NEWTON, MA – Three restaurants in Newton have won a 2022 Wine Spectator Magazine Restaurant Award.

Wine Spectator unveiled the winners of the 2022 Restaurant Awards, recognizing the world’s finest restaurants for wine. This year’s awards program honored 3,169 restaurants from all 50 states and more than 70 countries.

In Massachusetts, 80 restaurants were recognized. There have been three different levels of the Restaurant Awards since 1981: the “Award of Excellence”, the “Best of Award of Excellence” and the “Grand Award”.

Only 97 restaurants worldwide have received the coveted Grand Award. These include two at Bay State: Grill 23 & Bar (161 Berkeley St, Boston), which made the 2017 list, and Topper’s at The Wauwinet (The Wauwinet Inn, 120 Wauwinet Road, Nantucket), which received the award in 1996.

Then there’s the Award of Excellence, given to restaurants that carefully select their wine lists to have 100 or more selections that, according to the magazine, include both quality and diverse wines. This year there were 1,782 Award of Excellence winners, including the three Newton receivers.

The Best of Award of Excellence is given to restaurants that “go the extra mile”. These restaurants have lists of 350 or more selections from top producers, with a wide variety of regions and vintage depths. According to Wine Spectator, they can also carefully design the presentation of the list, train their staff to assist guests with the list, and curate wine nights. 1,290 restaurants worldwide received the Best of Award of Excellence.

Here are the Newton winners 2022:

  • Wine strength: California
  • Cuisine: Steakhouse

Squadrons 52 (220 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill)

  • Wine strengths: California, international
  • Cuisine: America

Davio’s Northern Italian Steakhouse (55 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill)

  • Wine strengths: Italy, California
  • Cuisines: Italian, Steakhouse