If you’re on the search for great new restaurants to try this month (and of course you are), look to Hong Kong-style banquet fare pushing the boundaries of tradition in Arcadia, CA, and a celebration of comfort foods from around the world in Dorchester, MA. Plus, the team behind beloved restaurants Lazy Betty and Juniper Cafe in Atlanta opened a neighborhood pizza restaurant, and the chef behind San Francisco pop-ups Hen-Zhi and El Chino Grande found a permanent space to celebrate the street markets of Asia.
Two of this month’s most exciting restaurant openings, Bōm in New York and Lost Letter in Richmond, VA, are new concepts opening inside parts of their team’s existing restaurants—Oiji Mi and Longoven (one of Bon Appétit’s Best New Restaurants of 2019), respectively. These restaurateurs join a growing number of food businesses harnessing the expertise of their existing teams to produce distinct concepts that share a common spirit.
Keep scrolling to learn more about the seven restaurants we were most excited to see open in the last month. And we’ll be back here next month with an update on another round of can’t-miss restaurant openings across the country.
This list, organized alphabetically by state, includes both restaurants we’ve tried and ones we’ve added to our bucket lists.
Fashion Icon Humberto Leon and his family open an ode to Hong Kong in the San Gabriel Valley
Monarch1212 S Baldwin Ave, Arcadia, CAOpened January 14
At Monarch, the spotlight is on family recipes that span the Cantonese and Taiwanese heritage of siblings Rica and Humberto Leon, their mother Wendy Leon, and Rica’s husband John Liu. Monarch is an extension of the family’s Chinese-Peruvian restaurant Chifa. Here, at the family’s second restaurant venture, you’ll find Hong Kong-style dishes that are slightly different from iterations you may have seen before. Lo bak go, a savory dim sum cake, is made with beets instead of turnips, and fried rice is topped with fish roe. The space echoes the aesthetic of a traditional Chinese banquet hall, with added design details like a waterfall mosaic and iridescent columns, pulling from co-owner Humberto Leon’s background as the co-founder of Opening Ceremony, a cult-favorite fashion brand initially inspired by shopping in Hong Kong. At Monarch, cocktails also echo a focus on tradition with a twist: the Sesame Old Fashioned features sesame oil-washed bourbon and the Lychee Butterfly includes lychee and anise spritz.
Bistro-ish fare and wine comes to Pasadena
Bar Chelou37 S El Molino Ave, Pasadena, CAOpened January 24