How did Little Donna’s make a list of top restaurants in America? Owner has ‘no clue’ but the reservations keep coming

At 4:55 p.m. on a Thursday in October, the three outdoor patio tables in front of Little Donna’s were already claimed. The doors to the Upper Fells Point tavern wouldn’t open for another five minutes, but enterprising diners had arrived early to snag some of the few reservation-free seats at a restaurant The New York Times named just a few weeks before to its 2023 list of the most exciting places to eat in America.