The 8 Must-Visit New Restaurants to Try This Summer

Kate Kassin
·7 min read

StarChefs | Will Blunt

As we plan trips to visit family or just get away this summer, our eyes are turned toward that most important of questions: Where are we going to eat? Fortunately, there are a lot of new restaurants opening right now that we’re itching to try. We keep track of all these openings—narrowing down to just the most exciting ones—so we can share them with you each season.

In Cincinnati, a longtime pasta pop-up known for its foraged ingredients is settling into a brick-and-mortar, and in Chicago, the locally beloved Korean American restaurant Parachute is relaunching as a casual, walk-in-only operation. In Los Angeles, two chefs from the celebrated seafood spot Holbox are branching out on their own, and Rashida Holmes’s Caribbean-American pop-up Bridgetown Roti has found a permanent home.

Plus, a lot of promising restaurants have already opened in the past month to kick off the season. New Orleans gets a new meat and three restaurant, Hot Stuff, from the Turkey and the Wolf team; Miami’s Nikkei-inspired favorite Itamae AO has been revamped; and the Catskills now has Matilda, a restaurant (and connected inn) from the New York chefs behind Wildair and Contra.

These are Bon Appétit’s eight most anticipated restaurant openings of the season.

This list is organized alphabetically by city. The opening dates below are subject to change. Check restaurant websites and Instagram accounts for the latest updates.

Loulou

Chicago, IL
Opening: July

Chicago’s Lula Cafe is among the most beloved neighborhood institutions in the country—taking home the 2024 James Beard Award for Outstanding Hospitality. Chef-owner Jason Hammel opened the farm-to-table icon in 1999 in Logan Square, and besides a cookbook tied to the restaurant, Hammel’s attention has been fully on Lula. This summer, Hammel and team will debut Loulou, a restaurant, retail, and event space. There will be a weekly Sunday brunch with dishes like seasonal quiches, and their retail component spotlights products from local Chicago artisans and produce from local farms.

Parachute HiFi

Chicago, IL
Opening: August

Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark’s Parachute returns to Avondale as Parachute HiFi after a short hiatus and with a few notable changes: It’s more casual, more affordable, and walk-in-only. The HiFi addition to the restaurant’s title is a nod to vinyl cafés in Seoul. Accordingly, there will be new and vintage audio equipment playing music from the couple’s record collection. Diners can eat Korean and American dishes like a fish fillet sandwich with uni tartar sauce or a pizza pastry filled with pepperoni and kimchi. The beverage menu focuses on sool—Korean fermented and distilled drinks—plus cocktails with eccentric ingredients like Parmesan and octopus. Parachute devotees will be happy to know that Kim and Clark plan to bring back their famous bing bread, a golden, crunchy potato bread. It’s been a busy few years for Kim and Clark—they opened Anelya, their Ukrainian restaurant down the street in October 2023, and still hope to find a new space for the original Parachute in downtown Chicago.

Wildweed

Cincinnati, Ohio
Opening: July

After staging 225 pop-ups since 2019, David and Lydia Jackman’s roving operation is finally opening as a full-time restaurant. Wildweed will make its debut in Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. The restaurant will have an à la carte menu and a chef’s counter offering a tasting menu. As in the pop-up days, the focus will be on foraged foods—and, of course, pasta, which put Wildweed on the map. Think ramp and ricotta cappelletti with kale sauce and spelt mafaldine with rabbit ragù. The dessert menu includes a pawpaw semifreddo sandwich with brown butter seed cookies. Industry veterans Lia Heinze and Valerie Diehl’s beverage program takes a seasonal approach as well, putting many of the same ingredients in the spotlight. Finish your meal with the Bees Knees, featuring beeswax fat–washed gin and caramelized honey.

