(Bloomberg) -- If you’re a New York-based fan of high-end sushi, hypercreative cooking, and steak, 2024 has been a good year for you. Among this year’s top restaurant additions are revered sushi chef Keiji Nakazawa’s 10-seat counter Sushi Sho, César Ramirez’s sophisticated tasting menu spot César, and star chef Daniel Boulud’s French-accented, New York-style steakhouse La Tête d’Or.
But now it’s time to focus on the year to come.
In 2025, Caribbean cuisine will have a big Big Apple moment, thanks in part to Momofuku’s David Chang and the group’s longtime, Barbados-born chef Paul Carmichael. They’re transforming the former Momofuku Ko space into the tropically minded Kawaba and more casual Bar Kawaba.
Down in the Financial District, West Coast chef Gregory Gourdet—who’s won praise for his Haitian fusion cooking at Kann in Portland, Oregon—is heading up the signature restaurant opening within luxury French retailer Printemps New York. At Maison Passerelle, Gourdet will offer dishes rooted in French classics, with influences from former French colonies like Senegal, Vietnam and Haiti.
Meanwhile, Danny Meyer has picked an unexpected location for his next project: He and his Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) are updating The View, the tourist-centric, revolving restaurant, bar, and lounge in the New York Marriott Marquis in Times Square. With The View getting a sleek look and new menus, the prolific restaurateur will give locals a reason, potentially for the first time ever, to mingle with out-of-towners at the 40-year-old landmark.
But there’s more. As this year winds down, here’s what to get excited about in the year to come.
Pitt’s, Red Hook
In early January, chef Jeremy Salamon, who runs the slim Eastern European boîte, Agi’s Counter, in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, will debut his sophomore effort in Red Hook, on the corner of Van Brunt and Wolcott streets. Its walls decorated with oil paintings, the 60-seat Pitt’s will have two snug dining rooms that will include a seven-seat counter in the front and a rear eight-seat cocktail bar. Salamon’s seasonal Southern-leaning bistro menu will include plates like grilled shrimp and Carolina rice grits with bottarga and pickled seafood salad with oyster mayonnaise paired. The unfussy classic cocktails will range from martinis to Manhattans. Opening: Jan. 8
Bar Kabawa & Kabawa, East Village
Extra Place alley in the East Village used to be home to David Chang’s modern fine dining room Momofuku Ko and its casual outpost Ko Bar. Now he and his team are turning the spare, clubhouse-style spaces into Bar Kabawa and, debuting a few months later, Kabawa. Both will feature Caribbean cuisine from Momofuku veteran chef Paul Carmichael, partly inspired by his Barbadian roots. At Kabawa, the chef will serve a prix-fixe menu that channels diverse island cuisine influences to diners at a counter and at tables. He’s written a snacky, mostly small plate menu for Bar Kabawa to pair with tropical cocktails like a daiquiri. Opening: January for Bar Kabawa; a few months later for Kabawa
Jō, Murray Hill
Over its decade-long tenure on 39th Street, Kaijitsu offered New York its first Michelin-starred vegan tasting menu. Now, the kaiseki counter’s most recent head chef, Hiroki Abe, and owner Shuichiro Kobori are opening Jō a few blocks south on 34th Street. This time around, at the 1,000-square-foot, eight-seat chef’s counter—where the ceiling will be decorated with black textured washi paper—there will be meat on the menu at its two nightly services. Jō’s early seating will offer a kaiseki menu centered on intricate, seasonal Japanese dishes that display various cooking techniques and global ingredients. Later diners can choose from seasonal à la carte plates, such as ginger-imbued simmered beef croquettes, which will be made kappo style, meaning Abe will cook and assemble them in front of guests. Opening: Late January
Raon, Midtown East
Kimchi lovers, rejoice: When Raon opens next month, the now ubiquitous fermented Korean vegetable dish will feature prominently in the $255, nine-course ambitious tasting menu . This is the second project from Soogil Lim and Sasook Youn, the husband-and-wife team behind the East Village’s cozy Korean-French hit Soogil. At their 1,400 square feet dining room on East 59th Street anchored by a 14-seat counter, chef Lim will serve old and new takes on kimchi, highlighting varieties such as baechu, or cabbage kimchi, and more obscure types like jang, or soy sauce-based, kimchi. And he’ll be cooking with rare soybean paste and soy sauce made by a disciple of the renowned Buddhist nun and chef, Jeong Kwan, from ingredients grown at her Korean temple. The beverage program, led by former Per Se sommelier Hak Soo Kim, highlights Korean sool, or traditional alcoholic drinks, with the option of a $180 mixed beverage pairing.Opening: January
The View, Times Square
Legendary restaurateur Danny Meyer is taking on Times Square. He and USHG have teamed up with New York Marriott Marquis to renovate The View—the hotel’s nearly 500-seat, two-story revolving restaurant, bar, and lounge. The facelift comes from prolific design team Rockwell Group, which will give the lounge a more sophisticated look with gold and crimson tones and round banquettes. The lower level will be home to live piano shows and the dining room, where the specialty will be American dishes such as roasted half chicken with green bean and bread salad. One level up via a spiral staircase will be a lounge and 10-seat cocktail bar offering small plates like shrimp cocktail and oysters. Opening: February
