Restaurant Openings Report: Week Of September 28, 2014

Doha
Four Seasons Hotel Doha, in partnership with acclaimed chef Nobuyuki "Nobu" Matsuhisa, has announced that Nobu Doha is scheduled to open by the end of the year. The collaboration marks a significant milestone, as the restaurant is the first and only of its kind located at a Four Seasons in the Middle East region.  "I'm very excited to finally open our second Nobu in the Middle East," says Chef Nobu Matsuhisa.  "It is an honor for me to be able to share my food and culture with different people around the world. I look forward to new challenges and adventures with the opening of Nobu Doha." Drawing upon Matsuhisa's classical training as a sushi chef in Tokyo, his life abroad in South America, and his travels around the world, Nobu Doha will showcase Nobu's signature new style Japanese cuisine, as well as new creations infusing local ingredients representative of the region, such as exotic spices and a bounty of fresh catch from the Arabian Gulf including black-streaked monocole bream and orange-spotted trevally.

New York
Celebrated French chef, Joël Robuchon, is bringing L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon back to New York City, opening in Manhattan's Brookfield Place in Battery Park City in March 2015. Located at 250 Vesey Street (just west of the West Side Highway), L'Atelier was inspired by Robuchon's international culinary experiences and travels. In 2003, Robuchon opened his first L'Atelier in Paris in the historic Seventh Arrondisement on the Boulevard Saint German Des Pres and in Tokyo in the Rappongi district. Following the restaurant's immediate success, Robuchon expanded L'Atelier to other cities including Las Vegas in 2005 inside the MGM Grand, London at Covent Garden, Hong Kong at the Landmark in 2006, Taipei at the Bellavita Shopping Center in 2009, a second L'Atelier location in Paris in 2010 at the Place de l'Etoile on the Champs Elysees, and in Singapore at the World Resort at Sentosa in 2011.

Opening October 8, STATE Grill and Bar is a 2,800 square-foot, street-level restaurant that is the latest component in the transformation of the "World's Most Famous Office Building." With an emphasis on sourcing New York State products, the restaurant will present daily breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus that support local farmers, brewers, winemakers, producers, and purveyors. The beverage program will be curated by award-winning sommelier and mixologist Aaron von Rock. 

Boqueria opened its third location in the city on Thursday, October 2, on the Upper East Side. The new, uptown location of Boqueria, which is the fifth in the world (there is one in Washington D.C. and another in Hong Kong), will feature some of the familiar and favorite dishes of the other locations like patatas bravas and paella de mariscos, as well as some brand new dishes unique to the Upper East Side, such as piquillos rellenos and mejillones con chorizo.

A new culinary energy comes to midtown, Manhattan with the arrival of ZUMA. The launch this winter will mark the restaurant's ninth location in its international collection. ZUMA New York will feature a main dining room, a bar and lounge area, and private rooms, all of which will be situated across two levels. Creator and co-founder of ZUMA, Rainer Becker, spent six years in Tokyo where he explored ancient and modern culinary traditions that have shaped contemporary Japanese cuisine. His attraction to izakaya, an informal dining style, coupled with his fascination for the respectful discipline and standards of excellence that define Japanese cuisine lured him to conceive the concept for ZUMA. The New York outpost's menu will offer signature dishes including seabass sashimi with yuzu and salmon roe, sake glazed chicken wings with sea salt and lime, jumbo tiger prawn with yuzu pepper, and a US Prime bone-in 24 oz. ribeye – a nod to the restaurant's host city.

The Slanted Door's Lien Lin and Edward Lin from San Francisco, along with artist Meir Gal and real estate investor Jed Freedlander are set to open a Vietnamese gastropub in Park Slope.

Doughnut Plant has signed a lease for 8,495 square feet on the concourse level of the five-story Falchi building in Long Island City. The space will be the second home of The Doughnut Plant's production – expanding from 4,000 square feet on Grand Street in the Lower East Side – along with a front-facing retail component. This expansion coincides with The Doughnut Plant's 20th Anniversary, though there's no word yet on the opening date.

Philadelphia
This fall, chef and owner Kevin Sbraga channels the 1980s and the age of roasted meats sliced to order, salad bars with raspberry vinaigrette, and dip-filled bread bowls with the opening of his third restaurant, Juniper Commons. Chef Sbraga and executive chef Greg Garbacz have created a menu of dishes that evoke warm memories of the past such as Cesar salad prepared tableside with housemade croutons and dressing, and an eggplant Parmesan that is rings of panko-crusted eggplant topped with marinara sauce, locatelli, and parsley.

Charleston
Artisan Meat Share is now open at 33 Spring Street. The 15-seat sandwich and retail shop options for all palates including selections of chef Craig Deihl's well-known artisan meats, an array of hearty sandwiches, freshly butchered meats, and house made condiments.

San Diego
David Spatafore, the local hospitality veteran behind Coronado's Blue Bridge Hospitality, has partnered with Liberty Station, San Diego's mixed-use retail and commercial center, to create Liberty Public Market. The public market with unite the region's artisans under one roof,  and is a multi-million dollar investment that supports the creation of a public arena for locals and tourists alike to embrace the city's finest handcrafted food and specialty items. San Diego's first-ever food halls is set to debut summer 2015.

Kate Kolenda is the Restaurant/City Guide Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @BeefWerky and @theconversant.