Grant Achatz delivered one of the year's biggest shocks by announcing Alinea had lost a Michelin star before the official Michelin Guide 2025 reveal. The fine dining institution dedicated to molecular gastronomy had held its three-star status every year since the guide first arrived in Chicago in 2011, making the news a major talking point both locally and nationally. 2025 also marked Alinea's 20th anniversary, a milestone celebrated with a series of international pop-up residencies.
It's outfitted with pickleball courts, a fitness center, a sauna, a kitchen and wine bar - and despite its designation of "social club," it's open to the public. Early morning pickleballers can enjoy daily rotating pastries, breakfast sandwiches, egg bites and chia seed puddings; lunch offerings include cold sesame noodles, an umami kale chop salad, tuna and caper on focaccia and Bad Walter's ice cream for dessert.
East Coast sensation PopUp Bagels opens its first Los Angeles location in Brentwood this week. The viral chain plans to open 35 locations throughout Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego, and debuted its first West Coast location in La Jolla on November 21. Starting Friday, December 19, Angelenos can start plotting a visit to try PopUp's bagels with a rotating selection of schmears for dipping.
We've reached the last month of the year, a time that zips by as we're inundated with holiday music and decorations and discounts from seemingly every retail store we've ever purchased from. But it's worth slowing down to appreciate the season, which typically involves a peaceful City of Angels as transplants empty out the last two weeks of the year.
This fall, The Times's Food contributor Luke Fortney checked in on three of New York City's biggest restaurant openings, all a few blocks apart in the West Village. This week, I checked in on three of the season's biggest restaurant openings. First up is Wild Cherry, The new restaurant in A24's Cherry Lane Theater. They make some of the best fries on Earth. The frog legs Kyiv are these little stout drumsticks that erupt with herb butter when you bite into them.
For me, there is nothing as satisfying as a perfectly executed burrata, accompanied by basil, beets and pistachios, dressed simply with a glug of good olive oil and sprinkled with salt. Che Fico Parco Menlo rose to the occasion last week at brunch after I had ordered a chopped salad that was precariously packed with peppery salami, peppery cheese, pepperoncini and chickpeas, seasoned with a black peppery vinaigrette.
It's time for haunted houses, cosmic classes, gothic feasts, spooky drag, and witchy marketplaces as we approach All Hallows' Eve. But it's a season of bounty, too, with the openings of Bourbon Steak and Via Aurelia; the annual Foodwise Sunday Supper; street markets filled with art, music, and shopping; and plenty of brunch. Jump ahead to this week's top events: Venture into the Terror Vault at the SF Mint.
On Sunday, October 26 at 6 p.m., guests will experience a one-night-only, a 3-course dinner with 10 dishes celebrating the vibrant flavors of the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. The dinner will be served family-style, a nod to Asian dining traditions that spark conversation and connection around the table. Guests requested to linger after dinner for cocktails and a deeper conversation.
In an effort to draw more tourists to the wharf, which saw numerous business closures during the pandemic, the city is demolishing historic seafood restaurant Alioto's to make way for a new public plaza. A wave of new restaurants is also opening on Jefferson Street, including Taco Bell Cantina, Raising Cane's, Everett & Jones barbecue, South American eatery Chasca Rio and the revival of historic seafood restaurant Castagnola's.
The team behind Hell's Kitchen fast-casual Filipino spot Tradisyon opened a new restaurant with a Filipino Spanish bent this week. Tradicionale opened in Chelsea at 156 Ninth Avenue, between West 19th and 20th streets, on Tuesday, September 16. The menu features Filipino Spanish dishes, drawing from the Philippines' history as a colony of Spain, by chef Anton Dayrit. This means baby octopus adobo, longanisa fried rice with crab, prawns in the coconutty alavar sauce, and a take on his mother's lengua, a stew.
While Portland's restaurant scene continues to grapple with very real challenges- Higgins sounding the alarm about flagging sales, tariffs hammering already thin profit margins-it also can't help but dazzle diners. We keep winning James Beard awards, the New York Times seems awfully obsessed with us, and new restaurants keep coming. This next suite of arrivals includes pop-ups converting to brick-and-mortars, a Beaverton-Portland exchange, and even two new Thai restaurants, because we can't get enough of them.
Emeryville may have lost Peruvian joint Las Brasas over the summer, but it wasn't long before the void was filled by a new Peruvian restaurant, El Huarique De Juancito, now open in Las Brasas' old spot on San Pablo Ave. The menu features a diverse mix of Peruvian specialties, from breakfast favorites like tamales and pan con chicharron to dinner items including pollo a la brasa and lomo saltado. Peruvian seafood hits like leche de tigre and ceviches are also on offer.
It's called Polenta, a significant remodel is underway, and it's set to become a regional Italian restaurant at a neighborhood scale, in the vein of La Ciccia, except focused on the northern Italian region of Friuli. The wines of Friuli are a passion of owner Giulio de Monte Gaspardo, a former sommelier at Bottega in Yountville, and he expects a majority of his wine list to be sourced from there.
Bong (a Khmer term of endearment and respect) is her first permanent restaurant. Open since June, Bong actually started announcing itself sometime in mid-July, and it remains open only Friday through Sunday. Its outdoor patio is a couple of lawn tables on the concrete, and it didn't receive a license to sell beer and wine until mid-August, after I'd visited. Reservations go quickly, and the place is too small to accept walk-ins. On top of it all, Un is nine months' pregnant.