Bridgetown Roti

Los Angeles, CA
Opening: July

Chef Rashida Holmes started Bridgetown Roti by selling oxtail patties from her home during the pandemic. Now, after years of pop-ups at breweries and restaurants (and a James Beard Award semifinalist nod for Best Emerging Chef in 2023), Holmes is bringing her Caribbean fare to a permanent space in East Hollywood. To take advantage of the restaurant’s location across from Los Angeles City College, Holmes and her co-owners, Malique Smith and Joy Clarke-Holmes, opted for a counter-service model to accommodate to-go orders. The menu focuses on Bajan and Trinidadian flavors with patties, roti, doubles, and “Caribbean Tings” like honey-jerk chicken wings. Loyal fans should expect some favorites from the pop-up days to make an appearance: Curry shrimp, red pepper goat rotis, callaloo greens with smoked dashi broth, and Aunt Vie’s codfish cakes will all be in attendance.

Komal

Los Angeles, CA
Opening: July

Fátima Juárez and Conrado Rivera are setting out on their own after years of working at the acclaimed Mexican seafood counter Holbox in South LA. It was there that Juárez began making tortillas and got the idea for Komal, a restaurant spotlighting pre-Hispanic dishes and indigenous Mexican corn sourced directly from farmers. Komal will open in phases: first as a market with tortillas and masa products in July, then as a restaurant with an à la carte menu in August, and finally, with a tasting menu in September. Komal’s Instagram has teased dishes like a quesadilla ceremonial (a fresh tortilla stamped with the shape of an Aztec god and filled with squash blossom, quesillo, and poblano) and a tostada topped with chicken tinga. While we await the opening of Komal, their fresh tortillas are still available for purchase at Holbox.

Acru

New York, NY
Opening: July

When NA:EUN Hospitality—the team behind lauded Korean restaurant Atomix—announces that it’s opening a new restaurant, our ears perk up. Acru is the first restaurant from chef Daniel Garwood, who was previously the sous-chef at Atomix and sharpened his knives at the likes of fine dining spots Evett in Seoul and the since closed Fäviken in Sweden. His new Greenwich Village spot focuses on his Australian roots while pulling inspiration from his past culinary experiences. The restaurant has 45 seats and offers both a $95 tasting menu and an à la carte option at the bar. Menu highlights include sea bass with pea jjang, a goat cheese tart with makgeolli-marinated leeks, and purple-rice mousse with green-almond ice. While Garwood will lead the kitchen, NA:EUN founders JP and Ellia Park are partners in the restaurant.

Perle Mesta

Oklahoma City, OK
Opening: June

Opening Perle Mesta is a homecoming of sorts for chef Andrew Black. The restaurant is located in the Skirvin Hotel in downtown Oklahoma City—the same space where Black was invited 17 years ago to open the hotel’s since closed restaurant, Park Avenue Grill. In the years since, Black has opened three other restaurants, written a cookbook on foraging, launched a caviar brand, and won the 2023 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southwest. Perle Mesta will offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus a Sunday brunch featuring dishes like fried chicken drizzled with peach hot honey and served over a crispy pancake. There are nods to Black’s Indo-Jamaican roots throughout the menu, such as butter beans served with grilled roti and spiced plantain chips with ranch garlic aioli.

Le Coq

San Diego, CA
Opening: June

Tara Monsod is the first San Diego chef to be named a James Beard Award finalist for her cooking at Animae, an Asian-inspired steakhouse that celebrates her Filipino heritage. This summer, Monsod is opening another restaurant in La Jolla in collaboration with the hospitality group Puffer Malarkey Collective. Le Coq is a French restaurant by name—Monsod spent time dining and staging in restaurants in Paris and Lyon while preparing to open the restaurant—but the menu focuses on seasonal ingredients from Southern California along with the creative Asian flavors Monsod is known for. There’s pork collar creamed wakame, pork jus, and mustard seeds, a duck breast with tamarind purée, kumquat, and chicory, and a strawberry mille-feuille for dessert. Designer Christopher Puffer worked with Megan Power of Workind Studio to bring the historic 1930s building to life in a space that celebrates many of the original elements.

Originally Appeared on Bon Appétit

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