Autumn Eats

Bathing suit season is over, which means you can (a) stop sucking it in and (b) start stuffing your face. Sure, there's plenty of foliage, too, but you can see that on Instagram as you embrace these culinary crazes.

Hipster Barbecue

Old pitmasters like John Mueller have always been a draw, but new 'cue operators are upping the hip factor. Fette Sau in Philly's gritty Fishtown offers 100 North American whiskeys to go with its Berkshire pulled pork; expect hour-long waits in West Hollywood for the chance to eat (and enjoy the Fernet on tap) at Bludso's Bar-&-Que; and pit pro John Stage just brought his St. Louis-style ribs to Brooklyn with a new Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Park Slope.

Rose-Infused Cocktails

When The Out NYC hotel opened its cocktail bar the Rosebud, they didn't just use the flower as a design motif, they put it in the drinks, infusing five of them with the plant's oil. And though Chicago's best cocktail lounge is named the Violet Hour, it's the rose that amps up beverages like the Yellow Rose of Texas, a mix of Lunazul Blanco, lemon, yellow chartreuse, and rose water.

Savory Ice Cream

New York chef Sam Mason's new Williamsburg ice cream shop is named OddFellows, and in his opinion, the now-cliched bacon flavor wasn't odd enough. He's opted for a chorizo caramel blend that will leave you wondering if you're eating an appetizer or dessert. Meanwhile, you'll find sea salt mixed into a number of the flavors in L.A.'s Ice-Cream Lab, which makes its treats on the spot with liquid nitrogen.

Airport Food (no, for real)
This season marks the rollout of serious, chef-driven options at major hubs. The new Terminal 4 at New York's JFK features restaurants like Uptown Brasserie, from Marcus Samuelsson, as well as the first-ever airport Shake Shack, Danny Meyer's burger mecca. LAX's Tom Bradley International Terminal will host Michael Voltaggio's sandwich hotspot, ink.sack, and Nancy Silverton's decadent dessert den, Short Cake, alongside the obsessively buzzed-about high-low food chain of the moment, Umami Burger.