when you want, where you want.
New York’s Giant Fall Restaurant Preview
Photo: Jeremy Liebman
There is something comfortingly familiar about the batch of high-profile bars and restaurants getting ready to debut before the year is out. Rather than wild conceptual swings, the places below are enduring models — a coffee shop, a bakery, a very nice cocktail bar — from established industry vets. The excitement comes from knowing that these are people who get the details right and that each of the two-dozen-plus places on this list will make the city a richer, even-more-vibrant place to eat and drink and grab a stack of fresh-made sourdough tortillas. Here are 27 reasons we’re very excited for fall.
Babbo Is Back From Near-Death
When a new restaurant called Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca took over the historic Coach House in 1998, its owners — Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich — were worried they might alienate fans of the previous tenant. The restaurant has changed hands once again, and when it reopens in late September, its current management will face an entirely different challenge: reminding diners of everything they loved about Babbo while scrubbing away any memories of Batali’s downfall or the last few years of aimlessness.
For Stephen Starr, the new majority owner, keeping the name was a no-brainer. “It’s like Coca-Cola,” he says. “They fucked it up for a little while with New Coke, but then it came back.” When Starr first approached Mark Ladner — Batali’s onetime right-hand man and the former chef at Lupa and Del Posto — he was reluctant to sign on. “I had eaten there recently, and it certainly didn’t feel like it used to,” the chef says. “I was concerned about the history and all the other juju.” He wasn’t fully convinced until news of the ownership change broke at the beginning of this year and the overwhelmingly positive reaction made it clear that this city is ready to love Babbo again. “I think what had been lost was an authority with a good palate,” says Bill Buford, whose 2006 book Heat tracked his time apprenticing in the Babbo kitchen. “Mark is one of the great chefs of New York — and he has a great palate.”
Recapturing the early excitement will be a feat. “Most New Yorkers still thought of Italian food as meatballs and spaghetti, and here was a place that was really trying to do the food that you get in Italy,” says Ruth Reichl, the former New York Times critic who first reviewed the restaurant in 1998. “You didn’t see beef cheeks on anybody’s menu. It was pretty brave.”
The updated menu — which Ladner describes as “Del Posto Lite” — will retain the traditional three-course format with some notable departures from the original such as seasonal crudi, risotto, and à la carte main courses with a choice of sides. Like its predecessor, the new Babbo will offer a pasta tasting menu that will feature Ladner’s 100-layer lasagna, a holdover from his Del Posto days, plated in the dining room with béchamel and tomato “marmellata.”
Refreshed versions of Babbo classics will also appear, including the beef-cheek ravioli (enhanced with fresh black truffles rather than preserved), “Sicilian lifeguard style” calamari that Ladner prepares with ring-shaped calamarata pasta, and an homage to the late pastry chef Gina DePalma’s saffron panna cotta with golden raisins poached in sweet wine.
While the interior has received a full makeover, the changes will appear minimal: The famous staircase is staying put. The upstairs dining room has been repainted in a warm Barolo-tinted tone, and the crowded bar tables, once used to seat walk-ins, will be removed to make the waiting area more comfortable for guests. “I’ve had my blockbusters, and this is not one of my biggest productions at this moment,” Starr says, “but it feels really good to be doing this.” 110 Waverly Pl.
2. A Vegas Steakhouse Is Moving Into One Fifth
Since 1958, the Golden Steer has served rib eyes and martinis to off-the-strip diners in seats once occupied by Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra. Now it’s moving into one of the city’s most famous restaurant addresses with western décor and black-and-red-leather booths intact. The built-in gambling consoles will have to stay in Vegas for the time being. 1 Fifth Ave.
3. Celebrity Roast Chicken Is Headed to Brooklyn
Jonathan Waxman’s Cali-Italian cooking gets a grand showcase: a new Barbuto that opens up to Brooklyn Bridge Park. Inside the 1 Hotel Brooklyn Bridge, Dumbo
4. Thai BBQ Lands in Lincoln Square
The Soothr team and chef Nate Limwong are opening Unglo with Japanese lava rocks in the tabletop grills. 35 W. 64th St.
