Fall is prime time for new restaurant openings in NYC – and while we’re Team Endless Summer, new ñoms are pretty much the only thing that have us looking forward to cooler weather. Here are some of the most buzzed about openings to hit up before we all decide to hunker down indoors and survive on Seamless for the winter.
The owners behind Williamsburg’s always-packed Mexican restaurants Mesa Coyoacan and Zona Rosa are heading east for their latest venture: a restaurant called Guadalupe Inn in Bushwick. The dining room will serve up Mexico City-inspired dishes and double as an entertainment venue.
Guadalupe Inn is slated to open its doors in October.
1 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn.
Fany Gerson’s La Newyorkina cart has become a ubiquitous staple of NYC summer, popping up at music festivals, food fairs, and street corners to brighten people’s days with her unconventional paleta flavors (like avocado, queso fresco y fresas, and nieve de jalapeño!) Now, she’s taking the concept to its first proper brick-and-mortar, and expanding it to include more dessert options. As we reported in March, the menu will include 30 to 40 different kinds of paletas, but it will further dominate the frozen treat space with chamoyadas and sorbets. Fany will also debut Nieve de garrafa – “custard in its purest form” that requires a new batch every day because it won’t hold up overnight – at her new shop. When the temperatures cool down, expect to see some churros and champurrados.
La Newyorkina is slated to open its doors in September.
240 Sullivan Street, New York, NY.
Think of Atla as Cosme’s more casual cousin. Enrique Olvera will be debuting the 65-seat NoHo restaurant in November, where, according to his business partner Santiago Gomez, “People can gather around, grab a delicious bite and enjoy a nice cold michelada.” Considering Olvera’s stance as one of the world’s great chefs, you can expect to battle it out to score a table at this one.
372 Lafayette St., New York, NY.
Lalo is the newest venture from former El Rey chef Gerardo Gonzalez. Drawing from his fronterizo San Diego upbringing as the son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzalez will be cooking up what he calls “hippie Chicano” cuisine with an eye toward exploring historical food ways (like investigating the place where Al pastor tacos and Turkish doner meet).
Lalo is slated to open in the old Winnie’s karaoke bar space in October.
104 Bayard St., New York, NY.
Nikkei, the Peruvian-Japanese fusion cuisine that dates back to the late 1800s, will receive its first full-fledged NYC menu at Sen Sakana this October. Helmed Chef Mina Newman, whose mother is Peruvian, and Chef Taku Nagai, who hails from Japan, the 190-seat restaurant will be near Times Square, but its seafood centric menu sounds delicious enough to brave the tourists.
Sen Sakana is slated to open in October.
28 W. 44th St., New York, NY