R-Gang Eatery, San Diego

After his stint as a contestant on the fifth season of Bravo's Top Chef, Rich Sweeney left the glitz and glamour of television behind and returned to something more comforting—the kitchens of San Diego. It took a full year to find one that felt like home, but eventually he opened R-Gang Eatery with the same playful energy that earned the chef his nickname, Spanky, and the same food that earned Rich national acclaim.

Chef Sweeney believes that gourmet doesn't have to mean pretentious, and his self-described retro-American menus embrace this philosophy. He takes favorites like mac and cheese and elevates them with ingredients such as gouda, BBQ pork, and herbed goat cheese. And then there are sides of house-made cheddar and chive tater tots (a favorite here) and seasonal succotash.

Those dinners, as well as similarly inspired brunch dishes, delight diners inside R-Gang Eatery's cozy dining room or out on the patio, where red block letters spell out "fun," possibly as some type of tribute to Florence Ursula Nightingale.