The Restaurant Worth Crossing Chicago For: Muhājir

One new US opening a day, chosen and checked. Today: a Lincoln Park debut that turns migration into a menu.

Chicago chef Zubair Mohajir opened Muhājir last Wednesday, July 1, at 2630 N. Clark St. in Lincoln Park, and it is the most personal thing he has built yet. Mohajir is a first-generation immigrant born in Chennai, India, and raised in Doha, Qatar, who made his name in Chicago with Lilac Tiger and Coach House before opening Mariela in the Loop this past May. Muhājir, named for the Arabic and Urdu word for migrant, is directly tied to his own family name, a detail FSR reports was actually suggested to him by his partner in the project, chef de cuisine Jacob Dela Cruz.

The concept traces the historic spice route from Chennai through the Middle East and North Africa to Sicily, Andalusia, and Portugal, with live wood-fire cooking as the connective thread. "Wood fire is part of the human story and is rooted in what we do," Mohajir told Eater Chicago. "Throughout this menu you're going to see how different cultures used it." The dish that makes the argument for a drive across town is the Thaali, a shared starter of fire-roasted dips (caponata, tomato-tamarind achar, goat cheese shattah, ful) nodding to Italy, India, Palestine, and Egypt, served with papadums and wood-fired focaccia on a custom plate from Chicago's DTK Ceramics. FSR also flags Grilled Fish on the Half Shell in a black lime tea bouillabaisse, Bicol-style mussels with calamansi vinegar, Beef Cheek Nihari with black garlic naan, and a tableside whole duck built from what the restaurant describes as a 927-year-old Numidian recipe tied to the Moorish rule of the Iberian Peninsula. Dessert is Carrot Halo-Halo, carrot ice cream with tapioca, mysore pak, and passion fruit.

Why this one over everything else opening this week: most July debuts are a chef doing a good version of something familiar. Muhājir is a chef doing something only he could do, using ingredients sourced in part through Albany Park's Sahar International Supermarket for Palestinian olive oil and fresh merguez. The room seats a Wednesday-to-Sunday dinner service, 5 to 10 p.m., and a Filipino cocktail bar called Bobo opens inside the same building this Wednesday, July 8, staying open to midnight, per Eater Chicago. Reservation reality: this is six days old and already the most-covered opening in Chicago this month, so book ahead through muhajirchicago.com rather than walking in.

Also opening

• Muje, Chelsea, New York: chef Jungsik Yim, whose flagship Jungsik holds the only three Michelin stars of any Korean restaurant in America, opened this pan-Asian tasting-menu spinoff on July 1 in the old Sea space on West 30th Street, eight courses from $150. The Infatuation
• Rễ Tre, Denver: the Nguyen sisters, who grew up working the counter, reopened their late parents' New Saigon spot on July 3 as a Vietnamese coffee-and-brunch shop on South Federal Boulevard's Little Saigon strip. Dining Out Denver
• Chrôma, Montrose, Houston: chef Claire Smith (Shade, Canopy, Alice Blue) opened this all-day café on the Menil Collection campus in the first week of July, with a 30-foot marble bar and a menu that runs smoked salmon tartine to red curry snapper. Houston Press
• Saam, SoMa, San Francisco: Michelin-starred Bangkok chef Thitid "Ton" Tassanakajohn is opening his first US restaurant in late July at 415 Brannan St., a more casual Thai concept run day to day by two local chefs while he directs from Thailand. SF Chronicle
• Summerland, Atlanta: Anne Quatrano opens a breakfast-and-lunch café at the new Upper West Market on July 22, named for her Cartersville farm, with a more refined take on the pastry program from her original Star Provisions. Atlanta Magazine