Two of the best new restaurants in the country are in the Bay Area, and neither one could have guessed what happened last week.

Four Kings in San Francisco and Popoca in Oakland were named to Bon Appétit’s 20 best new restaurants in 2024.

Popoca, which opened last August, was getting warm reviews but nothing like this, says chef and owner Anthony Salguero, and it has completely changed the restaurant’s trajectory.

“It went from, like, zero to 60 (after the article came out),” he says. “We’re just scrambling to make sure we have enough people working, more training, stuff like that. It’s a good thing, good problems. Just been on the grind for the last few days.”

Salguero says winning this award is extra meaningful while facing modern challenges in the Bay Area food industry.

“It’s one of the hardest times for restaurants I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been in the industry for 20 years,” he says. “It makes it feel even more special. It feels nice to be noticed.”

Popoca started in 2020 as a pandemic pop-up at the Classic Cars West Beer Garden in Oakland’s Uptown Arts District. It was an instant success, with a Bay Area News Group restaurant review noting that Popoca “is a love letter to Salguero’s Salvadoran culture, with handmade, wood-fired pupusas stuffed with top-notch ingredients as the stars.”

After opening its brick-and-mortar location last August, Popoca has continued to impress with its cheesy, smoky pupusas ($9). The menu has since expanded to include such dishes as pollo en chicha ($37), chicken glazed in fermented pineapple sauce, and chancho con yuca ($45), grilled pork chop with achiote and yuca sancochada. The latter was inspired by a Nicaraguan dish Salguero tried while eating street food on a trip to El Salvador.

“It’s really simple, but I think it’s fun and exciting,” he says.

Despite his restaurant’s great reviews, the industry is unpredictable, Salguero says, and he’s not sure what the future holds for Popoca.

“I don’t know how it’s going to turn out, but I know I love what I do,” he says. “I really love the restaurant and everybody in it. I’ll fight to make sure we have longevity. And we can be sustainable. I feel a lot of love and support from people who come in and dine — the people we serve.

“It makes me feel for restaurants as a whole. It makes me really love what we do. Especially because it’s very fragile. To open a restaurant of any kind takes a lot. I didn’t know how much it took. I have so much respect for humans who can do it.”

Meanwhile in San Francisco, chefs Franky Ho and Mike Long opened Four Kings in March and proclaimed on their website that the eatery provides “flavors of Hong Kong hangin’ on ya taste buds, ‘90s Cantopop bangin’ on ya eardrums.”

Serving small plates meant to be consumed with plenty of drinks, Four Kings has put together a spicy menu that has Bon Appétit claiming, “This is the cooking of two chefs who know how to really let loose and hope you will too.”

Four Kings business manager Lucy Li, who is married to Long, says they never expected a national award like this.

“We were really just trying to open a restaurant and that’s it,” Li says. “That’s hard as it is.”

Li said Bon Appétit’s selection process focused on restaurants that were unique, but there was one commonality. “Everyone else on the list was similar to us in that we’re all underdogs,” she says.

Popcorn chicken ($14), mapo spaghetti ($21) and escargot with milkbread ($24) are a few of the dishes you can get at the buzzing restaurant, which offers a few tables for reservations and open bar seating for walk-ins.

Even the menu is artistic, with colorful cartoons highlighting different sections of small bites, grilled and fried foods, rice and noodles, and a drinks lineup that includes high balls, sake, shochu, wine and beer.

“It’s about creating an environment where people want to be,” Li says. “Mike and Franky have seen the generational thing, where being a chef and a cook, it’s more militaristic and less empathetic. I think they wanted to create an environment where people would feel like they belong and want to work there. And change the culture.”