Hungry for something new? Well, it’s time to travel. As temperatures drop, food scenes are heating up all around the country. From comfort classics to sustainable seafood, we’ve rounded up five must-visit restaurants that will start serving up the latest culinary trends over the next few months.
South Florida’s new hot spot is the brainchild of James Beard Award-winning chef Tony Mantuano (of Chicago’s Spiaggia) and restaurateur Larry Levy. As a delicious teaser to the early December opening of The Redbury South Beach, the hotel’s chic Italian eatery, Lorenzo, actually debuted on November 12, dishing up handcrafted pastas, wood-fired pizzettes and housemade gelato. Spacious, multi-level and modern (seating options range from high tables and stools to sexy low banquettes and kitchen-side seats facing the tomato-red wood-burning oven), the restaurant offers many good perches for people-watching under the globe lights inside or alfresco tucked into a futuristic red-and-white chair on Collins Avenue. The laid-back vibes and bites are complemented by the sexy cocktails of mixologist Michael Jack Pazdon (Napa Valley’s Goose & Gander).
Michael Mina 74, Miami
There’s another new addition to Collins Avenue: This restaurant from chef Michael Mina (of Stonehill Tavern and Michael Mina, San Francisco) opened at the Forbes Travel Guide Recommended Fontainebleau Miami Beach on December 3. Expect super-fresh seafood — it’s caught from the restaurant’s own private boat — like the shellfish cart with spiny lobster and stone crab. However, the American bistro/lounge goes beyond seafood with dishes such as Moroccan short ribs, jerk quail and savory truffle doughnuts with Parmesan and a foie gras dipping sauce. Though it will be hard to pass up Mina’s decadent lobster pot pie, a staple at his other spots. Be sure to ask which seasonal spiked punch is on tap; it will go nicely with the DJ’s beats as you relax in a booth in the low-lit space.
St. Cecilia, AtlantaFamed Georgia-based chef Ford Fry will dive even deeper into the Atlanta food scene on January 13 with a seafood-focused eatery named for the Roman patroness of musicians. Fry’s fifth restaurant in the city, St. Cecilia will be a sweeping open space clad in washed woods with a show-stopping crudo bar as its centerpiece. Executive chef Brian Horn will serve a Northern Italian/Mediterranean menu of fresh pastas, wood-roasted fish and local produce in the heart of Buckhead.
Jové Kitchen & Bar, Palm Beach
Due north, Forbes Travel Guide Five-Star Four Seasons Resort Palm Beach introduces Jové on December 22. On the heels of a successful turn at Four Seasons Resort Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt, Italian-born chef Mauro Zanusso has designed a menu of modern Italian plates. Offerings such as hog snapper with shrimp, caper berries and charred leeks, and bone marrow ravioli with short ribs, garlic pesto and toasted pistachio more than prove that the kitchen will take advantage of local bounty from land and sea.
Primary Food & Drink, Greenwich, CT
With this mid-December opening, owner and renowned chef Graham Elliot plans to bring elevated American classics with a twist — ranging from succulent pot roast to beef stroganoff — and a thoughtfully curated wine list of mainly American varietals to the discerning palates in the exclusive New England town. Executive chef and managing partner Merlin Verrier, architect Richard Avery and designer Liza Laserow combined visions for the space’s vintage feel, which includes an entry parlor decked with a marble-topped bar, navy-and-white checkered floors and mid-20th-century-inspired dining rooms featuring banquette seating crafted in tan leather by Rose Tarlow Melrose House and tables made of reclaimed wood from South Carolina.
With eight restaurants already under his toque, including New York’s David Burke Townhouse and Chicago’s Burke’s Bacon Bar, restaurateur and celebrity chef David Burke has big plans for his ninth foray at the height of Colorado’s haute ski season. Helmed by executive chef Matthew O’Neill, David Burke Kitchen will open in February in the heart downtown Aspen, serving inventive farm-to-table fare on farmhouse tables in a warm, inviting eatery decked in rich leather and boasting killer views of Aspen Mountain.
