Early fall means endless articles about plaid clothing and the myriad uses for apples and pumpkin spice—and also Bon Appétit’s annual list of the Best New Restaurants in America. This week the magazine announced its 50 nominees as a teaser for the final, definitive Hot Ten, scheduled to be revealed on September 17. It’s exciting for new restaurants to receive recognition on a national scale, especially since the BA editors make a point of leaving New York for on-the-ground eating in St. Louis and Nashville and Portland and Austin...

　　But wait, what’s this?

　　Carpenters Hall

　　Austin

　　The plate-size cutlet says it all at this way-more-than-a hotel restaurant. [Ed note: Andrew Knowlton, BA’s editor-at-large, is involved in the restaurant]

　　Huh. We’re sure this is just a coincidence. Surely it must be. A quick Google shows that Knowlton is neither the owner nor the chef of Carpenters Hall. His wife, Christina Skogly Knowlton, runs the food and beverage program, but hey, it’s the 21st century now and husbands and wives are separate legal entities. Oh, wait, the website Austin Culture Map says that Andrew Knowlton “consulted on the project.”

　　Well, we all have our side hustles. There’s no need to tell our coworkers everything. And actually, that’s a pretty good prank, right? You secretly work on a restaurant and then your colleagues at your other job swoop in and declare it one of the 50 best openings in the entire country? Yeah. That’s definitely what happened. Which is why BA didn’t bother to mention the connection when the story first went up online.

　　“Consultant” is a nebulous term anyway, and the pork cutlet in the accompanying photo really does look delicious, so, uh, congrats Andrew Knowlton?