If one thing is certain about the restaurant industry, it’s that things change: Fresh faces come onto the scene, established chefs seek a change of pace, restaurant groups try to tap into up-and-coming trends. Below are eight exciting, upcoming openings that we at Wine Spectator think will stand out in 2025, including a Caribbean-influenced spot from an acclaimed group, an iconic Florida restaurant getting a second life from a leading chef, and much more. Read on to see what’s to come in 2025!
[article-img-container][src=2025-01/restaurant-news-openings-2025-joujou-012325_1600.jpg] [credit= (Angela DeCenzo)] [alt= Wine director Jacob Brown and chef David Barzelay.][end: article-img-container]French Digs from Lazy Bear
Hot off the heels of winning their first Wine Spectator Grand Award in 2024, the team behind San Francisco’s Lazy Bear is expanding with a new French restaurant, JouJou, slated to open this spring in San Francisco’s Design District. The destination will be “inspired equally by great restaurants and louche lounges, [bringing] French food to the table through the California lens of chef David Barzelay,” according to a statement from the team. Gracing the menu will be seafood towers and shellfish delights, including oysters with frites, made all the better with glasses of Champagne and other great wines selected by Lazy Bear wine director Jacob Brown.
[article-img-container][src=2025-01/restaurant-news-openings-2025-cote-012325_1600.jpg] [credit= (Courtesy of Cote Korean Steakhouses)] [alt= Simon Kim][end: article-img-container]A New Location for COTE Korean Steakhouse
Fine-dining leader Simon Kim’s Gracious Hospitality Management (GHM) is rapidly growing its COTE Korean Steakhouse concept. Last year, the New York City–based group launched the first COTE outside the United States, in Singapore. (In Manhattan, the group also debuted an entirely new dining concept, COQODAQ, devoted to the tried-and-true pairing of fried chicken and Champagne.) This year, GHM is going even bigger, with a new COTE Korean Steakhouse set to open in early 2025 at the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas.
[article-img-container][src=2025-01/restaurant-news-openings-2025-the-view-012325_1600.jpg] [credit= (Courtesy of Union Square Hospitality Group)] [alt= A rendering of the entrance and lounge of the View in New York City][end: article-img-container]The Sky’s the Limit for Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group
Last fall, leading restaurateur Danny Meyer revealed that his Union Square Hospitality Group (USHG) was going to reach new heights, quite literally: The star-studded restaurant group—which owns several of New York’s most famous restaurants, including Grand Award winner the Modern—will take over the city’s only rotating restaurant: the View at the Marriott Marquis hotel in Times Square. Earlier this week, USHG announced that chef Marjorie Meek-Bradley will head the kitchen; Meek-Bradley is perhaps best known for her time on Top Chef and at Best of Award of Excellence winners St. Anselm in Washington, D.C., and Pastis in NYC. Expected to open this winter, the restaurant will offer a menu that plays off USHG’s vision of “classic American supper clubs of old New York.”
Also on the horizon for USHG are two 2025 openings in Boston. Announced at the beginning of 2024, the new spots will be located in Commonwealth Pier, a new mixed-use development along the waterfront in the downtown Seaport neighborhood. According to USHG, these restaurants will represent existing concepts, but it’s still up in the air if Beantown will be getting its own Gramercy Tavern, Ci Siamo or maybe even Union…
Source : https://www.winespectator.com/articles/new-restaurant-opening-preview-2025
