The restaurant industry has been more than hard-hit in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, with local restaurants struggling to keep afloat, and moving to takefout and patio business to prop up the bottom line.
But new restaurants continue to plan openings this year — whether casual restaurants geared toward strange times, or ambitious spots banking on a future beyond the pandemic as vaccines slowly make their way around the country.
This includes a glut of new breweries, as well as multiple casual barbecue or taco spots. But it also includes a fine-dining restaurant from one of the region’s most lauded chefs, an expansive Italian kitchen from some of Hampton Roads’ most successful restaurateurs, and a hotel seafood spot with multiple patios and Chesapeake Bay views. Here are some of the spots we most look forward to seeing in the new year.
The Baker’s Wife
1 E. Mellen St., bakerswifebistro.com
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Estimated opening date: Early January
In the Phoebus neighborhood, Grey Goose owners Dana and Phillip Epstein plan a French-American bistro with fare ranging from “au gratin to french fries, from filet mignon to New York strip” — a casual and wine-friendly spot that will color mostly within the lines of French classics like coq au vin and coquille Saint-Jacques scallops. The restaurant will come equipped with a patio looking out onto Mellen Street. Its chef, Michael Koch, arrives with years of experience cooking fine steaks and seafood at Zoe’s and the Coastal Grill in Virginia Beach. Reservations for a chef’s table experience are being accepted beginning Jan. 8.
Lil’ Bit Nola Ghent
319 W. 21st St., Norfolk, littlebitnola.com
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Estimated opening date: Early January
Expansion has come quickly for Lil’ Bit Nola, a Cajun-inflected seafood and raw bar and wing spot that opened last February in Virginia Beach — owned by a slew of partners both local and otherwise. As soon as this month, they expect to also be slinging booze and gumbo and muffulettas in Norfolk’s Ghent neighborhood, in the multistory and rooftop patio space previously home to Southern-homestyle restaurant Supper. In October, general manager Mark Conway told us he expected to host pairing dinners with breweries and wineries, and pop-up dinners with other local chefs — not to mention a menu with a stronger emphasis on craft cocktails.
1865 Brewing
9 S. Mallory St., Hampton, facebook.com/1865Brewery
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Estimated opening date: January
In Hampton’s Phoebus neighborhood, just a few doors down from the Baker’s Wife, 1865 Brewing also hopes to be open this month, after pushing back their grand opening by a couple seasons. Owners Whitteney Guyton and William Comer hope to open the region’s first Black-owned brewery shortly — with beers from brewing veteran Randy Jones. Jones boasts a degree from the esteemed Siebel Institute and has two decades in the industry that include stints at Palisade and Black Sky Brewing in the beer mecca of Denver. Look for an opening announcement on their Facebook page.
Syd’s FishPig Cafe
210 E. Main St, Norfolk, fishpigcafe.com
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Expected opening date: “So soon”
The ever-imminent, ever-delayed new downtown Norfolk restaurant from Beard-nominated chef Sydney Meers is the only restaurant on this list to have also been featured among last year’s most anticipated openings. Meers says he’s waiting on a city inspection, and should be open anytime now, in a Selden Market space that already boasts more art than some museums: a human-mouthed dog named Elvis that once graced a parade, or a hood ornament to a ’66 Cadillac glued to a rough-hewn bar Meers built himself. Since last January, the FishPig’s window has displayed a menu of possible dishes that include seafood-scrap hush puppies, an “infamous cheese tray,” some “heirloom pig stuff” and a “really big halibut.”
Hot Pot 757
941 Chimney Hill Shopping Center Road, Virginia Beach, facebook.com/HotPot757BBQ
Expected opening date: January/February
Hot pot will soon go nuclear in Virginia Beach, with a big new Sichuan hot pot and Korean barbecue restaurant, from the owners of the Boil Bay Viet-Cajun locations in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.
Hot Pot 757 will open as an all-you can eat restaurant, where you can cook a seemingly endless array of meats and veggies in brothy pots on table-inset burners. Soup bases range from Sichuan spice to aromatic Chinese herbal soup to milky pork broth. Soup add-ins include every version of protein that comes easily to mind and many that don’t — a world of fish cakes and sausages, three types of pork, multiple versions of dumpling, 11 kinds of seafood and mushrooms and veggies for miles.
