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Plenty of people look to summer for the warmer weather and the longer days. All of that is great, but at BA, we’re busy dreaming up trips to some of the most exciting restaurants set to open in the coming months. In Denver, Sap Sua will serve food that draws on the first-generation Vietnamese American experience of its chefs. And in Austin, you’ll be able to literally drink the Kool-Aid (in cocktail form) at an inventive new spot that combines flavors like dashi and salsa macha, and reimagines al pastor in pasta form.
More than half of these openings come from first-time restaurant owners, many of whom launched pop-ups during the pandemic. Whether from first-timers or restaurant vets, all of these openings feel like a breath of fresh air—an opportunity to meld the food chefs grew up on with other cuisines, or depart from fine dining and test out less buttoned-up approaches to cooking.
In Detroit, chef Javier Bardauil will build on the success of his first Argentine restaurant with a more laid-back spot focused on live-fire cooking. And later this summer, seven years after opening the beloved New York Thai spot Fish Cheeks, the team will open a second restaurant revolving around charcoal grilling.
From Salvadoran comfort food in Oakland to Laotian American cooking in Nashville, these are BA’s eight most anticipated summer restaurant openings.
This list is organized alphabetically by state. The opening dates below are subject to change, so check restaurant websites and Instagram accounts for real-time updates.
Popoca
Oakland
Opening: July
Devoted fans will no longer have to run around Oakland to get a taste of chef Anthony Salguero’s wood-fired pupusas. After years of pop-ups, Salguero turned to community support in June 2021 to raise the funds and is finally opening his Californian-Salvadoran restaurant, Popoca, in the Old Oakland neighborhood. Salguero has worked in fine dining kitchens like Saison in San Francisco, but at Popoca, he wants to more casually welcome diners into Salvadoran culture and share the food he grew up with.
Popoca’s menu will feature dishes from its pop-up days like pollo en chicha, a half chicken with fermented pineapple sauce, as well as new menu items like a ceviche mixto with local squid and wild halibut. Of course, Popoca devotees can expect their beloved pupusas, with toppings like braised short rib or grilled prawns. By day, Popoca will offer Central American pastries and coffee from local vendors before transitioning to dinner and bar service at night.
Sap Sua
Denver
Opening: June
Husband-wife duo Anthony and Anna Nguyen have overseen a few very different iterations of their Vietnamese restaurant Sap Sua. In November 2020, after relocating to Denver from Los Angeles, the pair sold Vietnamese dishes like cha gio, or fried spring rolls, for pickup out of a small rental kitchen space in the suburb of Longmont. Then they hosted pop-up dinners at restaurants around the Denver metro area. Almost three years later, the Nguyen’s are opening their own restaurant space in Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood.
They’ll serve dishes such as charred cabbage with an egg yolk sauce and a sweetened condensed milk panna cotta with almond granita. Anthony, who is first-generation Vietnamese American, draws on his upbringing for the menu, which the pair describes as “nontraditional Vietnamese.” Those who already love Sap Sua’s French and Vietnamese-inspired pastries like banh chuoi (a sticky-sweet banana cake) and candied ginger shortbread will be happy to know Anna is taking the lead on a morning bakery in the restaurant’s space.
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Puma
Detroit
Opening: July
Choripán, a traditional Argentinian sandwich filled with grilled chorizo, is one of the main dishes Javier Bardauil will be serving at Puma when it opens this July in Detroit’s Core City. Bardauil wants his restaurant, like the sandwich staple, to be an affordable and accessible entry point to Argentinian cooking. At Puma, you can expect the same sort of fire-kissed fare Bardauil serves across the street at his first live-fire Argentinian restaurant Barda, but in a more casual atmosphere. There will be seafood dishes from across South America like a scallop tiradito, moqueca (a Brazilian fish stew), and ceviches, plus a full bar which will stay open until 2 a.m., past when the kitchen closes (Bardauil wants it to feel like a late night dive bar), and it’ll be walk-in only.
