A beloved beachside bake shop, Archibalds Village Bakery in Fort Lauderdale’s North Beach Village, has been ranked No. 3 in Yelp’s 2023 ranking of the “Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S.”
Yelp’s Top 100 list, an annual ranking, was announced by the crowdsourced review site on Jan. 25. The website has also decreed that six other South Florida restaurants are part of this countrywide list, though none come close to Archibalds’ exceptionally lofty ranking. They are, in order:
CRUST (No. 50), a casual Italian restaurant and pizzeria in Miami
North South Grill (No. 53), a comfort-food shack specializing in American Wagyu cheesesteaks and Angus beef hamburgers in Pembroke Pines
Bunbury (No. 77), an Argentine restaurant and wine bar in Miami
Jaguar Sun (No. 80), an small-plates restaurant and cocktail bar in Miami
Twice Removed (No. 82), a french fry-obsessed gastropub and cocktail bar in Fort Lauderdale
Il Paesano (No. 95), an Italian cafe and deli in Fort Lauderdale
According to the site, the roundup is compiled by reaching “out to Yelpers for their favorite dining spots.” Then, the site continues, “we ranked each by total number of submissions, ratings, reviews, and geographic representation, among other factors.”
What those “other factors” are remain a closely guarded mystery. (So no, don’t ask us for Yelp’s secret-sauce-algorithm recipe.) And why these Yelp rankings skipped over the burgeoning food towns of Delray Beach and Palm Beach Gardens — and the entirety of Palm Beach County, for that matter — we’ll never understand.
For his part, Archibalds co-owner Christopher Mathys-Archibald said he doesn’t really understand the sudden Yelp love. He learned of the No. 3 ranking after a fancy Yelp plaque showed up in Archibalds’ mailbox on Tuesday.
“I ran out to Michael’s and picked up a nice little frame,” said Mathys-Archibald, who has run the beach-adjacent bakery-cafe with his husband and pastry chef, Justin, since May 2021. “We’ve been so busy and exhausted running around these past couple of weeks, this just re-energized us immediately.”
Asked to toot his own horn about why Yelp singled out his bakery, Christopher Mathys-Archibald laughed sheepishly, adding, “Well, we’ve had five or six customers point at the plaque and say they voted for us. We’ve got a great set of employees who remember your name and your drink orders, and when you put Justin’s food and the coffee together, it’s just a cozy environment that works.”
Archibalds Village Bakery sources its roasts locally, from Blooming Bean in Pompano Beach, and bakes its breads on the premises, including crusty demi baguettes, pillowy focaccia loaves and its signature pastry, the Morning Glory Loaf. A frequent sellout, these loaves are baked with carrots, pineapple, shredded apple, raisins, walnut and coconut, and six to eight loaves fly off the shelves by midafternoon each day, he said.
His husband Justin, who earned his pastry chef training at Fort Lauderdale’s now-defunct Art Institute, draws most his recipes from his great-grandmother, except for his crispy chocolate chip cookies, which come from his mother, Mathys-Archibald added.
Mathys-Archibald said a sister bakery location is expected to open sometime in 2023 or 2024 in Fort Lauderdale’s Victoria Park neighborhood.
For the full Top 100 list, go to Yelp.com.
