The New York Restaurant Openings We’re Most Excited About This Spring

Ah, spring. The birds are chirping. The sun is shining again. And, oh wait, look! It’s a smattering of new restaurants heading for New York. This round-up includes the restaurants we are most excited to try this spring, from a new Filipino wine bar to the Four Horsemen’s follow-up. Keep an eye on our Eater openings column for stories about these spots once they’re actually open. Eventually, after we check it out, there’s a chance they’ll end up on our heatmaps. Until then, here are the openings that should be on your calendar. And for the full list of 2025 openings to keep track of, head to our guide we published earlier this year.

Former Saga chef steps out on her own

Name: Haymarket
Opening: spring

India Doris, who had been the executive sous chef of fine-dining destination Saga, is opening her own place. The result will be a modern European menu in a high-end space, spanning dishes from Spain (expect salt cod), Normandy, and London (where she’s from; look out for skewer boards). Rounding out the Haymarket team is business partner Alex Pfaffenbach, formerly the director of development of the hospitality company Quality Branded; the two met while working at the Nomad. 326 Seventh Avenue, near West 28th Street, Chelsea

A Taiwanese restaurant heads for Midtown

Name: Jaba
Opening: April

The word “jaba” is Taiwanese slang for “eat until full,” the driving command behind executive chef and owner Anthony “Tony” Inn’s new restaurant. That’s easily accomplished through its modern Taiwanese menu, with family-style dishes like basil and garlic-laced Manila clams, a 60-day aged beef rib covered in sa cha paste served with lotus buns, and a tomato granita with a plum powdered soy sauce. The restaurant will offer dinner, daytime bento boxes, and weekend baked goods boxes. While Inn had worked at Japanese restaurants before (Kin Gin, Masa, Morimoto, and Taru), he decided to focus on his homeland cuisine for this venture. The dining room will feature butcher-block tables and black leather chairs and booths, with 50 seats. 230 East 58th Street, between Second and Third Avenue, Midtown East

A Momofuku star chef leads a Caribbean tasting menu

Momofuku

Name: Kabawa
Opening: spring

First, chef Paul Carmichael opened Bar Kabawa with an original spin on Haitian and Jamaican patties with daiquiris at the front of the space. Next, the prix-fixe companion, simply called Kabawa, marks the return to fine dining from the chef who landed, years ago, in the Momofuku empire. During his stint working for the hospitality group in Australia, Carmichael, now the culinary lead for Momofuku, burnished his reputation, earning accolades worldwide. Kabawa’s food will reinforce the Caribbean origins of the bar menu, incorporating dishes from various islands, countries of Africa, and elements of French, Portuguese, and Spanish cooking. 8 Extra Place, at East First Street, East Village

An Italian deli brings fresh energy to Fresh Pond

Name: Arrigo’s of Fresh Pond Road
Opening: spring

Arrigo’s is an Italian deli transforming an old Ukrainian and Polish deli, opening soon in Queens. It comes from the team behind Bed-Stuy favorite Daphne’s, known for its delightful Italian cooking. It’ll serve sandwiches and homemade pastas, “inspired by the delis we grew up eating in,” says co-owner Gary Fishkop, who grew up in Sheepshead Bay’s red-sauce land. His partner in Daphne’s, the chef Paul Cacici, joins him. On certain nights at Arrigo’s, there are plans to turn the 25-seat space into a dinner spot serving natural wines and a seasonal menu. 71-08 Fresh Pond Road, near 71st Avenue, Ridgewood

Libertine expands with tribute to French restaurants of the past

Evan Sung/Libertine

Name: Chateau Royale
Opening: spring

Cody Pruitt, who is behind West Village French bistro Libertine, is working on opening his second restaurant this spring. Yes, Chateau Royale is another French restaurant, but it’s an homage to the city’s grand-but-gone iconic restaurants like La Grenouille. The townhouse building includes the ground-floor bar with green tones and the second-floor 50-seat dining room, both serving French dishes (such as escargots a la Bourguignonne and sea bass with caviar), an all-French wine list, and tableside cocktails. 205 Thompson Street, at Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village

Beautiful Eyes

A queer bar is bringing Filipino food to the Bowery

Name: Beautiful Eyes
Opening: Late spring or early summer

Wine professional Miguel de Leon and the team behind Pinch Chinese in Soho are opening something new on the Bowery. Beautiful Eyes will be a 45-seat queer wine bar serving Filipino food in kitchen led by former pop-up chef Lj Almendras. The food itself is focused “on precolonial methods (charcoal grill, vinegar curing, and slow braising)” and offers a different look at Filipino American cooking: “sorry, no lumpia or adobo — please go to those turo-turo spots instead!” says de Leon. In addition to a karaoke screen and a DJ booth, there will be “a decorative dance pole.” 264 Bowery, between Houston and Prince streets, Lower East Side

