Ann Arbor chef and downtown eatery named semifinalists for James Beard Awards

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Tree Town may not be known as a foodie city but it does have a lot of culinary talent.

Miss Kim’s chef Ji-Hye Kim and Spencer in downtown Ann Arbor have both made it to the semi-final round of the James Beard Awards.

Named after famed American chef James Andrews Beard, the awards are given to recognize extraordinary talent in the food and restaurant industry. Categories range from best regional chef to best bakery and best new restaurant.

Chef Kim has been named on the semifinalist for the Best Chef Great Lakes list, but this isn’t her first time. She has been nominated a few times and made it to the semifinals in categories for Outstanding Chef and Best Chef: Great Lakes. She captains the ship at Kerrytown’s Miss Kim, at 415 N. 5th Ave., which produces elevated Korean cuisine made with Midwestern ingredients.

Other Great Lakes region semi-finalists include Dan Klenotic of Ypsilanti’s Bellflower, Doug Hewitt of Detroit’s Freya, and chefs in Ohio, Illinois and Indiana.

This is Spencer’s second time being nominated for a James Beard Award in the Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program category. The downtown wine shop and restaurant made it all the way to the finalist round for the same category in 2023.

The eatery has a rotating monthly food menu for dinner services, a day wine menu with snacks, and hundreds of bottles of wine in its retail shop at 113 E. Liberty St.

Other competitors in the category come from Texas, Colorado, California and New York, among others.

Check out the list of all semifinalists here.