Jakob N. Layman
After a relatively slow August when it came to restaurant openings, September got off to a bang. Back-to-school season became back-to-restaurant season, with new spots debuting across the country. In Los Angeles, Wes Avila opened the Mexican steakhouse MXO, while the Michelin-starred Tokyo import Udatsu Sushi put down its first roots stateside. Moving to the Midwest, the lauded Parachute was reborn after a decade as Parachute HiFi, a more casual concept from Beverly Kim and Johnny Clark.
Over on the East Coast, New York saw three notable debuts: The Michelin-starred Joo Ok relocated completely from Seoul to Manhattan. The duo of Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra are serving updated brasserie classics at Brass, and Alex Stupak is cooking up his take on seafood standbys at the Otter. Plus, Washington, D.C., got two new heavy-hitters from a couple of the best chefs in the country: Michael Rafidi at the funky Levantine spot La’ Shukran and Kwame Onwuachi at the Afro-Caribbean Dōgon.
Below are the eight most exciting restaurant openings of September.
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Joo Ok
Image Credit: Joo Ok First opened in 2016 in Seoul, Joo Ok received two Michelin stars there and was named No. 18 on the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list. But the chef Shin Chang-ho shut down the restaurant last year, and now it’s reopened in Midtown Manhattan. Here, Shin is serving a $180, 11-course tasting menu featuring seasonal ingredients and Korean flavors. Dishes on the opening menu include Korean beef tartare, lobster with Korean pear, and Wagyu ribeye. No long-haul flight required.
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Udatsu Sushi
Image Credit: Gry Space Over in Tokyo, Udatsu Sushi is one of the city’s best omakase spots, having earned a Michelin star just three years after opening. Lucky for us, it’s now debuted its first U.S. location in L.A. The $225, 17-course omakase menu leans into classic nigiri techniques, but there are also more innovative dishes like smoked fatty tuna, a seasonal herb roll, and fried butternut squash with caviar. It’s another notable addition to L.A.’s rich sushi scene.
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La’ Shukran
Image Credit: Hawkeye Johnson Michael Rafidi just won the James Beard Award for Outstanding Chef, but that doesn’t mean he’s slowing down at all. In fact, he just debuted the Levantine bar and bistro La’ Shukran in Washington, D.C. Late-night bites run the gamut from smoky escargot with arak butter to kebab steak au poivre—an aged New York strip grilled over coals with sumac onions and an herb salad. Arak, a traditional Levantine spirit with flavors of anise and licorice, is prevalent in the cocktails too, while the wines lean toward the natural. Rafidi and his team are angling to bring so-called Levantine funk to the District, and it sounds like they’ve so far succeeded.
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Brass
Image Credit: Carl Timpone Jeremiah Stone and Fabián von Hauske Valtierra are two of the most celebrated chefs in New York, and the city was bereft when they closed their Michelin-starred Contra last year. Now the duo is back with Brass, a French brasserie-inspired restaurant at the Evelyn Hotel. The two have devised their own takes on the classics, like in moules frites with marinated mussels and chickpea fritters, Montauk ruby red prawn tartare, and American Wagyu steak with Armagnac-prune purée. Pair those plates with one of the restaurant’s “classic two sippers,” small pours of cocktails like Negronis and dirty Martinis.
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Parachute HiFi
Image Credit: Andres Recillas Celebrating the 10-year anniversary of a restaurant could mean a huge party. For Johnny Clark and Beverly Kim, it meant completely re-envisioning their highly lauded Parachute. This month, the elevated Korean restaurant was reborn as Parachute HiFi, a more casual music bar and restaurant that allows the husband-and-wife team to explore their love of music as much as their love of food. The tunes come from their personal collection, and are accompanied by Korean American bar food like kimchi Spam fried rice and a burger. And don’t worry: Clark and Kim are looking for a larger space to house a new and improved version of Parachute.
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The Otter
Image Credit: Yudi Ela When his former restaurant Mischa closed after less than a year, Alex Stupak could have taken some time to regroup. Instead, he has come back swinging at the Otter, a seafood-focused restaurant at the new Manner hotel in New York. With updated takes on fish and chips, lobster rolls, and more, the Otter is a New England–inspired spot with a New York ethos. Upstairs, Stupak has also taken the culinary lead at the cocktail bar Sloane’s, where he’s whipped up fun dishes like chicken nuggets. Pick your poison, or start at the Otter and move to Sloane’s as the night progresses.
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Dōgon
Image Credit: Scott Suchman Kwame Onwuachi has received numerous accolades for his restaurant Tatiana in New York. But his tenure in Washington, D.C., has been much rockier. His first restaurant in the nation’s capital closed after just two months, and the pandemic caused him to exit his hit D.C. spot Kith/Kin. Now he’s back in the District with Dōgon, an Afro-Caribbean restaurant that draws on Washington, D.C.’s history and Onwuachi’s own lineage. There are small plates like mushroom etouffee and plantain hoe cake, and larger dishes such as lobster escovitch and berbere roasted chicken with jollof rice. It’s a welcome return to the city where Onwuachi first made a name for himself in the industry.
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MXO
Image Credit: Jakob N. Layman Wes Avila is probably best known as the founder of Guerrilla Tacos, where he used fine-dining ingredients in a space that had heavily relied on simpler, $1 street tacos. At MXO, he’s bringing that same high-end mentality into a world where it’s already prevalent—the steakhouse. The Mexican-inspired restaurant focuses heavily on local California ingredients and wood-fired meats, seafood, and vegetables. That’s exemplified in dishes such as a grilled cabbage Caesar, lobster ceviche with heirloom tomatoes, and a 20-ounce, bone-in ribeye. Ball out with the $285 birria beef hammer, a whole braised Wagyu beef shank in consome.
