By Kat Odell, Bloomberg
Get ready to step up to the counter for some of the year’s more anticipated cooking.
If there’s one restaurant trend to get excited about, it’s pedigreed chefs reinventing the concept of walk-up counters where customers order, then seat themselves. It’s an efficient model that allows operators to trim labor costs while featuring fine-dining-calibre ingredients.
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The trend reflects the general movement of optimizing restaurants to meet the current moment. Inflation and rising living costs have generally left diners more selective on how and where they’ll spend their money. With that in mind, many luxury dining-room alums are opening more accessible, amped-up comfort food spots where the specialty ranges from hand rolls to cuts of beef at modern steakhouses, served with large-format martinis.
But if you thought fine dining is done, think again. Tasting menus are another unlikely trend given the eroding demand for fine dining. Chefs are leaning into the experiential side with meals that are theatrical, playful and even educational — and often involve dining in multiple settings.
And then there’s premium Japanese cuisine, a trend that shows no signs of abating this year. Some of Tokyo’s most vaunted sushi specialists and wagyu champions will arrive in the US with their first outposts outside of Tokyo, looking to attract a larger, more global and affluent audience in cities like New York and Miami, where enthusiasts are lined up. Get ready for the 20 most exciting openings coming in 2026.
Casual Counters Come Back
Fatback, Chicago
Barbecue champ Charlie McKenna’s new place in the Loop is a combination sandwich shop, butcher counter and specialty market (think high-end pantry staples like pastas, sauces and olive oil). Inspired by 1950s French butchers, with a vintage restored Berkel slicer inside a glass case by the entrance, McKenna will offer butchered steaks and chickens and a range of sandwiches like French dips and country ham and butter, constructed from high-quality meats with housemade sauces. Opening: winter
Safta’s Table, New Orleans
Alon Shaya — who introduced modern Israeli food to New Orleans a decade ago — is opening a casual, all-day Mediterranean cafe in Lakeview. The 50-seat counter-service spot, part of a mixed-use development, will have bright white and blond wood design with retro color pops when its completed. On Safta’s menu: harissa glaze-roasted chicken; ginger-garlic-marinated salmon; sides like hummus with lamb ragu; and the chef’s signature sourdough pitas from a wood-fired oven, plus halvah lattes and wine on tap Shaya will also sell prepared casseroles, like lasagna Bolognese and spanakopita. Opening: late February
Rye Bunny, Washington
After nearly a decade helming the influential Tail Up Goat, the husband-and-wife team of Jill Tyler and chef Jon Sybert will reopen the 2,000-square-foot space as Rye Bunny. At the counter-service, 84-seat restaurant, the menu — which changes weekly — might include charred Napa cabbage with fennel pollen breadcrumbs, as well as date-molasses-glazed fried chicken flecked with benne seeds. Beverage director Audrey Dowling will focus on international small-production wines and a rotating list of three classic cocktails. The warm, folk-craft decor will include rag rugs, patchwork tile floors and string lights. Opening: spring
Tasting Menus Emphasize Experience
Maize, Denver
Johnny Curiel and his wife, Kasie — the couple behind the rustic-modern hit Alma Fonda Fina — will spotlight their devotion to masa at a place with their first Mexican tasting menu. The $225, 18-course menu, served twice nightly, will allow eight guests per seating to move through a sequence of spaces within the restaurant, with each one spotlighting nixtamalized in-house corn. A raw counter offers bites like vivid green hoja santa and chlorophyll tamale topped with Hokkaido uni. A glass-enclosed room has drinks with ferments such as pulque (the alcoholic beverage made from fermented agave sap) and atole agrio (made from fermented masa). At another counter, entrees made à la minute might include squab in mole amarillo made with subtly smoky chile costeño, alongside dry-aged Colorado lamb rack finished with tropical-tasting mole manchamanteles. Opening: spring
Oyatte, New York
In Murray Hill, the 30-seat bilevel restaurant is a collaboration between Hasung Lee, a veteran of the French Laundry and Atomix, and Brett Ellis, the French Laundry’s former head farmer. Ellis is now the force behind Crown Daisy Farm in upstate New York, and his sustainable produce, from radicchio to radishes, will anchor Lee’s contemporary seasonal menu. (Barn wood from the farm also went into Oyatte’s design. Meals will begin with canapés on the ground floor, then guests will head upstairs into a pair of intimate dining rooms for the tasting menu. They’ll open serving wine and beer with the possibility of a Champagne cart and wine-based cocktails made table side. Opening: spring
