Tijuana Flats founder Brian Wheeler recruited his sons Jake and Gavin to open a new concept. Big Taco, featuring a Tex-Mex menu, opened in November in the Casselberry suburb of Orlando, Fla.
Lucy Beaugard
C Burger, a ‘fast slow food’ concept by Bryan Dayton and Samuel McCandless, opened in Englewood, Colo., in June. The restaurant, a product of Half Eaten Cookie Hospitality, features regenerative beef at the heart of its menu.
Bill Milne
Elizabeth Blau, who appeared on Restaurant Hospitality’s 2023 founders & entrepreneurs Power List, and her company Blau + Associates opened Crown Block in Dallas’ iconic Reunion Tower in April, in the space previously occupied by Wolfgang Puck’s Five Sixty. The restaurant is a steak and seafood concept operate din partnership with Dallas-based Hunt Realty Investments, Inc.
Marcus Samuelsson opened his first restaurant in Atlanta, Marcus Bar and Grille, in March. The restaurant serves comfort food favorites cooked on a woodfired grill.
Mari.ne and DonDon Korean Barbecue, Korean restaurants from Sungchul Shim, opened in New York City in September. They are Shim’s third and fourth restaurants in the market. Mari.ne specializes in Korean handrolls, while DonDon is all about dry-aged pork.
Justin Sutherland opened Northern Soul Smokehouse this summer at Grand View Lodge in Minnesota. The restaurant, which the Top Chef opened with the property’s executive chef, Bill Coyle, features Sutherland’s barbecue dishes as well as a high-end bourbon list.
Paseo opened in Louisville in June, leveraging an old disco ball factory space. The concept anchors a new hotel, called Myriad, and features wood-fired cooking and Mediterranean and Middle Eastern-inspired dishes.
Tim Marsolais
Award-winning pizzaiola Laura Meyer opened Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, Calif., in March. The accomplishment comes after eight years working at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, and then as an instructor for Tony’s International School of Pizza.
Shenarri Freeman and Overthrow Hospitality opened Ubuntu, a West African vegan restaurant, in West Hollywood, Calif., in August. Cocktails at the restaurant were developed by Colin Asare-Appiah.