Bangkok Supper Club
New York
Opening: August
At Bangkok Supper Club in New York’s West Village, you’ll notice hints of influence from the team’s popular first restaurant, Fish Cheeks. The two restaurants both present the fresh, bright flavors of Thai cuisine across several regions. But while Fish Cheeks leans into Thai comfort foods like coconut crab curry and prawn karee (a scrambled egg stir-fry), Bangkok Supper Club will experiment with different ingredients and techniques—and the focus will be on a charcoal grill, the centerpiece of the restaurant’s kitchen.
In preparation for opening, owner Jen Saesue and chef Max Wittawat went to Thailand last summer to seek inspiration. Saesue is a Bangkok native, while Wittawat spent years training under famed Thai chef Ian Kittichai. The duo traveled across Thailand to source products like palm sugar and shrimp paste that will be on the restaurant’s opening menu.
Xiao Ye
Portland, OR
Opening: August
At Xiao Ye in Portland’s Hollywood District, Louis Lin and Jolyn Chen will serve what they describe as first-generation American food. The restaurant, whose name means “midnight snack” in Mandarin, brings together influences from the Taiwanese foods of Lin and Chen’s youth, the restaurants they’ve worked at throughout their careers, and food they’ve eaten on their travels. The menu from Lin and Chen, both of Taiwanese descent, includes chicken piccata, steak lettuce wraps served ssam-style (with their take on condiments meant to replicate the flavors of Korean barbecue), and Lin’s take on fuqi feipan, a traditional Sichuan dish of offal made here with beef tongue and salsa macha. The pair met working in restaurants like Rose’s Luxury in Washington, DC, where Lin was in the kitchen and Chen worked the dining room. Chen has since pivoted to interior design, evident in the restaurant’s fun, unfussy design which includes mismatched vintage chairs in bold colors, patterned textiles, and checkered tile floors.
Little Coyote
Chattanooga, TN
Opening: August
When you look up from the patio at Little Coyote, you’ll be met by a very above-average view of Chattanooga’s beautiful Lookout Mountain. Even if you’re seated indoors, Little Coyote’s airy dining room is meant to match its scenic setting with terra-cotta tiles and lots of happy cacti. With Little Coyote, chef Erik Niel is leaning into his love of Texas barbecue and Southwestern food, as well as Cuban and Caribbean influences. He’s shaping a menu of dishes like pork collar carnitas with smoked tomatillo salsa verde and playful desserts like soft-serve with Key lime and graham cracker crumble. The restaurant will come to the historic St. Elmo district later this summer, led by Erik and his wife Amanda Niel. The Niels are no strangers to the Chattanooga restaurant scene—they own popular Easy Bistro & Bar and Main Street Meats, for which Erik garnered two James Beard Semifinalist nominations.
Bad Idea
Nashville
Opening: July
Despite the restaurant’s name, Bad Idea is set to be a very good addition to East Nashville. The new wine-centric neighborhood restaurant is housed in a former church and comes from local wine pro Alex Burch and chef Colby Rasavong. Burch ran the wine programs at celebrated Nashville restaurants Henrietta Red and Bastion, and Rasavong has worked through chef Sean Brock’s Nashville kitchens. Burch wants people to learn more about wine while they’re at Bad Idea, whether that’s by drinking through his three curated wine lists (wine flights, a short list of wines by the glass, and a long list of bottles) or attending regional tasting dinners. As for the food, Rasavong will serve a menu of Laotian American dishes like scallop crepes and kaya profiteroles, which some Nashville diners have already been lucky to sample at pop-ups that started last fall. There will also be new dishes, like ruby red shrimp with shiso and mung bean or swordfish belly with grits and vadouvan.
Elementary
Austin
Opening: July
Colter Peck, Chris Arial, and Allan Bautista became friends while working at the New York–based Australian café Two Hands in Austin. And after years of pop-ups around Austin and across the US, the three are opening Elementary, their first restaurant. Both the menu and design at Elementary will riff off the restaurant’s name with spirited, nontraditional flavors, and a colorful, casual design. You can expect Kool-Aid in one of the cocktails, along with an eclectic menu featuring dishes like birria soup dumplings, al pastor tortellini, and bahn mi eclairs. The modern space, decked out in bright primary colors, will be accompanied by an adjacent natural wine bar called Hopscotch. The wine bar will serve small plates that repurpose surplus ingredients from Elementary.
