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Nashville hot chicken, modern Irish cuisine, a spicy taste of southwest China, Cambodian sandwiches, dramatic cocktails: Spring 2022 is going to be an exciting season in Greater Boston’s restaurant and bar scene.
Here’s the rundown on some of the most exciting new spots set to open in the coming months in and near Boston. Keep in mind that opening timelines are fluid thanks to construction and permitting delays and various other challenges that new restaurants face.
Restaurants
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Faccia Brutta and Bar Pallino
276-278 Newbury St., Back Bay, Boston
The latest project from popular restaurateurs Ken Oringer and Jamie Bissonnette — the award-winning team behind Toro, Coppa, and Little Donkey — is a coastal Italian restaurant, Faccia Brutta, and an adjoining natural wine bar, Bar Pallino. The former will feature pasta made in-house, including gluten-free options from a separate kitchen, and plenty of seafood; the latter will complement its natural wine with mezcal.
Anticipated opening timeline: May 2022
Moëca
1 Shepard St., between Porter and Harvard squares, Cambridge
The team behind acclaimed Italian restaurant Giulia will open a new seafood-focused restaurant steps away on Shepard Street. “We want to bring the best small boat, sustainable seafood to our neighborhood,” co-owner Michael Pagliarini told Eater in January. Think oysters and beer, or simple grilled fish with seasonal vegetables, or spaghetti and razor clams. Keep an eye out for desserts from one of the city’s best pastry chefs, Renae Connolly.
Anticipated opening timeline: Spring 2022
Yunnan Kitchen
1721 Washington St., Unit B, South End, Boston
Boston doesn’t have many restaurants focusing on the cuisine known as Yunnan or Dian from southwest China, and the handful that do serve it emphasize rice noodle soups. The team behind one of those spots, South of the Clouds in Brighton, will open Yunnan Kitchen in Boston’s South End with a much more expansive menu from the region, highlighting spicy dishes in particular.
Anticipated opening timeline: Mid-April 2022
The Dubliner
2 Center Plz., downtown Boston
Boston’s got no shortage of Irish pubs, but the Dubliner aims to provide a different taste of Ireland, a real look at what modern Irish cuisine means. Chef and owner Aidan McGee is a native of County Donegal, Ireland, and an alum of several Michelin-starred restaurants including Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London. Opening the Dubliner in partnership with Boston’s East Coast Tavern Group (Emmet’s, Carrie Nation, and more), McGee will be serving dishes like Maine crabs on Irish soda bread with seaweed butter; classic fish and chips; slow-cooked beef cheeks; and a Sunday roast.
Anticipated opening timeline: Late April/early May 2022
Hot Chix
1220 Cambridge St., Inman Square, Cambridge
The popular hot chicken pop-up Hot Chix has been making appearances around Greater Boston since 2019, featuring Nashville-style fried chicken sandwiches and sides like mac and cheese, slaw, and some of the best biscuits in town. The team behind the project has secured an Inman Square space for their forthcoming 16-seat casual restaurant. In addition to the new address, the menu will expand to include bone-in chicken and other additions, as well as beer and wine. For now, keep an eye on Instagram for pop-up announcements.
Anticipated opening timeline: Spring 2022
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Suasday
227 Hanover St., North End, Boston
This little Cambodian sandwich shop — from Cambodian American co-founders Jessica Chiep and Menghong Hak — will serve a variety of sandwiches on toasted baguettes. One, the “Italia twist,” nods to the shop’s mostly Italian neighborhood, mixing prosciutto, mortadella, Black Forest ham, and provolone with aioli, pate, green papaya, carrots, daikon, and cucumber. Salads; drinks such as calamansi limeade and Cambodian cold brew coffee; and desserts such as pandan mousse round out the menu at this quick-service spot. Leading up to the opening, find information about pop-up previews on Instagram.
Anticipated opening timeline: April/May 2022
Eva
279 Newbury St., Back Bay, Boston
Neighborhood mainstay Cafeteria, a multistory space with a big patio, was the perfect spot for people-watching along Newbury Street until it closed in 2020 after 13 years in business. Now, owner George Aboujaoude is revamping it into a modern American restaurant called Eva with a very attractive facelift and a menu overhaul that’s expected to preserve some Cafeteria favorites, such as the tuna burger, the Bolognese, and the spinach artichoke dip.
Anticipated opening timeline: Early April 2022
Chef Dave’s
The Street, 3C Boylston St., Chestnut Hill
Private chef and caterer David Welch — a longtime Formaggio Kitchen alum known especially for founding the store’s popular weekend barbecue stand — is opening his own restaurant at Chestnut Hill’s retail development, the Street. The bistro-style space will feature dishes such as a very cheesy mac and cheese, lemon chicken, and — this one’s for you, Formaggio barbecue fans — barbecue ribs.
Anticipated opening timeline: Spring 2022
Bosso Ramen Tavern
24 Holyoke St., Harvard Square, Cambridge
From an owner who once aimed to be a professional surfer and ended up cooking ramen out of his Harvard Business School dorm comes an izakaya inspired by the ocean, particulary in Japan’s Boso region. Find unique ramen, sushi (including vegan options), sake, and more at this new addition to Harvard Square, which quietly opened in late winter but celebrates its grand opening at the start of spring.
