NYC’s Most Anticipated Restaurant Openings of Spring 2023

We can feel spring in the air, but there’s more than just good weather to look forward to in the coming months. This season holds some truly exciting restaurant openings in New York City, including a Rome import Roscioli, a Thai American pop-up opening a permanent home, as well as a new Manhattan restaurant from a top Houston chef with New Orleans roots among the lot. Note: these are targeted opening dates subject to change.

Roscioli

Opening: April

Following the closure of Niche Niche, Ariel Arce has teamed up with Rome institution Roscioli. Back in Rome, what started as a bakery, Antico Forno Roscioli has been serving pizza rossa, pizza bianca, and breads since the ’70s; it expanded in 2004 to a second location for Roscioli Salumeria con Cucina, where cured meats and cheeses are the highlights; and it was followed by wine-focused Rimessa Roscioli that opened in 2017 in yet a third location, operated by a different crew using the Roscioli name for dinner and drinks, private tastings, cooking, and wine classes. Look for elements of all three in the NYC location. 43 MacDougal Street, at King Street, West Village

Little Grenjai

Little Grenjai

Opening: Spring

Sutathip Aiemsaard and Trevor Lombaer met on Tinder while Lombaer was traveling in Thailand. Initially, the couple intended to launch a food truck and then pivoted to pop-ups during the pandemic. By 2022, the duo had been serving delivery food consistently out of a Downtown Brooklyn ghost kitchen. This spring, they’re opening a sit-down lunch counter and breakfast spot, with dishes that pull together their combined Thai American upbringings. Think: Chiang Mai sausage Chicago dogs, smash burgers, and other mash-up dishes. 477 Gates Avenue, near Marcy Avenue, Bed-Stuy

Café Mars

Opening: Spring

Café Mars, a funky, modern Italian restaurant is heading to Gowanus from co-chefs Paul D’Avino and Jorge Olarte. Collectively, the duo pulls experience from time spent at wd~50, Aska, Momofuku Ssam Bar, and Narcissa, among other spots across the globe. The menu, which the team calls “unusual Italian,” might include dishes like Castelvetrano olives with Negroni gel, churros with Parmigiano-Reggiano, smoked pork ribs with a spaghetti salad, and a black olive-olive oil cake. Expect futuristic interior design to match an equally colorful menu. 272 Third Avenue, at President Street, Gowanus

Donna

Opening: April

Following the closure of Williamsburg cocktail destination Donna in 2020, the bar is relaunching in Manhattan. Founder Leif Huckman has transferred his ownership so that Donna 2.0 can be an entirely worker-owned operation, now led by Luke Evans, K.C. Frank, Ulises Fuentes, Elissa May, and Lauren Ruiz. The bar will continue to be pan-Latin, and will include cocktails Donna was known for like the Brancolada. Consulting chef Steve Browning (an alum of the Marlow universe), will place more emphasis on vegetarian options. 7 Cornelia Street, near Sixth Avenue, West Village

Salty Lunch Lady’s Little Luncheonette

Opening: May

Dria Atencio, an alum of Mission Chinese is planting down roots of her own. Atencio is turning a version of her Salty Lunch Lady pop-up alter ego into a modern luncheonette with items like a mortadella, herby chicken meatball with smoked paprika aioli, and fried pickled veg sandwiches. There will also be the nostalgic layer cakes she’s come to be known for, like a chocolate cake with dark chocolate ganache with peanut butter frosting, coconut confetti cake, as well as brown butter sour cherry sandwich cookies filled with pistachio cream. She plans to host the occasional supper club of sorts in the space at night. 565 Woodward Avenue, at Menahan Street, Ridgewood

Alligator Pear

Alligator Pear

Opening: May

Alligator Pear will open in the Garment District from New Orleans native (and a 2018 Eater Houston Rising Star Chef), Dominick Lee. The New American restaurant with New Orleans influence will be a restaurant-music venue, with a weekday oyster happy hour, as well as a menu of dishes like johnny cakes with smoked salmon roe and chives, crawfish hash browns, chicken and sausage gumbo, as well as beignets. Look for lots of plants and Art Deco accents in the space. 150 W. 30th Street, between Seventh and Sixth avenues, Garment District

Robert Sietsema/Eater NY

Little Egg

Opening: April

Egg, the Williamsburg brunch staple that closed its doors in 2020, will be revived as Little Egg. The space, which was formerly MeMe’s Diner and its follow-up KIT, is now in the hands of Evan Hanczor and his team. Hanczor tells Eater that the menu will be an abbreviated version of the Southern comfort classics Egg was known for, now with pastries made by Tanya Bush, baker and co-founder of Cake Zine. At night, he hopes to open his doors to pop-ups (Hanczor also helps run Tables of Contents, a literary food series, and is a part of mutual aid group FIG). 657 Washington Avenue, near Saint Marks Avenue, Prospect Heights

