SEA
As we get ready for the rush of restaurant openings to come this fall, a handful of openings still caught our eye in August. A couple of marquee chefs have expanded their restaurant empires: José Andrés debuted the seafood-focused Bazaar Mar in Las Vegas, while Massimo Bottura opened Torno Subito in Miami. Prolific local chefs and hospitality groups, meanwhile, similarly added to their slate of restaurants. Down south, Emmer & Rye Hospitality opened the steakhouse-inspired Isidore in San Antonio, and Jungsik Yim is exploring Southeast Asian flavors at SEA. Plus, there’s a new tasting-menu spot in Philadelphia from the chef Nicholas Bazik, fusing French and Korean cuisine.
Below are the five most exciting new restaurant openings of August.
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Bazaar Mar
Image Credit: Katrina Frederick José Andrés is one of the most celebrated—and powerful—chefs in the world, and his latest opening only adds to the fine-dining empire he’s created. Bazaar Mar is a seafood-focused haven on the Las Vegas Strip, bringing a touch of the city’s over-the-top and theatrical elements to Andrés’s cuisine. Dinner begins with little snacks that are the team’s version of seafood tapas, such as sea-urchin and river-trout cones, a California “funnel cake” with California-roll ingredients, and lobster croquetas. There’s a whole section devoted to raw and cooked oysters, and the fish mains come grilled in the wood-burning oven, baked in salt, fried, or served as sashimi, all with tableside presentations. The wine list, meanwhile, leans toward Spanish whites that offer a refreshing pairing for all that seafood.
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Provenance
Image Credit: Nate Cluss At Philadelphia’s Provenance, the chef Nicholas Bazik has turned a formerly large restaurant into an intimate 25-seat tasting-menu spot. Within that format, he’s able to emphasize the—fittingly—provenance of the ingredients he uses for the $225 four-course menu, which leans French with Korean influences. Sample dishes from the first month of service include poached oysters with hazelnut milk and golden Osetra caviar, duck breast with heirloom tomato anchoiade, and scallop “au poivre” with spinach. A $140 wine pairing is available to accompany the dishes, as is a non-alcoholic option and a mixed pairing.
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Isidore
Image Credit: Chris Praetzel When you imagine Texas cuisine, you may think barbecue or Tex-Mex. Isidore is hoping that your mind may expand to fine dining, though. The new restaurant from Emmer & Rye Hospitality is the final project at San Antonio’s Pullman Market. Here, the team has dreamt up a steakhouse-inspired menu that spotlights local ingredients, from the raw bar with oysters and crudo to small plates like Wagyu beef tartare and roasted lion’s mane mushrooms. Mains such as grouper, pork chops, and dry-aged Wagyu ribeye are all cooked in the hearth. And the wine program even draws from the Lone Star State’s producers, emphasizing local Texas Hill Country labels.
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Torno Subito Miami
Image Credit: Cristian Gonzalez The Michelin three-starred chef Massimo Bottura is beloved by gourmands, but he’s never had a solo restaurant in the United States—until now (He does have a restaurant inside the Beverly Hills Gucci). Bottura has just opened Torno Subito in Miami, importing the Italian restaurant that debuted in Dubai. (That outpost has one Michelin star, too.) The emphasis here is on bold and brash food that brings a dose of whimsy and irony to Italian cuisine, like in the Oops, I Burned the Key Lime Pie dessert, a take on a lemon tart Bottura serves at Osteria Francescana. Bright colors abound in both the design and the plating, with pasta, pizza, and more all getting the Bottura treatment. If you can’t choose for yourself, there’s even a tasting menu with eight courses curated by the head chef Bernardo Paladini.
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SEA
Image Credit: SEA New York City’s Michelin two-starred Jungsik has long been one of the pioneers of Korean fine dining. Now that restaurant’s chef, Jungsik Yim, is expanding with SEA, a more casual sibling that explores the flavors of Southeast Asia (which is what the name stands for). Plates here take inspiration from locales as varied as Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam: The seafood platter incorporates fish sauce and herbs into the cocktail sauces, while a pork noodle soup is a spin on Vietnamese pho and Malaysian bak kut teh. Drinks similarly riff on classic cocktails with Southeast Asian ingredients, like an Old Fashioned made with Thai iced tea and orange blossom water. SEA is the sort of fusion restaurant that exists without any of the negative connotations that idea might bring to mind.