5. Joe’s Will Get Some Real Competition in the Slice Wars
Agostino Cangiano was born in Naples and has 20 years of pizza-making experience under his belt, including time spent at L’Industrie. His own shop, SliceHaus, will serve whole pies and slices topped with sausage and shishitos, robiola and prosciutto, or porcini and speck, with cold-pressed olive oil flown in from Italy. Its standing tables will be located mere steps from the fabled Joe’s Pizza. 30 Carmine St.
6. Le Veau d’Or Is Linking Up With A24 …
Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr will run Wild Cherry, a small spot inside A24’s revamped Cherry Lane Theatre. 38 Commerce St.
7. … And So Is a London Import
Taking over the ground floor of A24’s NoMad headquarters in October is the Punjabi spot Ambassadors Clubhouse, with dishes such as chile-cheese pakode, barbecue butter-chicken chops, and matka beliram lamb curry. 1245 Broadway
8. & 9. José Andrés Bets Big on Beef
In October, the megachef will open a live-fire spot called Txula Steak in his Mercado Little Spain compound, followed by Bazaar Meat inside the Nomad Ritz-Carlton. Multiple locations
10. A Serious Pita Shop Will Set Up in Noho
Using fresh pitas baked by Angel Bakeries in New Jersey, Shifka will serve cauliflower shawarma, sabich, schnitzel, and lamb kebab, plus za’atar fries to snack on with carafes of rosé. The airy, blue-tiled space — which will have sandwiches to go — comes from Amir Nathan and Jordan Anderson, the duo behind the Lower East Side wine bar Sami & Susu. Desserts here include tahini-vanilla soft serve. 324 Bowery
11. Two Hitmakers Will Go for the Trifecta
Chase Sinzer and Joshua Pinsky have given the city two of its best new restaurants with Claud and its comparatively casual upstairs seafood-and-wine neighbor, Penny. Later this fall, they’ll lean further into wine-bar world with their third spot, Stars, with more than 1,000 bottles on the list. As for food, the team will forgo a full dinner menu to make Stars the snackiest space in their growing empire. 139 E. 12th St. no website yet
Melissa Weller Is Baking Something Completely Fresh
Photo: Courtesy of Bub’s Bakery
Melissa Weller is finally happy with her new cinnamon bun. “It tastes like just what I want it to be,” she says. “It’s got the gooey part; it’s got a crispy part; it’s got the right balance of flavors. I love that it’s laminated.” This may seem like a small victory for a baker of Weller’s caliber, but her rolls have something that others in the city do not. Or rather, hers don’t have what those do: dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, gluten. Weller’s are allergen free. And still, she says, “it tastes like something I would make.” Anyone familiar with Weller’s oeuvre — the bagels at Sadelle’s, the sticky buns at High Street on Hudson, viral chocolate babka from her first cookbook — will know it would require a miracle to create anything that’s on par with her greatest hits, especially without the use of baking basics like butter. At Bub’s Bakery, more than 20 such miracles will be on the opening menu.
For a while, Weller had sworn off baking for good. One too many partnerships had gone south; promising proposals kept hitting dead ends. She went to Italy to study pizza. But when she heard about the allergen-free bakery that the group behind Fish Cheeks and Bangkok Supper Club wanted to open, she was intrigued. “I want something that is new and innovative that satisfies my soul,” she says. “But I also really like that no one’s done it before.” She wants to make it clear that the goal is not to be a great allergen-free bakery. It’s to be a great bakery, period. “I don’t really have any allergies to any food items,” she says. “I want to eat this too.”
Copious R&D ensued as Weller, along with co-owners Jenn Saesue and Chat Suansil-phong, had to devise novel ways to bake everything: biscuits (helped along by a new convection oven), croissants (switching from commercial-grade gluten-free flour to a proprietary blend was necessary), and cupcakes like banana with sunflower-seed-butter frosting so close to traditional peanut butter that Saesue (who has a nut allergy) almost spit it out during tasting. She shouldn’t have worried.
Not everything passed muster right away. Brownies are on hold for now, and pastry cream has proved especially challenging. “I was hung up on the mouthfeel,” Weller confesses, “because you get that from eggs.” It’s taken a while, but she’s figuring it out. 325 Lafayette St.
13. A Tasting Counter Will Hide Out in Times Square
To the untrained eye, Gui Steakhouse may look like a reliable Theater District recommendation for chopped salad and prime rib. But beginning in October, nestled inside that restaurant will be the city’s newest tasting counter. Hwaro (which translates to “hearth”) invites 22 diners to sit at
a circular chef’s counter for a $295 menu. Chef Sungchul Shim will spotlight elements of seasonal Korean cooking such as charcoal grilling and fermentation. 776 Eighth Ave.
