In 2023, Oakland will get a new home for soul food, a lively French-meets-Arabic restaurant is opening in Washington D.C., and an homage to Hmong cooking in Minneapolis will move into a brick and mortar location. All signs point to 2023 being (another!) great year to dine out. As we’ve seen in recent months, chefs and restaurateurs are taking the next step and turning their pandemic-era roving pop-ups into permanent spots. That’s great news for us, as genre-bending and daring restaurant concepts become more available. Nashville pop-up Kisser will open a brick-and-mortar for Japanese comfort food, and San Francisco farmers market favorite Gumbo Social will settle into a proper home for its beloved gumbo.
While a lot of our most anticipated restaurant openings for the year are championed by first-time restaurant owners, some industry heavy-hitters are expanding too. Pasta legend Evan Funke will open another Italian spot in Los Angeles, where the focus will be on regional Italian dishes. And later this year, celebrity chef Edward Lee will return to Louisville to open his first new restaurant in five years. Meanwhile, Amanda Shulman, chef-owner of Her Place, one of Bon Appétit’s 50 Best New Restaurants of 2022, also plans to open a second concept in Philadelphia where she and her fiancé Alex Kemp will focus on the food and French-Canadian vibes of Montreal. And for the diners who can’t stop talking about the superiority of the pasta in Rome, the famed Roscioli is expanding to New York.
These are the 12 restaurant openings we’re most excited for in 2023.
This list is organized alphabetically by state. The opening dates below are subject to change, so check restaurant websites and Instagram accounts for updates.
Funke
Los Angeles, CA
Opening: March
Pasta king Evan Funke of hit LA spots Felix and Mother Wolf will open Funke, his eponymous tri-level Beverly Hills restaurant, in March. The focus will be on regional Italian cooking, and of course, there will be plenty of pasta. Funke will also open Tre Dita, a Tuscan steakhouse focusing on wood-fired Italian fare, in Chicago later this year. It’s his first project out of LA, in partnership with the local restaurant group giant Lettuce Entertain You.
Burdell
Oakland, CA
Opening: Late Spring
Oakland will soon have a permanent outpost for chef Geoff Davis’s nostalgic soul food. Burdell’s menu will include dishes like fried rabbit smothered in gravy and strawberry icebox pie. The restaurant, named after Davis’s maternal grandmother, will draw on his family history and the time he’s spent in fine dining kitchens including those at Cyrus in Healdsburg, and Aqua and Penny Roma in San Francisco. Davis will cook the food he grew up eating, with the produce of California and an emphasis on sourcing from local farms. Until Burdell opens in late Spring, Davis is hosting pop-ups around Oakland while he gathers investment for the restaurant.
Gumbo Social
San Francisco, CA
Opening: March/April