October Restaurant Openings
Plus, Dan Barber's new vegetable, musical GELINAZ! and other news & happenings.
A regular round-up of culinary news from around the Americas, and beyond. If you have any tips about restaurant or hotel openings, new culinary books, food media worth reading, plus events and happenings of every sort, drop me a line thenewworlder@gmail.com.
Restaurant Openings
Tuju – São Paulo, Brazil
Ivan Ralston’s two Michelin star restaurant Tuju, which transitioned into a casual restaurant during the pandemic, has now reopened in a new, quieter location with just 9 tables in Jardim Paulistano. The entire concept has been revamped. There’s now an on-site research center headed by Katherina Cordás and a wine list that’s heavy on Burgundy. Most interesting, however, is the way dinners will be served. Rather than a single dining room, patrons move through the building, designed by architectural firm Bucci (who designed Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca and Sweden’s Frantzén). Clearly, they are aiming to be Brazil’s first three star restaurant.
Sororoco Bar – São Paulo, Brazil
Gustavo Rodrigues, Marcelo Corrêa Bastos and Thiago Castanho open a restaurant dedicated to Brazilian fish and shellfish. This is the first São Paulo restaurant for Castanho of Belem do Pará’s famed Remanso do Bosque. The restaurant will focus on seasonal fish that will enter the kitchen and be broken down whole.
Statera – Lima, Peru
André Patsias, who has worked in the kitchens of Central and Quique Dacosta, has reopened his restaurant Statera, which transitioned into a plant-based restaurant during the pandemic. Rather than return to fine dining, the restaurant will operate as a bistro with a lively bar.
Porteño – Mexico City, Mexico
Buenos Aires chef Tomás Kalika of Mishiguene continues his expansion around Mexico City with Porteño. Rather than focusing on his Argentine-Jewish roots, this restaurant in Torre Virreyes celebrates the typical food of Buenos Aires with a long, casual menu of milanesas, empanadas, pizzas, pastas and, of course, the parrilla.
Lord Stanely – San Francisco, California
After reimagining itself as a host of chef residences in 2021, the formerly Michelin-starred Lord Stanely returns with new chef de cuisine Nathan Matkowsky. The menus, a la carte and tasting, will feature French food with Korean influences utilizing California produce with an “Old School Bistro de Luxe” style, alongside natural wines and low-proof cocktails.
Surreal – Arlington, Virginia
As his Pan-Latin fine dining restaurant Seven Reasons prepares for a move to City Center DC later in the year, Enrique Limardo is creating this all day café concept near Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington. The restaurant will be built on a privately owned park that will blur the lines between indoor and outdoor dining. It is expected to open sometime in early 2023.
Bar CDMX – Los Angeles, California
This secret basement bar from the Pouring With Heart hospitality group is an ode to the music, art and subculture of Ciudad de México. Located below Seven Grand in Downtown LA.
Lima Cantina - London, England
A sister restaurant to Peruvian restaurant Lima London opened in mid-September in the same Covent Garden location of the former Lima Floral. The mostly small plate menu focuses on grilled seafood and pollo a la brasa.
Unnamed Josh Niland Restaurant – Singapore
EDITION Hotels has landed another top chef to create a signature restaurant at one of their properties. This time it is Australian Josh Niland at The Singapore EDITION in the upper Orchard Road shopping district. The ethically sourced seafood concept will be Niland’s first restaurant outside Australia.
Food Media Highlights
If you expected Andrea Petrini’s Gelinaz! to conform in any way, this interview from Haut de Gamme, complete with accompanying music, will put an end to that. The next incarnation of Petrini’s culinary event will be called NAH BGM, which combines food and music. Just like most Gelinaz! events, even the ones I have already attended, I still don’t know what is going on – and maybe that’s the point.