14. A Downtown Sleeper Is Building a Great Big Fire
Since it opened on Bleecker in 2022, the Noortwyck has quietly built a loyal fan base for its expectations-exceeding neighborhood cooking. That crew is heading to Nolita for their next spot, Oriana, with a huge wood-fired grill and a 7,000-bottle wine cellar. 174 Mott St.
15. Dan Abrams Is Opening His Own Media Clubhouse
A Grant Achatz disciple is in the kitchen, while a Corner Store expat will make the drinks at Danny’s, an American throwback joint. 46 W. 22nd St.
16. High-Roller Kaiseki Will Replace Sushi Ichimura
Muku will offer seasonal vegetables like kamo-nasu eggplant alongside seafood such as hairy crab and rockfish. Wagyu, caviar, and uni rice bowls supplement the set menu. 412 Greenwich St.
17. Seed Oils Are Out in Flatiron
Miami’s Motek will establish residence with health-focused, “kosher style” Mediterranean cooking. Think whole branzinos and lots of hummus. 928 Broadway
18. A Williamsburg Favorite Goes Italian
Francie is expanding next door into Allegretto with small plates and wood-fired pizzas, including some — like a pie topped with aged duck — that share ingredients with its sibling. 132 Broadway, Williamsburg
Corima Is Getting Into Coffee
Neither Fidel Caballero or his wife, Sofia Ostos, expected sourdough-flour tortillas to become the star attraction at Corima, the Michelin-starred Mexican restaurant they opened on the fringe of Manhattan’s Chinatown in early 2024. “We always thought of opening a second shop,” Caballero says, “and very quickly, we noticed our tortillas were getting popular.” Originally, they’d planned to make Vato a simple coffee shop in Brownstone Brooklyn with baked goods from Corima “and we’d call it a day,” says Caballero.
Plans changed, and the team’s ambition grew. Corima’s pastry chef, Erick Rocha, will make tarts inspired by the spiced cookies known as marranitos, conchas with yuzu cream, and crisp chocolate-chip cookies filled with gianduja and feuilletine in the mornings. Coffee will be single-origin beans from Oaxaca; the lunch menu will include beef-tongue barbacoa tortas on birote, a salty sourdough from Guadalajara; and when the space transforms into a wine bar at night, the bottle list will be handled by Corima’s sommelier, Mariano Garay.
Photo: Paco Alonso/Courtesy of Vato
Through it all will be the tortillas. Caballero imagines a New York where they are treated with the same reverence as bâtards and boules: “The city deserves better than Mission or Guerrero.” He’s most excited about his breakfast burritos, which will be smaller and thinner than the California style usually found in this city and made with whole grains. There will be beans and cheese, burnt ends with eggs, and brothy pork from Juárez. “We got a huge conveyor-belt machine to make tortillas — 1,000 an hour,” Caballero says.
To fit in with the neighborhood, the team gave their shop washed concrete cream finishes, while a warm wood-paneled hallway leads into the main dining room, which centers on the open kitchen. Photos come from Paco Alonso, a childhood friend of Caballero’s and a partner in Vato. There are ties to family and friends all over; Caballero says the café’s name translates to “homies.” 226 Seventh Ave., Park Slope
20. Union Square Will Get a Supersize Taco Hot Spot …
Since opening in the spring, Santo Taco’s Soho stall has gotten people to line up around the block for its steak trompos and rough-edged masa tortillas. Now it’s expanding: A new location will triple the number of seats while adding margaritas to the menu. 94 University Pl.
21. … A New Place for Hand-Pulled Noodles …
After more than a decade serving noodles at Smorgasburg and two years running Noodle Lane in Park Slope, Lane Li and Chris Wang are opening the 40-seat bistro Rulin. The specialty will be Chinese knife-shaved and hand-pulled noodles — like dan dan mian with pork, Sichuan vegetables, and scallions — and a signature “Rulin” noodle served with mustard greens and chicken broth. 15 E. 13th St.
