As wild as the year 2019 was on the Bay Area culinary scene, with restaurants opening (and closing) faster than we could keep up, 2020 could be even busier. Here are the restaurants we’re keeping an eye on:
OAKLAND ASSEMBLY: It won’t be just one new restaurant but a whole food hall’s worth, with chef-purveyors Preeti Mistry, Reem Assil and Matt Horn joining this years-in-the-making enterprise at Jack London Square in Oakland. Look for a summertime opening.
BEIT RIMA: After opening two successful Arabic comfort food restaurants in San Francisco, Daly City native Samir Mogannam is bringing his popular counter-service concept home. Beit Rima is slated to open in early 2020 in his family’s former Burgermeister space at 507 Westlake Center in Daly City.
ITALIAN BROTHERS: The Sicilian siblings who have been baking pizzas and making cuccidati at their Italian Brothers Bakery in San Jose for a little over a year are branching out. They’ve taken over the former Chicago Steak & Fish space in Los Gatos and will be opening a full restaurant there in early 2020.
COOK’S SEAFOOD: After 90 years (!!) in business on the Peninsula, this seafood stalwart will open a second location. Look for the Crumrine family’s long-awaited Pleasanton restaurant to open in early 2020 on Bernal Avenue just off Interstate 680.
POMELLA: Oaklanders mourned the closing of Ba-Bite last year, but are eagerly anticipating chef-owner Mica Talmor’s new project: A family-friendly Israeli restaurant named Pomella, opening in early 2020 next to the new Doña on Piedmont Avenue.
MENTONE: We got a chance to preview the charcuterie, wood-fired pizza and handmade pasta that will be served at Mentone, the casual Aptos eatery coming very, very soon from three-Michelin-starred David Kinch. You’ll get your first taste in January.
ETTAN: More Michelin cred: Srijith Gopinathan, executive chef of the two-Michelin-starred Campton Place in San Francisco, is chef-partner for this new contemporary Cal-Indian concept coming to Palo Alto. Look for a 2020 opening on Bryant Street downtown.
KITCHEN STORY, U :DESSERT STORY, SWEET MAPLE: Hoyul Steven Choi’s San Francisco-based restaurant empire is expanding in a big way — to Oakland, Berkeley and Palo Alto. And he’s bringing his wildly popular Millionaire’s Bacon with him. Kitchen Story is expected to open in January in Rockridge, followed by U :Dessert Story in Berkeley in February and Sweet Maple in Palo Alto in late summer.
BE.STEAK.A: Jeffrey Stout, the chef-owner of Campbell’s perennially packed Orchard City Kitchen, is creating an Italian-themed steakhouse near his current Pruneyard location. The name is a play on bistecca. Look for a January/February opening.
EL GARAGE: If you waited in the driveway taco stand line for the Montano family’s addictive Tijuana-style beef birria and quesabirria tacos and consomé, you’ll be thrilled to know they’re opening a brick and mortar in early 2020 — and keeping it in Richmond.
SAUCED BBQ: East Bay foodies have been flocking to Barrett Gomes and Brenden Scanlan’s barbecue emporiums in Livermore and Walnut Creek for a few years now. Finally there’s one coming to San Jose. The smokers will take over the restaurant space next to Maggiano’s at Santana Row.
SILVERLAKE RAMEN: This popular Los Angeles ramen house has already made its way north to The Veranda in Concord. Next stop: Santa Clara Square Marketplace.
TEXAS DE BRAZIL: A Brazilian steakhouse that expanded to Texas is now moving out West — to Northern California. The family-owned Texas de Brazil will open its first local restaurant in 2020 at The Veranda in Concord.
WURSTHALL: The Peninsula’s resident food scientist, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, is capitalizing on the success of his first Wursthall in San Mateo and will bring the sausage-and-beer concept to San Jose’s Santana Row.
SOCIAL BIRD: Curtis and Esin de Carion of Esin and Revel Kitchen & Bar are opening their first restaurant outside of Danville. Social Bird Kitchen and Bar is set to open any day now in the former Yankee Pier space on Mt. Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette.
TOSCA CAFE: In San Francisco’s North Beach, this century-old restaurant and bar — famous for its operatic soundtrack and boozy cappuccinos — in recent years has closed, been reinvented, then closed again. Is there a next act? According to Eater SF, chef Nancy Oakes, restaurateur Anna Weinberg and designer Ken Fulk now own the place and hope to reinvent it yet again in 2020. As the saying goes, the opera isn’t over until the zaftig gal sings.
ALL THESE YEARS: James Beard Award-winner and Cali native chef Timothy Hollingsworth is returning to the Bay Area with the opening of All These Years, a contemporary restaurant that “celebrates America’s diverse food culture.” It is expected to open in spring 2020 in the former Ayala space in Union Square.
TELL US: Which upcoming openings are you excited about? Add your note to the article comments below.