A taste of Madrid at a new restaurant from Ernesto’s

Name: Bartolo
Opening: April

Two Bridges neighborhood Basque restaurant Ernesto’s is expanding with a new Spanish spot in the West Village. Bartolo will take inspiration from tavernas in Madrid, which means a cozy dining room with an Old World menu. The restaurant’s name comes from Ryan Bartlow’s nickname when he was working in San Sebastián. 310 West Fourth Street, near West 12th Street, West Village

The Four Horsemen’s next ride is Italian

The Four Horsemen

Name: I Cavallini
Opening: May

The team behind innovative Brooklyn wine bar the Four Horsemen is opening a new Italian restaurant nearby in the same neighborhood. The comparatively bigger space will allow the team more room to serve and have fun with food, wine, and cocktails — it seats 70 people. Behind the spot, are managing director Amanda McMillan and executive chef Nick Curtola. Joining them are co-partners James Murphy, Christina Topsoe, Randy Moon, and wife of the late Justin Chearno, Stacy Fisher. 284 Grand Street, near Roebling Street, Williamsburg

A Williamsburg social club relaunches as a restaurant

Name: JR & Son
Opening: spring

The team who restored Kellogg’s Diner is relaunching another Williamsburg haunt. This time it’s JR & Son, the longtime dive bar that closed during the pandemic, with roots as a social club dating back to the 1930s. The new JR & Son will straddle bar and Italian American restaurant — akin to spots like it in the area, like Bernie’s — in a kitchen helmed by Patricia Vega, alum of Thai Diner and Bravo’s Top Chef. Vega says, “I’m not reinventing the wheel; I just want to keep it simple and make it really good.” She’ll offer pastas, chop-house items, and an herbaceous arancini salad. The intention is to make it an after-work industry hangout. 575 Lorimer Street, at Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg

A Top Chef steers an anchor restaurant in French retail space

Kosmas Flores/Maison Passerelle

Name: Maison Passerelle
Opening: April 17

While the opening of French store Printemps is debuting at 1 Wall Street later this month, the showcase restaurant from acclaimed chef Gregory Gourdet, Maison Passerelle will roll out on April 17. Look for French dishes “through the lens of all its former colonies,” such as chicories seasoned with lemongrass, Thai bird chiles, and fish sauce; or duck confit paired with a stew stocked with palm-fruit oil, ginger, and chiles. Raised in Queens, Top Chef alum Gourdet, chef and owner of Portland’s Kann — a James Beard Best New Restaurant winner in 2023 — will oversee the five outlets in the building, including Maison Passerelle, as culinary director for Printemps, with Kent Hospitality Group overseeing operations. The other locations will debut with the opening of the store. 1 Wall Street, at New Street, Financial District

The groundbreaking Adda expands to Manhattan

Gary He

Names: Adda
Openings: May

Growing Indian restaurant group Unapologetic Foods, behind lauded restaurants Dhamaka and Semma, has been working on the second location of homestyle Indian restaurant Adda, set to open this spring. When New York Times’s Pete Wells reviewed the restaurant, which opened before Unapologetic Foods’s Dhamaka caused a sensation, he called it “a full-throated defense of Indian cooking.” The original restaurant opened Long Island City in 2018. 107 First Avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets, East Village

A taste of Mexico City for Bed-Stuy

Name: Dolores
Opening: April

New York’s love affair for Mexico City hasn’t slowed down. Dolores is a new restaurant that channels CDMX on Bed-Stuy’s Tompkins Avenue. Husband-and-wife team Cressida Greening and Emir Duperyron first opened Winona’s in the neighborhood. There, it has become known as a pop-up haven. In their follow-up, Duperyron explores his native city: A cantina-style menu will pair with a cocktail program led by consulting beverage director Leanne Fevre (Clover Club, Theodora, and Leyenda). 397 Tompkins Avenue, at Jefferson Avenue, Bed-Stuy

A bakery for dietary restrictions from a pastry star

Name: Bub’s Bakery
Opening: Summer

Sadelle’s co-founder Melissa Weller has paired up with the team behind Thai restaurants Fish Cheeks and Bangkok Supper Club for a vegan and gluten-free spot called Bub’s Bakery. The “American-style baked foods for people with dietary restrictions” is set to roll out this summer. Weller was last on the scene in NYC at Gertie in Williamsburg, and before that, High Street on Hudson, where she made bagels and baked goods like a cinnamon cardamom roll. She also had stints baking at Per Se and Roberta’s. Before Bub’s debut, the team is rolling out a Williamsburg location of Fish Cheeks in a 2,200 square-foot space, with some Brooklyn-only menu items from chef Dustin Everett. 325 Lafayette Street, at Mulberry Street, Noho; 661 Driggs Avenue, at Metropolitan Avenue, Williamsburg