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.
1. Pitt’s, Pitts, 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
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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
5. 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.
