Today, we’re serving up a monthly recap of the dining trends and happenings that have been stewing in the Eater team’s favorite restaurants, bars, and water cooler Slack channels. |
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Cigarettes are (unfortunately) back
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Photo credit: Getty Images |
The dream of the ’90s — or, at least, of people who miss smoking in restaurants and bars — is alive (although for some of us, it never died). I’ve noticed staff taking a more live-and-let-live attitude when customers chain-smoke on the patio of Hotel Delmano (which does aspire to a kind of Euro flair) in Brooklyn, or literally everywhere in Ridgewood, Queens, but especially that batch of buzzy restaurants that includes Rolos, Il Gigante, and Hellbender. Last Month, Martha Stewart herself was snapped lighting up a cig for Kevin Sharkey, an executive vice president of her media group, at Indochine (very ’90s), and I’ve even spotted smoke signals coming from Los Angeles, the heart of the Goop empire (I see you, sexy-swirly ashtray at this Cento Raw Bar-hosted party).
This resurgence in cigs has been a long time coming: Last Halloween, it felt like everyone recreated the TikTok-trending pretzel cigarettes, and then came the stunning cigarette cake that went viral courtesy of Charli XCX. At the beginning of 2026, Rachel Sennott, patron saint of messy girls (read: positive) confirmed the return of cigs on Amy Poehler’s podcast.
So, why are cafes, bars, and restaurant patios suddenly so smoky? I’d theorize that smoking came back alongside our disillusionment with 2010s girlbossery and hopecore politics, but that shameless smoking really hit its stride during Brat Summer (remember when Rosalía gifted Charli XCX a cig-speckled bouquet?) and picked up at the start of Trump’s second term. TL;DR: Among a rising tide of societal malaise and dread, why not let decadence with a side of pre-Y2K nostalgia rip?
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With the rise of more culturally specific spaces, game nights are winning |
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The Eater Slack rooms have been filled with observations about “cool” game nights popping up in bars and restaurants, whether fresh (young mahjong social clubs in Asian American cafes) or nostalgic (multigenerational events where twentysomethings play dominos with Latinx elders). One editor spoke of the dominos at Bar Kabawa, while another spotted the tiles and Biñho boards at Frita Batidos; there was even a full beginners’ mahjong lesson (alongside dim sum) event last month at Leland. Another colleague shared news of the increasingly popular Rummikub game nights and “c*nty” Rookie Chess nights in Los Angeles. As more restaurants, bars, and cafes start to feel like living rooms, it only makes sense that we increasingly revisit the simple pleasures of rec-room-style games.
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Is it the year of the banana? |
Cabbage may have been crowned the year’s cruciferous “it” vegetable by Pinterest and Vogue, but the Eater staff has observed a fruitier star in the making: bananas. They’ve been quietly popping up everywhere in cocktails and desserts, perfumes and bougie lifestyle products, from Flamingo Estate’s new banana-scented luxury candles and body creams to Eater social media manager Zoe Becker’s budding obsession with Mooala’s plant-based banana milk, which she says makes her coffee taste like banana bread.
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The banana split at Liar Liar. Credit: Liar Liar |
Who will be the next Wild Cherry? |
Could highly stylized, multifunctional concept restaurants inject new life into the theater and dining industries? The ongoing popularity of A24’s NYC restaurant and bar Wild Cherry has made waves by blurring the lines between the theatrical and the culinary — which is fitting for the studio that gave us Jamie Lee Curtis in hot dog fingers.
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A rendering of the Empyrean Club. Credit: The Empyrean Club |
Last August, there were whispers that the Aparium Hotel Group was developing an experimental dinner and theater venue in Santa Monica for a summer 2026 opening, and there’s a similarly ambitious, multihyphenate space in development in NYC for a club called the Empyrean. I attended a pre-construction viewing for the sprawling Bushwick space, which plans to host the theatrical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho; while far from ready to open its doors, itit was filled with Patrick Nagel-esque mood boards for the theater, restaurant, bar, and club space. As a representative told me, it will offer a central menu that complements the theatrical programming, a more “traditional à la carte service,” and a “flash omakase” that will be “a fashion-inspired approach to sushi that emphasizes presentation, design, and is specifically tailored for pre- and post-show dining.” An attempt to scratch the third space-size itch, perhaps?
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Canyon Coffee’s NYC location is a lesson in brand expansion |
How do you successfully translate a Los Angeles coffee scene staple for an NYC crowd? Canyon Coffee, the cult-fave Echo Park coffee shop, opened its second location in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, last week to customer lines that stretched down the block. Interminable dining line hype is nothing new, but the first thing I noticed about the space was how it tapped local NYC designers and artists such as Platform (for hooks and a picture frame), Thomas Yang (for its wall sconce), and La Réunion (textiles). There’s also a custom stool designed by Mambo Jambo, a furniture design house whose founder, Kelby Lee Singhaus, was once a barista at the Echo Park location. As the coffee shop’s co-founders Ally Walsh and Casey Wojtalewicz told me, they make a point of sourcing from local artists and designers for both of their locations. They also commissioned a painting featuring apples and citrus from artist John Zabawa with the specific goal of paying homage to what they call the company’s “the LA-New York love story.”
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Works by artists and designers such as Platform, Mambo Jambo, and Thomas Yang (left to right). Credit: Platform, Mambo Jambo, and Thomas Yang.
The through line between the locations, according to the duo, is the desire to create spaces where customers can truly post up and stay a while. As Walsh, who is from Long Island, tells me, “We wanted to bring the warmth of Canyon, but [form] the Brooklyn [location] as its own place.” Wojtalewicz adds that “the LA spot unintentionally foreshadowed us coming to New York. That building in LA is the most Brooklyn-looking building in the city with its fire escape and red brick [elements].” As for future locations, the duo are excited about the prospect of opening more locations in New York and LA, and Wojtalewicz tells me he has a Paris and Tokyo fantasy, because “there’s that kind of love triangle between Paris, Tokyo, and LA.”
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