Adda 2.0, East Village
Unapologetic Foods founders Roni Mazumdar and chef Chintan Pandya have been game changers in the city’s Indian food scene, giving diners a taste of authentic regional cooking at restaurants such as Dhamaka and the Michelin-starred Semma. Now they’re focused on the dining room that kicked it all off, the spunky Adda Indian Canteen. In February they’re relocating the restaurant—Bollywood posters, graffiti and all—from Long Island City to the former Huertas space on lower First Avenue in Manhattan, and possibly giving it a name change, too. Pandya will serve Adda signatures such as fried goat brains in ginger, kale pakoras, and his signature take on butter chicken—spicier, richer, and lighter on creaminess than the classic—as well as new dishes that hail from provinces all over India. Opening: February
Sushi Mekumi, Hudson Square
Sushi enthusiasts trek to Kanazawa in central Japan for a bucket list meal at the vaunted counter of Sushidokoro Mekumi. Chef Takayoshi Yamaguchi is a culinary innovator who blends traditional sushi preparation with science (he works with university researchers to analyze how a fish’s diet influences the fatty acid composition of its flesh, determining the optimal aging period to maximize umami flavor). This spring the chef will open a second location, downtown on Charlton Street. The eight-seat counter will be led by his longtime sous chef Hajime Kumabe. An omakase that includes six appetizers and 10 nigiri, made with seafood flown in daily from Japan, will cost around $400.
Alongside this world-class sushi spot will be a place offering world-class cocktails: Bar Maeda, led by Yoshikatsu Maeda, who spent years at one of Ginza's most historic cocktail dens, Mori Bar. The dark-wood-paneled space will have a long counter and clusters of lounge tables to evoke a place that’s straight out of the swanky Tokyo neighborhood. Mekumi guests will have the option of ordering cocktails direct to the sushi counter, such as the signature gin-based Mori Martini that’s famously stirred 100 times. Opening: Mid-April
Maison Passerelle, Financial District
When the high-end French retailer Printemps makes its US debut in luxury downtown skyscraper One Wall Street, it will also mark the launch of Top Chef alum Gregory Gourdet’s Maison Passerelle. On the West Coast, Gourdet is known for his reinterpretation of Haitian cuisine. In his native New York, at this collaboration with Kent Hospitality Group, he’ll rework classic French fare with influences from former colonies. Among the dishes on the menu: a duck confit served over a West African-inspired spinach stew spiked with ginger, chile and palm fruit oil. At the restaurant’s six-seat bar, guests will be able to order drinks designed by Printemps bar director Natasha Bermudez, who’s working with Harrison Ginsberg, the celebrated barman at nearby Overstory. The decor will channel classic French dining rooms with mosaic tiles, leather banquettes, and oversized chandeliers. Opening: Spring
Bartolo Restaurante, West Village
This spring, chef Ryan Bartlow and partners Davitta and Alexandra Niakani, owners of the Lower East Side Basque staple Ernesto’s, will extend their restaurant empire to West 4th Street with the Spanish-minded Bartolo Restaurante. The snug restaurant is inspired by Madrid’s casual, Old World taberna culture where tapas is invariably the specialty. Bartlow is planning a varied seasonal menu, from pintxos to large-format and tableside presentations, and a sherry- and vermouth-rich Iberian wine program to go with it. Catskills-based interior design firm Danielle Epstein Works is giving the 45-seat space—comprising two dining rooms and a bar—accents like Baroque vaulted ceilings and mid-century chrome. Opening: Spring
Haymarket, Chelsea
Chef India Doris met business partner Alex Pfaffenbach a decade ago when the two worked at New York’s now-shuttered The NoMad restaurant. The duo have reunited to open the 2,200-square-foot Haymarket this spring on 7th Avenue near 29th Street. The refined, neutral-toned 70-seat restaurant will have an unfinished ceiling and transparent Murano glass chandeliers. It will offer an à la carte menu that reflects Doris’ time cooking in London and small towns in France and Spain. Former Overstory bar manager Chris Figueroa will helm the classic cocktails mixed at the 15-seat bar.Opening: Spring
A Word About Bakeries
For people who follow New York’s unstoppable bakery scene, the team behind hit Thai restaurants Fish Cheeks and Bangkok Supper Club will open the compact Bub’s Bakery at Lafayette Street in NoHo this spring led by baker and Sadelle co-founder Melissa Weller. They’re focusing on American-style baked foods for people with dietary restrictions, such as vegan chocolate chip cookies and gluten-free scones. Over in Brooklyn, Kent Hospitality Group executive pastry chef Renata Ameni will open Birdee this spring at the mixed-use development, Refinery at Domino. The all-day Williamsburg cafe’s offerings will run the gamut from brioche and croissants to breakfast burritos plus salads and sandwiches.
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