Comfort Food Gets Amped
JouJou, San Francisco
Early this year, Colleen Booth and chef David Barzelay, the duo behind the Bay Area’s renowned Lazy Bear, will open the more laid-back French-rooted JouJou. The seafood-leaning menu will be inspired by the French West Indies and New Orleans, via plates such as lobster and mango salad and king salmon almondine. The 6,000-square-foot space will encompass a raw bar, a sunken-garden dining room, a booth-lined main dining area and a glass-enclosed patio lounge where guests can order seasonal takes on classics like kir royales and French 75s. Opening: winter
Lion’s Share, Nashville
Robbie Wilson, the chef who ran the acclaimed Bird Dog in Palo Alto, California, is headed to Sylvan Park in Nashville, where his multilevel, 100-seat live-fire restaurant will evoke a modern British colonial hunting lodge centered on a custom-built hearth. There Wilson will sear dry-aged proteins, from fish to game birds to beef. Think shima aji (Japanese striped jack) with a mandarin kosho paste; swordfish belly with za’ tar spice and calamansi; and New York strip and filet served on the bone, au poivre. The blue-ceilinged lounge will specialize in old-world wines such as Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. Opening: late January
Saverne, New York
Over a decade after opening his eponymous fine-dining Midtown restaurant, chef Gabriel Kreuther is expanding to the Spiral at Hudson Yards with a 5,000-square-foot wood-fired brasserie. The 120-seat, light-filled space with an open kitchen was designed by prolific New York firm Modellus Novus with rosewood-toned walls and a quartzite bar. Kreuther’s a la carte menu channels his Alsatian roots (the restaurant is named for a town there) with dishes such as slow-cooked rabbit with mustard, as well as braised country bacon with beer and sauerkraut. Opening: early February
Ox & Olive Steakhouse, Washington
As a follow-up to his decorated dining rooms Jônt and Bresca, Ryan Ratino will focus on beef in a 2,500-square-foot, 60-seat steakhouse in Georgetown. Meals will kick off with a nonalcoholic table-side martini before moving into dishes like steak tartare éclairs; steak frites paired with a chocolate shake and wagyu flank; and dry-aged porterhouse with housemade A.1. sauce. Beverage director Will Patton is building an expansive (actual) martini program, complete with a large-format offering. Design-wise, expect an old-world aesthetic with animal furs, antlers and candlelight. Opening: Early Spring
Maru San, Washington
Chef Carlos Delgado, the force behind DC’s Peruvian tasting-menu spot Causa, is spotlighting Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei-style hand rolls in a moody 1,000-square-foot Capitol Hill space anchored by a 25-seat black stone dining counter below a giant octopus mural. Delgado’s rolls might be filled with white fish like snapper, crispy sweet potato chips and the Peruvian citrus marinade leche de tigre. Small plates like a wagyu tataki riff showcase seared beef and aji panca (Peruvian chile) in pickled ají amarillo (yellow chile) sauce. Alongside will be sake and Japanese and Peruvian beers. At night, Delgado will offer a tasting menu for just four guests, with dishes like a chirashi-ceviche hybrid: sushi rice folded with uni, topped with seasonal aged fish and tangy ceviche sauce. Opening: January
Gingie, Chicago
Eleven Madison Park’s longtime chef de cuisine Brian Lockwood has decamped to Chicago, where he’s teamed up with the hit-making Boka Restaurant Group to open this vast, 5,500-square-foot, 150-seat River North restaurant. In a space dressed in burgundy marble and white oak paneling, Lockwood will highlight an à la carte menu that includes nontraditional hand rolls with fillings like Peekytoe crab with miso-cured egg yolk and horseradish, as well as American wagyu with a ricotta dumpling. Boka’s Ashley Santoro’s drinks program emphasizes cocktails with savory flavors and rare ingredients, plus old-world wines and premium sakes. Opening: February
The Unstoppable Japanese Wave
Oniku Karyu, Miami
The Design District will soon be home to the American debut of Tokyo’s acclaimed wagyu-focused omakase from chef Haruka Katayanagi in partnership with restaurateur Andre Sakai. The tiny space — it’s only 500 square feet — has a 10-seat counter and minimalist Japanese aesthetic with white oak millwork, hay-embedded plaster walls and sliding panels that reveal a concealed chef’s table and sake room. Katayanagi protégé Hiroshi Morito will helm the $350 menu of exceptionally marbled Tajimaguro wagyu in dishes like katsu sando, a taco course and traditional sukiyaki. The beverage program includes premium sakes and a handful of red and white wines. Opening: January
