Every Restaurant That Opened in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti: 2025-2026
A running list of new restaurants, cafes, and bars across Washtenaw County.
Washtenaw County lost some fixtures in 2025. Wurst Bar in Ypsilanti, Beezy's in Ypsilanti, Tower Inn and Red Hawk in Ann Arbor, Blue Leprechaun near campus. That is a lot of institutional memory. But the openings have been steady, and some of them are genuinely exciting. This page tracks every new restaurant, cafe, and bar that has opened in the Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Dexter, Chelsea, and greater Detroit area since the start of 2025, along with the ones we are still waiting on.
We will update this list as new places open through the rest of 2026.
2025
Tabe Fusion
209 S Main St, Ann Arbor. Opened March 13, 2025.
Three floors of Asian fusion and omakase on South Main, operated by the 168 Group out of Madison Heights. Fish flown from Japan three times a week, an omakase counter for the full experience, and a broader fusion menu for everyone else. The building sits next to Echelon at 200 South Main, which means this block now has two high-ambition restaurants within steps of each other. South Main was already getting more interesting. Tabe accelerated that. (Read our opening coverage.)
Little Kim
207 N Fifth Ave, Ann Arbor (Kerrytown). Opened July 2025.
Ji Hye Kim's third concept, after Miss Kim and the broader ecosystem she has been building around Korean food and Michigan agriculture. Little Kim is fast-casual and all-vegetarian: build-your-own bowls, kimbap, fried tofu sandwiches. The other half of the concept is an Asian mini-mart stocking pantry staples and specialty items that are otherwise hard to find without a trip to a bigger market. No reservations. Lower price point. The accessible entry to Kim's world. (Read our opening coverage.)
Bori Korean Kitchen & Bar
311 S Main St, Floor 2, Ann Arbor. Opened November 13, 2025.
Chef James Park's restaurant on the second floor above Jolly Pumpkin on South Main. Park trained through Grand Rapids Community College and spent time in both Jolly Pumpkin and Miss Kim's kitchens before opening his own place. The menu runs through dakgangjeong (crispy glazed chicken in three versions), japchae with marinated steak, dolsot bibimbap in stone pots, and royal court tteokbokki. Korean spirits anchor the bar, and there is a soundproof noraebang (private karaoke room) in the back: $40 per hour, eight people, mirrors and colored lights. Late nights on Fridays and Saturdays, with the kitchen open until 11 p.m. and the bar until 1 a.m. I went for a friend's birthday. The japchae ($18) is the right first order. (Read the full profile.)
2026
Ziggi's Coffee
7097 Dexter-Ann Arbor Rd. Opened February 28, 2026.
The first Washtenaw County location for a Colorado-based chain with over 100 locations. This is not a local independent, and it is not trying to be. Drive-through format, flavored specialty drinks, a menu that runs sweeter than most independent cafes. What it does fill: fast, convenient, drive-through coffee on the west side of town, along a car-oriented corridor that local shops have largely left open. (Read our opening coverage.)
Espy Cafe
404 W Huron St, Ann Arbor. Opened March 1, 2026.
A new cafe on West Huron roasting its own beans on-site, in the back of the shop. That makes two serious on-site roasters in Ann Arbor, alongside RoosRoast, which has had two decades to figure it out. Espy is doing it from day one. The stretch of West Huron between downtown and the Old West Side has been quiet for a while. A cafe that actually roasts its own coffee is a reason to stop there. (Read our opening coverage. Read the profile.)
Huna Tiki Bar
200 S Main St (basement), Ann Arbor. Opened March 4, 2026.
A tiki bar in the basement of Echelon Kitchen & Bar, built by the same team: Chef Joseph VanWagner and partners. Rum-forward cocktails, Polynesian-inspired bar snacks, later hours than the dining room upstairs. The space is darker, louder, and more playful than Echelon proper. It functions as a natural second stop for diners finishing upstairs, or a standalone destination for anyone who wants a tropical cocktail on South Main after 10 p.m. The block finally has a late-night option. (Read our opening coverage. Read the profile.)
Sunda New Asian
Near Comerica Park, downtown Detroit. Opened March 10, 2026.
