Evan Sung
From coast to coast, May saw a slate of openings from some of the country’s most preeminent fine-dining chefs. On the West Coast, Sujan Sarkar has taken the Indian food he’s become known for at Chicago’s Indienne to San Francisco with Tiya. And Joshua Skenes, the chef formerly behind the Michelin-starred restaurant Saison, is now slinging pizzas at Los Angeles’s Leopardo.
Out east, two New York City restaurants are making waves: Harold Dieterle, the very first winner of Top Chef, debuted the Italian Il Totano. And Marc Forgione has revamped his namesake restaurant with a new menu in a new space. In the middle of it all sits Austin’s Prélude, a moody cocktail bar with bites from the Bocuse d’Or winner Mathew Peters.
Below are the five most exciting new restaurant and bar openings of May.
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Il Totano
Image Credit: Alex Staniloff Many people probably know Harold Dieterle as the first-ever winner of Top Chef. Beyond the TV screen, though, he’s been behind a number of hot spots, with Il Totano being just the latest. As a southern-Italian restaurant, seafood really shines here: Crudos are plentiful, and the pastas include everything from Dungeness crab to mussels. Meat eaters will similarly delight in dishes like spicy duck meatballs with mint cavatelli and a crispy pork cotolette with white anchovies.
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Forgione
Image Credit: Evan Sung Marc Forgione’s eponymous restaurant is celebrating its sweet 16 by relocating to a new space and revamping its menu. The chef’s New American spot is elevating its offerings with fresh plates like agnolotti with morels, asparagus, and ham, and lamb roundhouse with panelle and green hummus. Thankfully for longtime fans, classics like Forgione’s hiramasa, chili lobster, and chicken under a brick remain. While it’s not a new opening, per se, it is a welcome refresh of one of Downtown Manhattan’s most notable restaurants.
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Leopardo
Image Credit: Bonjwing Lee Leopardo is currently the talk of the town in Los Angeles. Here, Joshua Skenes, the chef who founded the onetime Michelin three-starred Saison, has taken his fine-dining instincts and applied them to his interpretation of Italian food. He’s serving unique wood-fired pizzas that range from classic Margherita to a five-cheese version topped with fermented potato and a tin of caviar. That latter ingredient is also plentiful in a $220 dish that sees springwater caviar served with a polenta waffle and BBQ maple syrup. And he’s leaning into his love of game meats with deer tartare, wild boar meatballs, and pheasant parmesan.
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Tiya
Image Credit: Neetu Laddha Sujan Sarkar’s Chicago hit Indienne made our list of the best new restaurants in America last year. Now the chef has teamed up with his brother Pujan (formerly of Rooh) to open Tiya in San Francisco. The duo’s New Indian cuisine can be enjoyed a la carte or via a four-course tasting menu. If you opt to order for yourself, the regular menu includes dishes like the birria-esque goat ghee roast taco and classic butter chicken. The tasting menu features some of the same plates, with exclusive options such as lamb keema and morel malai.
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Prélude
Image Credit: John Troxell Mathew Peters’s claim to fame is as the first and only American to win the prestigious Bocuse d’Or. And while a full-on tasting-menu restaurant is still forthcoming, he’s opened the aptly named Prélude in Austin. Here, you can enjoy small plates like chawanmushi toast with uni, ginger, apple, and scallion salad, as well as upscale chicken “nuggets” with hot sauce. The cocktail menu, meanwhile, showcases fresh produce in drinks such as the Strawberry + Coconut (tequila blanco, Pinot Grigio, fortified wine, strawberry, coconut, dates, honey, amchur, lime).