Nikuya Tanaka, New York
Karyu isn’t the only high-end Japanese beef project from Sakai. In the spring, he’ll bring an outpost of Nikuya Tanaka, the lauded Ginza kappo-style wagyu spot from chef Satoru Tanaka, to Tribeca in New York. At the 10-seat counter, beef dishes will range from sashimi to shabu-shabu and tempura. Upstairs will be the first international location of Land Bar Artisan where Daisuke Ito is famed for his precise fruit-forward drinks, styled to customers’ tastes down to the spirit and sugar levels. Opening: spring
Sushi Yoshitake, New York
On the mezzanine level at the new 550 Madison development, Masahiro Yoshitake of Tokyo’s iconic three-Michelin-starred Sushi Yoshitake will make his New York debut with two eight-seat counters. His multicourse omakase shows off the chef’s restrained minimalist Edomae style and love of aged fish. It’s part of restaurateur Simon Kim’s highly anticipated expansion to Midtown that also includes an outpost of Cote Korean steakhouse (more below). Opening: spring
Sushi Mitani, New York
Legendary Tokyo sushi chef Yasuhiko Mitani of the vaunted Sushi Mitani arrives in Manhattan with his first international location inside Midtown’s Lotte New York Palace hotel. Unlike most top sushi spots, Mitani will serve lunch as well as dinner, offering a premium omakase with extended seafood aging and minimal modern nigiri embellishments. Guests sitting at two six-seat counters set in private rooms will have the option to pair the meal with Champagne, wine, sake or tea. Opening: May
Empire Extenders
Lapaba, Los Angeles
Star chef Nancy Silverton is expanding her range beyond Italian in this Korean-accented pasta bar in Koreatown. In an Avengers-like move, she’s teamed up with other notable hospitality stars including Tanya and Joe Bastianich and local restaurateur Robert Kim to open the 2,200-square-place. It will be led by Silverton’s protégés, husband-and-wife team Matthew Kim and McKenna Lelah. A snaking, semicircular white-and-gray-marble-topped dining counter wraps around an open kitchen, with a handful of round tables tucked to the side. On the menu: dishes like dduk (Korean rice cake) cacio e pepe, as well as tonnarelli pasta in a sauce made from kombu, clams and chorizo. The pasta, handmade in front of guests, can be paired with cocktails such as makgeolli-laced negroni sbagliato and a soju-and-persimmon hot toddy. Opening: January
Cantina Contramar, Las Vegas
Fontainebleau Las Vegas will be home to the latest from celebrated Mexico City chef Gabriela Cámara. Cantina Contramar is being designed by architect Frida Escobedo (who’s also designing the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Tang Wing) and will feature a dining room and bar serving new dishes as well as CDMX icons like the soy-and-orange-seasoned raw tuna tostada and whole butterflied grilled fish lacquered in contrasting smoky red and herbaceous green adobos. The agave-based drinks program will be created by Casa Dragones co-owner Bertha González Nieves. Opening: early spring
Chimera and Cote Madison, New York
When Cote founder Simon Kim decided to expand his popular Korean barbecue empire uptown, he was determined to go big. The new 15,000-square-foot Rockwell Group-designed space at 550 Madison in the Sony building contains three concepts. One is Sushi Yoshitake (above). The second, on the ground floor, is Chimera, which will operate as a lunch-and-dinner restaurant with an under-wraps food concept and three distinct bars, each centered on a specific drink. And then there’s the buzz about a second Cote location, located in a dramatically lit subterranean area. There, executive chef David Shim will serve Cote classics like Butcher’s Feast and the build-your-own caviar and sea urchin gimbap rice roll, alongside new, yet-to-be-announced dishes. Opening: April
Brasserie Boulud, New York
Last year, mega chef Daniel Boulud announced that his three long-time Upper West Side properties — Bar Boulud, Boulud Sud and Épicerie Boulud — would become one massive space, Brasserie Boulud, on Broadway and 64th Street. The 10,000-square-foot all-day bistro will span two floors, with most of the 200-seat action on the renovated lower level, including the central gray-marble-topped bar and main dining room with dark brown leather booths. The straightforward French service will start in the morning with coffee and croissants, and later in the day, it will transition to steak frites and roast chicken. At the back, a separate 20-seat red-and-gold-toned bar and lounge will mix craft cocktails for the Lincoln Center crowd across the street. Opening: spring
(Correction removes mention of Shaya restaurant in Shafta blurb)
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