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The leaders of the Quaintance-Weaver restaurant group have been nominated for a James Beard Foundation award.

Dennis and Nancy Quaintance, along with Mike Weaver, of Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants in Greensboro, are among the national semifinalists in the 2009 Restaurant and Chef awards. They are in the running for the Outstanding Restaurateur award.

"I couldn't believe it," Dennis Quaintance said. "I never conceived it."

Quaintance-Weaver - which leads the restaurant teams of Lucky 32, Green Valley Grill and Print Works Bistro - is one of 20 national semifinalists with only two being from the southeast. It was chosen from a list of 15,000 nominations in 19 categories.

The James Beard Foundation Awards are the Oscars of the food world.

Quaintance says the nomination is due to the efforts of his restaurants to be locally sustaining, the purity and quality of the food, and perhaps the recent advances in being more green. He also gives unabashed credit to his restaurant staff members.

"What I feel like doing is walking out and hugging a bunch of people in our restaurants," he said. "They are the ones humping it everyday. This would have never happened were it not for their collective behaviors and sincerity."

The finalists will be announced March 23 at ceremony in Chicago. Visit www.jamesbeard.org for a list of semifinalists.