Best Five New Local Restaurants to Come in Next Few Months

Last week the Food Blog ran down Monterey County's 20 best new restaurants for 2013, which I will update with photos from and links to each place in time for tomorrow's foodie newsletter. (Click here to subscribe to the newsletter.)

This week, as promised, a look ahead, at some of the most promising projects:

5 • Patria (424-5555) comes from the mind and kitchen of former Cafe Rustica principal Paulo Kautz, in the old Hullaballoo in Oldtown Salinas, with smart and comforting Mediterranean plates. Given Kautz's cheffing skills, this would rank higher, but his weird behavior—including when he refused to give one of my writers his name or to talk to him about the project and his alienation of other local businessmen—means #5 is all his. I'd tell you the suspected open date, and this sucker's been a long time coming, but he won't talk.

4 • The tentatively named Analog—which will actually change names nightly to start—promises to be a cool and funky bar that blends low-brow accessibility with clever high-brow music and culture in the old Ody’s, next to Mundaka, whose owner-operator Gabe Georis will run the new neighbor with his brother Nico, a local musician and bandleader who will mastermind the music. Gabe is hoping to open—"hopening," he says—in November.

3 • Dubber’s will take over the former Salinas Fish House across from First Awakenings in Salinas with a sports bar-tavern spot from the same Saunders family that owns chunks of the street’s property. Read up on that and the groundswell of other Salinas projects to come—some of which deserve runner up status to this list, with Eduardo Cuevas' piece on the Oldtown upswing. The joint aims to open with a Halloween party next Thursday or Friday.

2 • jeninni wine bar + restaurant aims to be a sophisticated-but-casual hangout with a lounge and dining spaces, a deep roster of local and imported wines and exciting bites like house seafood charcuterie, smoked lamb, roasted salmon and salted caramel flan, all in the landmark Holman building in the middle of P.G.’s downtown. Longtime local hospitality star/owner-operator Thamin Saleh sees it opening by the end of the year.

1 • A breakthrough brewery-restaurant with temporary name 241 Alvarado in the old state theater across from Golden State—in the heart of downtown Monterey—will pair beers from J.C. Hill of Amplified Ale Works with the incredible high-ceiling setting and gastro-hip fare. I have a feeling this will be a game changer for a blossoming downtown district adding sidewalk spaces and big restaurant bars like sleek racing-themed Turn 12 and pirate-ship Bay of Pines. Tentatively scheduled for spring 2014, though that seems a touch ambitious.