However you feel about 2025, that year is ready to sunset and 2026 is waiting in the wings, ready to take center stage. With the new year’s arrival, it’s time to start making plans — lots of ’em — to eat and drink. Afterall, that’s what keeps the year feeling fun and bright. Here’s where Eater SF comes in. We’ve collected some of the most exciting winter restaurant openings on the horizon so you can mark it in your calendar and fire up the group chat when it’s time. Happy eating in 2026.
Merchant Roots’s big move to SoMa gave the tasting menu restaurant a chance to spread its wings, with a space big enough to fit chef Ryan Shelton and his team’s big ambitions. Now the team is moving into new territory with the opening of Bar Orso, a cocktail lounge housed inside the Merchant space with just 12 seats to its name. Befitting the restaurant’s wild themed dinners, the bar is planned to be just as immersive, a “redwood forest dreamscape,” per a press release. There are 15 cocktails created for the bar, folding in elements like fernet made by the team, green tea cotton candy, plus small plates to nosh on, and visitors can stay for an hour or a five-course cocktail and food tasting menu. 1148 Mission Street, San Francisco
Opening: Late January 2026
Flour + Water continues the expansion of its pizza division with the opening of its latest F+W Pizza Shop location. This time, the team is making a big leap across the Bay Bridge, setting up East Bay headquarters in Uptown Oakland on 24th Street. The dough will come from the pizzeria flagship in North Beach, and the new shop will offer the company’s 13-inch pies, gluten-free Sicilian-style squares, and quick slices to-go. There will also be salads, antipasto, and soft serve, plus beer and wine to boot. 269 24th Street, Suite 100, Oakland
Chefs Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz, the couple behind Presidio gem Dalida, have embarked on their next project, and are just about ready to debut their new restaurant, dubbed Maria Isabel. This time they’re setting up in the Presidio Heights neighborhood, taking over the former Ella’s American Kitchen location on Presidio Avenue. The menu is based on chef Laura Ozyilmaz’s roots in Mexico’s Guerrero and Sinaloa, per a press release, utilizing seasonal California ingredients. 500 Presidio Avenue, San Francisco
Another restaurant is making the leap out of San Francisco, and this time it’s Marina favorite Causwells. But rather than the East Bay, chef Adam Rosenblum and restaurant partner Elmer Mejicanos are traveling down the Peninsula to Menlo Park, which has become a hotbed for new restaurant openings in the last two years. The new space is twice the size of the Marina location, and with it comes Causwells favorites, yes, but Rosenblum and Mejicanos will expand the food and drink menu a bit to match their ambitious new location. Springline, 550 Oak Grove, Menlo Park
Club Deluxe is a storied part of San Francisco’s jazz scene, first opening in 1978 and maintaining a live-music presence that lasted decades. It was with much sadness that the business officially shut down for good in April 2023, but now Club Deluxe is being lovingly resurrected by industry vets Jay Bordeleau and Christian Beaulieu. Renamed the DeLuxe, visitors can expect more live music, from both new and returning artists and bands. A new cocktail menu is also in the works, leaning toward takes on classic drinks. 1511 Haight Street, San Francisco
David Barzelay and Colleen Booth of Lazy Bear and True Laurel are readying their highly anticipated French restaurant JouJou, taking up space in the Design District. The a la carte menu is seafood-centric — “but not exclusively so,” a press release adds — with dishes such as a vichysoisse with caviar and a showy shellfish plateaux. The place also sounds like a stunner, with semi-circle booths in the main dining room, a raw bar with a view of the kitchen, a glass-enclosed patio featuring seating and the main bar, as well as a sunken area called the Rose Room. This is one to look out for. 1 Henry Adams Street, San Francisco
Meyhouse burst onto the Bay Area dining scene in August 2023, moving from pop-up status to full-on restaurant, sharing Turkish culture and cuisine with Palo Alto. Owners Omer Artun and Koray Altinsoy have been on a roll since then, quickly expanding into a second location in Sunnyvale, and even adding live jazz to the Palo Alto branch. Now the duo is set to expand their restaurant to the East Bay, adding a new outpost to City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, both as a restaurant and jazz venue. Expect the same style of food with California produce and ingredients, just in a new part of the Bay. 6000 Bollinger Canyon Road, San Ramon