leaf, lemon, and mint. And sure, sometimes the spirit-free cocktail is just a fancy juice, but I’m choosing to embrace the fancy end of the equation. — Monica Burton, deputy editor
Concha celebrations
For better or worse (let’s say worse), virality has become an increasingly weighty factor in diners’ determination of a dish’s success. This is perhaps especially true when it comes to pastries, which in many cases have evolved to exist solely to be photographed. But this year’s national adoration for conchas was a long-deserved celebration of the many Mexican immigrant, first-generation, and Mexican-American bakers whose passion for ancestral bread led to innovations in the genre. Incorporating peanut butter and jelly-fueled nostalgia, and even pumpkin spice, new — and delicious — riffs on these historically humble and affordable baked goods drew crowds of aggressively online and unplugged diners alike, proving that passion projects really can pay off. — JS