Ursula

Opening: April

When Ursula opened during the pandemic, lines snaked down the street as people waited to get a taste of owner Eric See’s breakfast burrito. The problem? There were basically no seats. See and his team are relocating Ursula from Crown Heights to Bed-Stuy, in bigger digs where sit-down service is finally possible and where they can showcase more New Mexican dishes that nod to See’s heritage. Brunch might include items like blue corn pancakes with pine nuts and whipped sage butter, burritos smothered with green chile stew, and carne adovada. Dinner and cocktails (with items that highlight LGBTQ+ distilleries and other makers) are to follow. 387 Nostrand Avenue, near Madison Street, Bed-Stuy

Hamburger America

Opening: June

George Motz, author and host of the “Burger Scholar Sessions” series on YouTube, will open a burger shop, Hamburger America, in partnership with Andrew and Jonathan Schnipper, behind the small chain of Schnipper’s, serving fried onion cheeseburgers and diner sandwiches. 51 MacDougal Street, near West Houston Street, Soho

Gertrude’s

Opening: June

Gertie opened in 2019 as a New York answer to California all-day cafes, bolstered by Jew-ish dishes. Today, the restaurant only operates in the daytime, but at one point, the restaurant also had dinner. With Gertrude’s, a forthcoming restaurant in the former James, the team is bringing back dinner aspirations in a standalone new home. Gertie co-owners and couple Nate Adler and Rachel Jackson, are partnering on this new operation, also named after Adler’s grandmother, with executive chef and meme lord Eli Sussman, behind fast-casual spot, Samesa. Dinner will include items like an appetizing tower featuring oysters with beet mignonette and an assortment of pickled and smoked fish, gefilte fish-style croquettes with horseradish tartar sauce, a reuben-inspired burger, and short rib spaetzle goulash. 605 Carlton Avenue, at Saint Marks Avenue, Prospect Heights

Eater NY

Superiority Burger

Opening: April

Perhaps the biggest opening of the year — Brooks Headley’s vegetarian burger-dessert parlor; and a homage to diners, punk rock, and analog culture in general — is opening soon. And fans are salivating, with hundreds of comments pouring in, repeatedly begging the restaurant to open. 119 Avenue A, near St. Mark’s Place, East Village

Figure Eight

Opening: Spring

Pearl Oyster Bar closed at the end of 2022, after 25 years, and this season, something new and seafood-y will carry on its legacy in the space: It’s where Greenwich Village restaurant Silver Apricot will open Figure Eight, a restaurant “that will celebrate the culturally and culinarily rich Lower-Atlantic coast through a Chinese-American lens.” The team tells Eater that Figure Eight might include dishes like prawns in a blanket, turnip cake tater tots, crab toast on milk bread, and fried green tomatoes. 18 Cornelia Street, near Sixth Avenue, West Village

Libertine

Opening: May

Anfora wine bar manager and somm, Cody Pruitt is plotting a French restaurant with executive chef and partner Max Mackinnon, most recently an alum of Roberta’s and Rockefeller Center’s Jupiter. Regional French dishes include scallops with seaweed butter, beef tartare, and a dark chocolate mousse with green chartreuse creme fraiche. 684 Greenwich Street, at Christopher Street, Greenwich Village

Max Flatow/ALF Bakery

ALF Bakery

Opening: April

Amadou Ly is opening ALF Bakery; he was formerly at Arcade, the lobby bakery that’s now Frenchette Bakery, where he was owner Roger Gural’s protege. At his new spot look for laminated and unlaminated baguettes, a crowned brioche, pain au chocolat, a showstopping croissant, chocolate babka, and sandwiches. 75 Ninth Avenue, near West 15th Street, Chelsea

Bar Vinazo

Opening: Spring

From Ilyssa Satter and Joe Campanale, the couple behind Fausto and LaLou in Brooklyn, comes Bar Vinazo, a 30-seat restaurant with a pine and terracotta bar and a two-level 40-seat back garden. The restaurant will feature 15 to 20 natural wines by the glass, and food from chef Barcelona-born Silvia Garcia Nevado, who previously cooked at Prune and The Standard East Village. Look for a menu of meats, cheeses, and conservas, as well as croquetas, and seafood fideuà. 158 Seventh Avenue, Garfield Place, Park Slope

Ma-Dé

Opening: April

Cedric and Ochi Vongerichten, owners of Nolita’s Indonesian restaurant Wayan, are opening Ma-Dé, with a menu of seafood and vegetables with global Asian influences. The new spot is two doors down from Wayan. 22 Spring Street, between Elizabeth and Mott streets, Nolita

Seoul Salon

Opening: Spring

Junghyun “JP” Park, the chef behind two-Michelin-starred Korean restaurant Atomix, is set to debut a new Koreatown project, Seoul Salon, with the ever-prolific Hand Hospitality team. 28 W. 33rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, Koreatown