Opening soon: 3 new restaurants you need to put on a checklist right now

Keith Pandolfi, Cincinnati Enquirer
Updated ·4 min read

There are restaurants. And then there are RESTAURANTS. The kinds of places you put on a checklist; the kinds of places you go for anniversaries or birthdays or receive nods of approval from your coworkers when you come into work on Monday tell them you went there on Friday night.

Here are three spots – set to open by the end of 2023 – that I'm most excited about.

Colette, Over-the-Rhine

Opening in October 2023

Chef and owner Danny Combs will open Colette, a new French restaurant at 1400 Race Street in Over-the-Rhine, in October.
Chef and owner Danny Combs will open Colette, a new French restaurant at 1400 Race Street in Over-the-Rhine, in October.

Chef Danny Combs is well known in Cincinnati for his time with the Boca Restaurant Group, where he spent about a dozen years leading the kitchen, most notably as executive chef at Sotto. Now he’s branching out on his own with Colette, a French restaurant in the old Cincinnati Center City Development Corp.-owned Zula space in Over-the-Rhine.

While the menu at Colette will be mostly French, Combs tells me he doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into one particular form of what he sees as a tremendously complex cuisine.

“I’ve been wanting to do French food for a while given the history of French food in this city,” Combs said. “I wanted to keep that going, but we didn’t want to pigeonhole ourselves into calling it a bistro or a brasserie.”

Instead, Combs is drawing inspiration from French Canadian cuisine, as well as Parisian and Lyonnaise dishes. He will also concentrate on the Moroccan dishes that have made their way into France, most notably the highly Moroccan area of Paris, so expect some of Combs' own riffs on couscous royal.

“People have a preconceived notion of what they think of as French food,” Combs said. “That it is either fancy or heavy. A lot of people just don’t know what it is. We’re excited for the opportunity to show that it is not always what everyone thinks.”

Of course, one cannot talk about French food without mentioning the late French chef Jean-Robert de Cavel, whom Combs hopes to honor at Colette.

“Looking back on the history of French food in this city, I think there is a sense that it needs to be kept alive,” Combs said. “The amazing work Jean-Robert did and the love this city had for him isn’t going anywhere. We hope to honor his legacy and push forward. He introduced so many chefs to French food. For us, it's about keeping that alive.”

The Davidson, Fountain Square

Opening in late November 2023

Thunderdome restaurant group co-founders/owners John Lanni, Alex Blust and Joe Lanni. Thunderdome is opening The Davidson on Fountain Square this November.
Thunderdome restaurant group co-founders/owners John Lanni, Alex Blust and Joe Lanni. Thunderdome is opening The Davidson on Fountain Square this November.

Royce, the Parisian-style bistro formerly located inside the Foundry building at Fountain Square, turned out to be a bust under the leadership of Nashville restaurateur Terry Raley, who shuttered the space after just six months amid reports of poor management. But my guess is that 3CDC, which owns the building, made the right call when it signed on Thunderdome Restaurant Group to take over. After all, the locally based company group has already proven itself with such local darlings as the Eagle, Pepp & Dolores and Krueger’s Tavern, among others.

The Davidson – which honors Tyler Davidson, the namesake of the fountain just across the street – will be an American-style bistro drawing inspiration from French, Italian and American fare. Thunderdome co-owner Joe Lanni told me it will hover somewhere between a special-occasion spot and a something-for-everyone go-to.

Lanni wants The Davidson to resemble the kinds of restaurants he often visited with his parents as a kid. “We talked a lot about what that area of Downtown was missing and what was needed,” he said. In the end, he wanted a place that would be amenable to everything from romantic first dates, happy hours and family gatherings to business meetings and a spot for tourists and conventioneers.

While he was hesitant to liken it to the late, great Fountain Square staple, Palomino – which closed in 2018 – Lanni did say he wants The Davidson to play a similar role.

“Mom loved it, and I loved it, even though I was a teenager. You could go there as a group and there was always something for everybody."

Atwood Oyster House, Over the Rhine

Opening in fall 2023

An assortment of oysters from Pearlstar Oyster Camp + Bar. The space, which closed abruptly in February, will soon be occupied by the Atwood Oyster House.
An assortment of oysters from Pearlstar Oyster Camp + Bar. The space, which closed abruptly in February, will soon be occupied by the Atwood Oyster House.

Along with The Davidson, another 3CDC-owned restaurant space formerly occupied by Terry Raley will be reborn this fall. In this case, it's Riley’s PearStar Oyster Camp, which will soon become the locally owned Atwood Oyster House.

Named after the Atwood family – the original proprietors of Boston’s famous Union Oyster House, among the country's oldest restaurants – the Atwood will focus on “Cincinnati’s love for all things oyster,” according to a press release. Other than the name, I don't have anything new to report about Atwood. The menu remains a work in progress and details are scant.

That said, this will be the most ambitious project from local restaurateurs Garth Lieb and Tom Stephen, who also own three Over-the-Rhine hots spots, including The Pony, Yoli's and Liberty’s Bar & Bottle.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Big-name Cincinnati restaurants open soon: Colette, Davidson, Atwood