Anticipated opening timeline: March 26, 2022
Bars, Taprooms, and Other Boozy Spots
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Next Door
103 Porter St., East Boston
Theatrical cocktails abound at this hidden East Boston bar (find the secret door within sibling spot Pazza on Porter): Smoky cocktails, garnishes on fire, a drink presented in a locked treasure chest, and more await. A menu of mostly seafood dishes complements the drinks, with options like caviar, ahi tuna tacos, and seafood towers.
Anticipated opening timeline: March 24, 2022
Hecate
48 Gloucester St., Back Bay, Boston
Hecate will soon open below its sibling, Greek destination Krasi. Named for a Greek goddess associated with witchcraft and magic, Hecate — tagline: “cross into a realm of spirits” — is a cocktail bar meant to highlight unique European spirits, although the team is keeping quiet on exact menu details for now. There’ll be some bar snacks available, too.
Anticipated opening timeline: April 2022
Parla XXI
631 Assembly Row, Somerville
Intimate North End restaurant and cocktail bar Parla will get a sibling at Somerville development Assembly Row, continuing its focus on cocktails. The new location — adding “XXI” to the name for the 21st Amendment repealing federal prohibition, for the legal drinking age, and for the year the team started working on this expansion — will have a full liquor license, unlike the original location’s cordials license. Expect a more “sleek, sexy, and polished” vibe than the first location and 15 seats at the bar rather than just four, says director of operations Matt Schafer, plus nightly dinner and, starting about a month in, a Ron Swanson-themed brunch on the weekends.
Anticipated opening timeline: Mid-April 2022
Shoten
1105 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge
The team behind beloved sushi restaurant Cafe Sushi will open Shoten in an adjacent space. It will be “somewhere between a high-end Japanese convenience store, a sake shop, and a grab-and-go sushi spot,” the team tells Eater. “We miss exercising our hospitality muscles [Cafe Sushi has been closed for dine-in service for the duration of the pandemic] and hope to build regulars who want to cook great Japanese food at home, taste great sake, and maybe learn a little about sumo.”
Anticipated opening timeline: May 2022
Super Bien
The Speedway, 525 Western Ave., Brighton, Boston
It’s a grocery store! It’s a wine bar! It’s a grocery-bar! From the team behind Buenas, an empanadas-and-more shop in Somerville and a line of South American-style sauces and other items, Super Bien will showcase the growing Buenas product line and serve dishes made with those products, along with South American wines. “It’s like if Goya were cool enough to open a bar,” owner Melissa Stefanini told Eater last June. Watch for sandwiches de miga (“super Argentinian party food,” says Stefanini) with various traditional and fun fillings, much like Buenas’s empanadas.
Anticipated opening timeline: Spring 2022
Farthest Star Sake
120 N. Meadows Rd., Medfield
This one’s a bit outside of the city, but it’ll be worth the trip to visit the region’s only sake brewery and taproom. Farthest Star will produce a variety of traditional filtered and cloudy sake styles and will place an emphasis on education and experimentation.
Anticipated opening timeline: Late May/early June 2022
Expansions, Moves, and Out-of-Towners
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- Juliet (263 Washington St., Union Square, Somerville): The Union Square favorite will make its move to a bigger space next door in spring 2022, which will allow the restaurant’s themed prix fixe dinners to have their own dedicated space, among other enhancements.
- Source (Time Out Market Boston, 401 Park Dr., Fenway, Boston): The Harvard Square “gastro pub and pizza bar” will add a counter-service location to Fenway’s Time Out Market Boston in late March 2022, featuring several varieties of the restaurant’s Neapolitan-inspired pizza.
- PlantPub (61 Brookline Ave., Fenway, Boston): In partnership with vegan restaurateur Matthew Kenney’s brand MKC, Kendall Square newcomer PlantPub will add a second, much larger location in spring 2022 in the old Boston BeerWorks space in Fenway, serving vegan comfort food and beer.
- Saloniki (316 Newbury St., Back Bay, Boston; 1 Beacon St., Beacon Hill, Boston): Local fast-casual Greek chain Saloniki will add its fourth and fifth locations this April. Unlike their big siblings, these locations won’t serve alcohol, and the Newbury Street one — in the old Steve’s Greek space — will feature a takeout window.
- Miznon (107 Seaport Blvd., Seaport District, Boston): International fast-casual chain Miznon, from Israeli chef Eyal Shani, will open in the Seaport District in April 2022, serving street food such as pitas stuffed with creative fillings.
- Parm (Copley Place, 100 Huntington Ave., Back Bay, Boston): This red-saucy bonanza of Italian American comfort food, which just opened a location in Burlington in late winter, will expand to Copley Place in June 2022. It’s from the international restaurant group Major Food Group, which is also behind Boston’s glitzy rooftop Italian restaurant Contessa.