The restaurant will also include tabletop burners to grill seafood and marinated meats Korean-style, alongside many versions of noodle from ramen to rice cake.
Tin Cup Kitchen and Oyster Bar
2800 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach, tincupvb.com
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Estimated opening date: Early 2021
Soon on Shore Drive in Virginia Beach, you’ll be able to lounge on a poolside patio while downing a tray of oysters from all eight regions of Virginia. The Tin Cup Kitchen and Oyster Bar, originally planned for December, will be an upscale, 88-seat seafood spot with Bay views, seafood from local fishermen, produce from farms in Virginia Beach and Cape Charles, and an extensive selection of seafood and oysters.
The Tin Cup will be located in the only hotel in Virginia Beach that faces the Bay, soon to reopen after a two-year, $27 million renovation: the imposingly named Delta Hotels by Marriott Virginia Beach Bayfront Suites. Expect house-made doughnuts in adjacent Cafe 2800, mid-Atlantic seafood classics and a local-grown oddity made famous by chef Jeremiah Langhorne at the Dabney in Washington: Buffalo sugar toads, the puffer-fish chicken wings of the sea.
Union Taco
218 W. 25th St. Norfolk, uniontacova.com
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Estimated opening date: February
Just blocks from hidden mezcal-and-taco house Perro Blanco, Union Taco will soon open as a fast-casual hall of tacos and multifarious tequila in Norfolk’s Park Place neighborhood. The restaurant, from the owners of Union Alehouse in Virginia Beach, will open in the former location of a Burgerim Israeli hamburger franchise, a block north of O’Connor Brewing.
Owners expect minimal renovations. Co-owner Bryan Connolly says plans to build on the Alehouse’s concept of using “a union of flavors like salty, sweet, spicy, sour and umami together” to create new and interesting tacos, tostadas, elotes, bowls and salads. Plans include house-made churros formed into a circle and topped with avocado ice cream, and liquor shelves filled with as many as 100 tequilas.
Zia Marie (new location)
2272 W. Great Neck Road, Virginia Beach, ziamarie.com
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Estimated opening date: March-ish
Zia’s has been a Chic’s Beach mainstay for decades, but as the much-loved Italian restaurant’s lease expired, chef-owner Bill Minder decided to make a jump three miles east on Shore Drive to the former Bier Garden Festhaus location — with a much-expanded kitchen, draft lines for wine kegs, more space for wine in general, a stone pizza oven, and an option on patio seating.
With the added prep space, Minder says to expect some specials to jump onto the steady menu, including tuna steak, zuppa di clams, and the restaurant’s increasingly popular osso buco. The addition of a fryer also means he’ll be able to add dishes like calamari that simply weren’t possible before.
Minder will stick around in Chic’s Beach through at least Valentine’s Day, as he works to turn the former German beer hall into a home to Italian mainstays; already, he’s adding multiple fireplaces to bring in some literal and figurative warmth.
“I’ll miss the people in my neighborhood, the walkers who golf-cart up. I’ll miss them a lot, there’s no question. But as far as the cramped spaces and parking issues and people in the summer parking all over our parking lot? I won’t miss that a bit.” He hopes his old customers will take the three-mile trip east on Shore Drive — and in the meantime, looks forward to meeting the new neighborhood.
Matchsticks BBQ Co.
1246 Richmond Road, Williamsburg, matchsticksbbq.com
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Estimated opening date: Early 2021
Matt and Nicole Sileno’s wildly popular barbecue truck has been building out its brick-and-mortar space for most of a year now — after tooling around locations from Northern Virginia to breweries in Williamsburg over the past couple years. Their upcoming fast-casual space in Williamsburg’s Midtown Row is finally nearing completion; in the meantime, the couple has been working with World Central Kitchen and local schools to provide meals during the pandemic.