22. … A Huge Food Hall …
The popular Time Out Market in Dumbo gets a massive Manhattan companion with seven kitchens and seating for 240 guests. Kwame Onwuachi’s Patty Palace will be part of the mix. 124 E. 14th St.
23. … And a Destination for Thai Terrines
Decorated with bamboo, woven art, and ceramics, the 150-seat Narkara will spotlight some of the dishes that are lesser known to diners outside Thailand, such as gaeng kradang (a chilled preparation made by simmering pork until its natural collagen sets into a terrine), kanom krok pu (coconut pancakes filled with lump crab and chile jam), and plenty of fermented sausage. 5 E. 17th St.
24. Uptown Fine Dining Moves Down to the Village
Joe Anthony — who has cooked at Daniel, the Modern, and Gabriel Kreuther — will serve dishes like bison tartare and foie gras with Gewürztraminer gelée at Arvine. Adrien Falcon, with experience at Bouley and Essential by Christophe, handles the wine, with lots of sub-$100 bottles and 20 by-the-glass offerings. 19 Greenwich Ave.
Photo: Courtesy of Arvine
25. Quality Branded Goes Mexican
The restaurant group behind Don Angie and Bad Roman turns its attention to America’s southern border at Limusina: Avocado margaritas, black beans “aligot,” and tableside-flambéed queso fundido are all in the offing. 441 Ninth Ave.
26. A Brooklyn Prince Becomes King of the Columbia Street Waterfront District
Bensonhurst native Sal Lamboglia has turned a handful of blocks over the Gowanus Expressway into his personal fiefdom with Cafe Spaghetti, Swoony’s, and Sal Tang’s. He became the neighborhood’s unofficial savior this year when the owners of Ferdinando’s Focacceria — around for more than a century — selected him to take over. When he reopens toward the end of the year as Bar Ferdinando, he’ll keep the famous pane e panelle and rice balls and add a bunch of new cocktails from Ricardo Echeverri. Giovanna Cucolo will oversee the dining room. 151 Union St.
And PDT Will Open Another Not-So-Secret Bar
It’s taken PDT, the tiny, excellent bar that holds the title of the city’s least-secretive speakeasy, 18 years to expand. When owner Jeff Bell finally pulled the trigger, he decided to go big with a full complex at 1 Cornelia Street: It comprises Tacos 1986, the Los Angeles import that’s been shaving heavily seasoned adobada off the spit since midsummer, and Mixteca, an agave bar from longtime PDT bartender Victor Lopez where bagazo — made of leftover fibers from mezcal production — gives the walls a textured stucco appearance. This fall, the final piece will open: Kees, an underground bar that will be Bell’s domain and is, like PDT, accessed through a hidden door soon to be all over your Instagram timeline.
Bell has taken inspiration from some famous old places — he mentions the Stork Club, the post-Prohibition celebrity hangout — but he doesn’t want Kees to feel like the Epcot version of Ye Olde New York. “The bar industry is like, ‘What era of cosplay are we into now?’ ” he says, laughing. “When I first started, it was Civil War reenactment and then it was, like, Mad Men. When you go down to New Orleans, you put on this dandy outfit from the 1940s.”
Post Company — which just completed the Fedora redo — designed the space with terrazzo tile on the floor and a long light box to match the cantilevered bar. (To get the lighting just right, Bell and Post worked with the company that handles the New Year’s Eve ball in Times Square.) The back-to-basics approach extends to the menu, where Bell is aiming for a sense of timelessness over novelty. With so many negroni variations and house martinis being poured around town, Bell would rather devote his energy to making the best versions of classic drinks. “They’re thoughtful and concise, and they’re intentional,” he says. “I’m at a point in my career where I know the kinds of things that are going to attract the guests who come one time for the photo and the guests who are going to come back ten times.”
Each of his menu’s eight pages will be dedicated to a specific drink — the old-fashioned, the Collins — with a classic option, a seasonal riff, and in some cases a “reserve” choice like a Dom Collins made with vintage Champagne. Even there, Bell is focused on repeat business, which means keeping prices as low as possible. “Sometimes you see places where it’s like, Oh my gosh, it’s a $200 drink because it has gin from the 1900s — how long does someone who makes 20 bucks an hour have to work to pay for that?” he says. “I know what it’s like to hustle to support yourself, and I don’t want to go to places where they take that for granted.” 1 Cornelia St.
More New Restaurants and Bars