The Chicago pan-Asian restaurant, open since 2009 in River North, brought its concept to Detroit with a 200-plus-seat space near Comerica Park. Sashimi pizza, whole roasted duck, a menu that spans Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese cooking without collapsing into vague "Asian fusion." Two hundred seats is a bet on downtown foot traffic and game-night crowds. It is one of the largest restaurant openings Detroit has seen in recent years, and it signals that national groups see Detroit's downtown as viable for large-format operations. (Read our opening coverage.)
Tabe Fusion (one-year mark)
209 S Main St, Ann Arbor.
Tabe Fusion opened in March 2025 and hit the one-year mark this month. We wrote a longer reassessment after the kitchen had twelve months to settle in.
Coming Soon
These restaurants have been announced and are expected to open later in 2026. Dates are approximate. Things slip.
JD's Stage Bistro
117 1/2 S Main St, Chelsea. Expected April 2026.
Jeff Daniels' restaurant and acoustically engineered listening room, steps from the Purple Rose Theatre. Chef Nate Wegryn, formerly of the Dixboro Project and Echelon, runs the kitchen. Wood-fired oven, local sourcing, a menu that pulls from the Midwest and from Daniels' family recipes. The Stage Room is purpose-built for live music: singer-songwriters, small ensembles, sound-absorbing walls calibrated by Gavin Haverstick of Haverstick Designs. Three bars, a screened patio, 100 seats total. The building has mahogany doors from the Waldorf Astoria, Edison phonograph horn light fixtures, and stained-glass martini olives on the cherry wood door. Chelsea has never had a nighttime anchor like this. (Read our preview coverage.)
Calamansi
4458 W Vernor Hwy, Southwest Detroit. Expected April 2026.
Tyler Olivier and Marcee Sobredilla are opening a Filipino-inspired bar and restaurant on Vernor Highway. Sobredilla, who is Filipino-American and worked at Katherine's Catering in Ann Arbor, is building the food program. Olivier, the beverage director at Shelby, is running the bar. Tarun Kajeepeta of Piquette Hospitality, which operates Shelby and Lena, holds a small stake and owns the building. Chicken adobo, pork adobo, Filipino poke bowls, and cocktails built around calamansi (Philippine lime) and ube. Forty seats in the former PizzaPlex space. Michigan has almost no Filipino restaurants. This one has serious backing and a clear point of view. (Read our preview coverage.)
Bev's Bagels
115 E Liberty St, Ann Arbor. Expected September 2026.
Ann Arbor's first dedicated bagel shop in recent memory. Chef Max Sussman started Bev's as a pop-up in Ann Arbor in 2020 before opening the original location in Detroit's Core City neighborhood, where it became one of the city's most talked-about food businesses. The process: hand-rolled, kettle-boiled in water with malt syrup, baked on boards. No shortcuts. The Ann Arbor location sits between Spencer (USA Today's 2026 Restaurants of the Year list) and RoosRoast. That block is shaping up to be one of the best food corridors in the county. (Read our preview.)
The Running Count
Opened in 2025: Tabe Fusion (March), Little Kim (July), Bori Korean Kitchen & Bar (November).
Opened in 2026 so far: Ziggi's Coffee (February), Espy Cafe (March), Huna Tiki Bar (March), Sunda New Asian Detroit (March).
Expected later in 2026: JD's Stage Bistro Chelsea (April), Calamansi Detroit (April), Bev's Bagels (September).
Seven new restaurants open as of mid-March 2026. Three more on the way before the year is out. South Main Street in Ann Arbor has absorbed three of the new openings (Tabe Fusion, Bori, Huna), turning a two-block stretch into the densest concentration of new restaurants downtown. Kerrytown gained Little Kim. West Huron gained Espy. The west side gained a drive-through chain. Detroit picked up a 200-seat pan-Asian restaurant downtown and has a Filipino restaurant coming to Vernor Highway. Chelsea will get its first serious nighttime anchor.
The closings have been real. Red Hawk, Wurst Bar, Beezy's, Tower Inn, Blue Leprechaun. That is five institutions, decades of combined history, gone in about 12 months. But the new restaurants opening in their wake are not replacements. They are different kinds of places: a noraebang, an all-vegetarian mini-mart, a tiki bar, an omakase counter, a listening room. The dining scene is not shrinking. It is changing shape.
We will keep this page updated as new openings are announced and confirmed through the rest of 2026.
For restaurant guides by area, see: Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti, Chelsea, Dexter, Detroit.