And so soon, there will be a permanent home for their meaty ribs, thick and barky brisket, smoked turkey, hot links and vinegar-sauced pulled pork. When they open, expect to see their own personal sauce and rub line for sale, as well as beers on tap from some of the breweries where they’ve been slinging their ribs. In the meantime, they’ve been regularly parking their food truck in front of their future restaurant.
Reaver Beach Norfolk
3800 Colley Ave., Norfolk, reaverbeach.com
Estimated opening date: Early 2021
Well, the sign is up at the old Colley Avenue post office, and Reaver Beach’s owners are dropping a steady parade of hints, winks and nudges on social media — but aren’t yet at the point where they’re able to promise a specific opening schedule.
Still, all indications are that beer will be pouring quite soon at the Reaver Beach satellite location first announced nearly two years ago. Amid a new crop that includes Elation Brewing and The Veil, central Norfolk keeps on cementing itself as the beeriest neighborhood in Hampton Roads. Soon, that will include Reaver Beach’s distinguished series of coolship-brewed sours and wilds — along with their flagship Hoptopus double IPA.
The Fishin’ Pig
119 W. 25th St., Norfolk, fishinpig.com
Estimated opening date: Spring 2021
Syd’s FishPig is not the only fish-pig to open soon in Norfolk. The Fishin’ Pig, a seafood and barbecue chainlet founded in the Blue Ridge Mountains, will soon get itself a franchise in the Park Place neighborhood, just a block or so from where Union Taco will soon open. The restaurant, first founded in Farmville, is a confluence of Memphis-inspired barbecue and Virginia-style fish fry.
Expect dry-rub ribs, brisket, and pulled pork barbecue; a whole mess of fried fish from catfish to pollock to bang-bang shrimp; and comfort foods from burgers to wings to tacos. The restaurant had hoped for a 2020 opening, but is still on track to open this year.
Three Notch’d Brewing
4561 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach
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Estimated opening date: Late summer 2021
One of Virginia’s biggest and most popular breweries has signed a lease for a brewpub space in Hampton Roads. Charlottesville-based Three Notch’d Brewing Company is working on its fifth location in the former Gordon Biersch location in Town Center — and said in February that they plan a full-service restaurant in the nearly 8,000-square-foot space, as well as weekly beers exclusive to Virginia Beach.
“We will feather-in updates as we journey through building our new home, and along the way, we are preparing several surprises that we’ll drop when the time is right,” wrote CEO and co-founder George Kastendike in a February press release. (Entry updated Feb. 9, 2021 with new information.)
Amedeo’s Italian Kitchen
1301 Bridgeport Way, Suffolk
Estimated opening date: Spring 2021
Let's Eat
The restaurateurs behind some of Suffolk’s best-known restaurants will add another spot to their Suffolk stable: a northern-Italian-inspired restaurant and bakery dedicated to the founder of Planters Peanuts, Amedeo Obici.
Brian and Teresa Mullins — the people behind Vintage Tavern, River Stone Chophouse and Decoy’s — hope to open Amedeo’s by spring 2021 in the mammoth new Bridgeport development also home to upscale seafood spot Fin & Tonic. The nearly 8,000-square-foot restaurant and bar will seat 200, and the space will also feature a scratch bakery and coffee shop with bread and desserts to go, plus breakfast sandwiches in the morning.
The main restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner, featuring house-made pastas and Venetian-style dishes: agnolotti pasta stuffed with mushrooms and veal, salmon with raisins and almonds, chicken cooked in wine with sausage and peppers.
Wasserhund in Chesapeake
510 Belaire Ave., Chesapeake, wasserhundbrewing.com
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Estimated opening date: Summer 2021
Virginia Beach’s favored home to local-brewed German-style beer, and to extravagantly topped pizzas named after dogs, will be expanding to a new home in Chesapeake. It’ll be the third brewery in that city. Wasserhund Brewing plans a 4,000-square-foot location in Summit Pointe, a new development in Greenbrier built by Dollar Tree next to its high-rise headquarters. Summit Pointe has ambitions to become the city’s central business district, much like Town Center in Virginia Beach or downtown Norfolk. Co-owner Christine Holley said in October to expect the location to be less beachy, but still laid-back and family-friendly.
Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com