Reverie, Washington, D.C., October 2018
Reverie
The design of Reverie’s 64-seat dining room is minimalist, all the better to shift the focus to Executive Chef Johnny Spero’s New American menu. An interesting feature of this restaurant is the offer of two “pay-what-you-can” seats that will be available once each night through Tock. The goal is accessibility and a break from the pretense and formality of fine dining. Spero, who has cooked at Jose Andres’ Minibar, Noma and Mugaritz, is letting his love of Spanish spirits show with a sherry and vermouth-heavy beverage program.
Roast duck
Reverie
This menu item is for two, and Spero has paired the shareable duck with black licorice, fennel and beet.
Chocolate dessert
Reverie
Described on the menu as simply aero/miso/brown butter, this chocolate dish definitely seems like more than meets the eye.
Atrium, Los Angeles, October 2018
Jakob Layman
Veteran LA restaurateurs Beau Laughlin and Jay Milliken (of Kettle Black, Sawyer and Scout) with Executive Chef-Partner Hunter Pritchett (of Melody and Son of a Gun) have opened Atrium in the city’s Los Feliz neighborhood. “Welcoming” is the keyword Laughlin wants guests to remember in the “casual-refined” space that features lofty ceilings and garden hues.
Baja prawn cocteles
Atrium
The menu at Atrium is meant to have a real LA identity, with cool starters like grilled focaccia with kimchi butter, veggie-forward plates like crispy maitake mushrooms and honey-roasted beets and a colorful Baja prawn cocteles (a shrimp cocktail, pictured).
Kaido, Miami, November 2018
Juan Fernando Ayora
Miami chef Brad Kilgore’s new multiconcept group Kilgore Culinary Group is springing into action, launching Kaido, and Asian restaurant and lounge with cocktails by mixologist Nico de Soto. Kilgore got all the details in order ahead of time, from the plates to the menu, which he’s set to challenge the status quo of “appetizer, main dish and dessert.” Dishes like uni fondue and Floridian fugu with white ponzu are already setting the table in that direction.
Hachibei, New York City, October 2018
Lily Brown
Hachibei, a stateside example of Japan’s single-ingredient focus/obsession, is an unagi-ya, or eel restaurant. Eel, with a millennia-long history as food in Japan, is rich in vitamins and minerals and is starting to get its due in this country. Hachibei, named for a Japanese unagi star with stands and restaurants on the island of Kyushu, is marked by a single lantern and has a speakeasy vibe. The austere interior is meant to keep that laser focus on the eel — dabbed multiple times with a “secret sauce” while grilling, arriving in a lacquered box atop rice, charred, plump and packed with umami.
Swan and Bar Bevy, Miami, November 2018
Morelli Brothers
Rapper/entrepreneur Pharrell Williams and hospitality star David Grutman (pictured) are happy to have partnered with Chef Jean Imbert for a new restaurant/cocktail lounge in Miami’s Design District.
Morelli Brothers
The interior of Swan draws from a Miami-glam palette of shell pink, creamy opal and jade green with a scalloped-tile bar serving as the centerpiece. Bar Bevy is upstairs, and has a darker atmosphere with zebra-stripe, brass and velvet.
Elea, New York City, October 2018
Elea
Veteran restaurateur Reno Christou opened Elea, sister restaurant to Kyma Flatiron, on Manhattan’s Upper West Side last month with a split-level design punctuated with bottles of olive oil and Grecian artifacts. The soft colors and deep turquoise call to mind the islands of Greece.
Octopus with pearl onion and potato stifado
Elea
The food, too, is meant to evoke warm-weather Greek holidays, like this octopus dish and elevated traditional Greek dishes such as pastitsio, lamb paidakia and braised meats with baked orzo.
Huntress, San Diego, Spring 2019
Huntress
San Diego’s RMD Group took over the historic Grand Pacific Hotel building earlier this year, in order to establish Huntress, a steakhouse and whisky society with the kitchen helmed by SD native Chef James Montejano (of Michael Mina in San Francisco). The menu promises luxury, with beef sashimi, a scallop and foie gras tasting, Japanese wagyu steaks, a caviar parfait and “magic mushrooms” soaked in barrel soy sauce and mirin. Huntress will house one of the largest Japanese whisky collections in Southern California and whisky flights will be part of the experience.