Food & Wine Magazine keeps an eye on the biggest food trends in restaurants throughout the year. If a bunch of chefs are creating olfactory experiences for their diners by burning chestnuts or marshmallows, Food & Wine will know.

This year, if chefs weren’t creating fusion menus, the foodie trends were all about taking nostalgic food, drink and hangouts and updating them for modern diners. Let’s look at some of Food & Wine’s biggest foodie trends for 2011:

Foodie Courts. Foodie courts are nothing like the ones you find in the mall. In these gourmet upgrades, diners can find specialty meats, cheese and produce or complete cooked meals from one of the small stalls in the food court. A huge example is New York City’s Chelsea Market, where you can find crepes, gourmet Mexican and meats, and Seattle’s Melrose Market, where you can find sandwiches and Persian chicken stew.

Asian Fusion Tacos. This upscale trend has been everywhere this year. Combining traditional Asian ingredients like kimchee, soy sauce and Asian duck with Mexican staples like chiles and cilantro makes for a really tasty tacos. The trend has hit food trucks and more upscale restaurants alike.

Breakfast Sandwiches. I’m so happy that the breakfast sandwich has gone upscale, although I’d never knock their brilliant conception of this food at Burger King. The upscale version of this sandwich includes home-made biscuits, jam, fried egg, mushroom and cream spinach.

Trendy General Stores. Urban general stores generally combine dry goods, cured meats, sodas, but also surprisingly, already cooked foods and even motor oil. The Take 5 Urban Market in Seattle sells carrot cupcakes and has a bunch of chefs on-hand, but you can finish your grocery shopping there, as well.

Savory Cupcakes. The savory cupcake trend is terribly exciting. Take a savory dish and package it to be portable and you’ve got the savory cupcake trend. Some of the creative applications of this trend include lasagna cupcakes, chicken and waffle cupcakes, meatloaf cupcakes and Fontina and prosciutto cupcakes.

Oyster Bars. Oysters are one of the last seafood to be collected responsibly. Oyster bars highlight the ingredient, focusing on a product that is harvested nearby to the restaurant. Both of the coasts, from Seattle to Massachusetts, are picking up on the trend.

Supper-Club Inspiration. Supper clubs were the kind of Midwestern eateries favored by our grandparents’ generation. It doesn’t mean that they didn’t have good food. NYC chefs have updated supper club staples like cheese soufflés for modern palates.