Restaurants From an expansive Albanian newcomer with stuffed pies to an upcoming bar and restaurant based on the Seven Deadly Sins, here are the latest Boston restaurant openings, dining news, and food events to know right now. Sunny Girl is opening an outpost in South Boston this summer. Handout/Kevin Eduard White

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Seven Cocktail Bar & Lounge

Prepare for some culinary gluttony (and perhaps some pride and wrath) when this new cocktail bar and restaurant opens in Downtown Crossing, themed around the seven deadly sins. The location is the current home of the restaurant French Quarter, and the new concept will take diners from New Orleans to hell. Literally—with the lower level named after the torturous final resting place of the damned, plus an elevator “concept” dubbed “Purgatory,” and another section of the restaurant that references the Garden of Eden. While details of the spot are scant, the cuisine will feature contemporary American dishes like steaks, scratch-made pastas, and seafood with bold flavors, and a focus on indulgence. Desserts, dubbed “Forbidden Fruits” will tempt diners, and the cocktail program takes pride in grand presentations. The restaurant will lean hard towards nightlife and obvious theatricality, and sees Boston-based Top Floor Entertainment collaborating with East Coast Saloons, a New-Jersey-based hospitality group with immersive restaurant concepts around the country. 

Opening date: Fall 2026

545 Washington St., Downtown Boston 

The spinach pie wedges at Shkodra Byrek restaurant. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staffShkodra Byrek

Albanian cuisine is perhaps one that not everyone knows a ton about. Culinary class is in session, then, at this sprawling new 120-seat restaurant in Dedham, which joins a petit counter-service spot in Braintree. Albanian native Elena Myshqeri, who owns the restaurant with her husband Besim, whips up traditional dishes based on recipes from her mother. Find stuffed eggplant in a vinegar reduction, slow-baked lamb with yogurt custard sauce, and minced beef stew served with rice pilaf. Cold appetizers, warm appetizers, grilled meats, and soups and salads round out the menu, too. The namesake byrek—stuffed pies made of layers of thin dough—are must-tries. Order up pies stuffed with feta, plus beef and onion. Be sure to check out the individual corn bread, baked in a scorching hot cast-iron skillet, that’s topped with sesame seeds, feta, and honey. 

Open Now (June) 

338 Washington St., Dedham

Sandwich from Sunny Girl in the North End. – Handout/Kevin Eduard WhiteSunny Girl 

Mornings are infinitely easier to tackle when there’s a breakfast sandwich involved. North End breakfast outpost Sunny Girl is expanding and bringing breakfast sandwiches with fried eggs—bright yellow yolks just like the morning sun—to South Boston this summer. Sandwiches like the O.G. (fried egg, American cheese, and house “sunny” sauce) and the lox (smoked salmon, everything-spiced mascarpone, confit fennel, and citrus salad) are served on fluffy house-made English muffins. Toasts, and lunch-leaning sandwiches like BLTs and Italian subs are on the menu, too. Keep an eye on Instagram for when news drops that the shop is officially open at the corners of West Broadway, East Broadway, and Dorchester Street in South Boston’s Perkins Square. 

Opening date: Summer 2026

479 West Broadway, South Boston 

The Woods 

Following the sale of the group’s Boston Chops steakhouses in downtown and the South End, owner Brian Piccini and his team announced a pivot with the Woods, a new farm-and sea-to-table concept in Weston. Ahead of a confirmed late March 2027 opening timeline, Piccini dished more details on what to expect at the 175-seat restaurant, which is rooted in hearth, home, and history—and will join his spots: buzzy Back Bay French restaurant Deuxave and New American restaurant and nightlife hub dbar in Dorchester. The offerings will center local, seasonal ingredients, and the restaurant will plant a tree for every tree felled to fuel the wood-fire grill. Once the home of the Josiah Smith Tavern, which was built in 1757, renovations to the space honor its past, with construction already receiving final approval from both Historic New England and the Weston Historic Commission. The expansive restaurant will feature a traditional dining room, a more casual combination dining room and bar (bearing the quirky name of “BARn”) in a towering room with exposed wood beams, three private dining rooms, and two patios. Design details take notes from near and far, including the local landscape to the ceilings at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia residence, Monticello. Piccini was just awarded a liquor license (the first at the historic inn since Prohibition) and fingers crossed that, like Deuxave, the Woods will whip up a killer martini.   

358 Boston Post Rd., Weston

A past Le Dîner en Blanc, or The Dinner In White, where thousands wearing white descend on a location kept secret until right before the event. – Phirst Pham PhotographyBonus: Dîner en Blanc

Who doesn’t love a bit of mystery and intrigue? Bonus if there’s fashion involved. The tenth edition of Dîner en Blanc—a popup dinner party where thousands of guests get gussied up in all-white attire—heads to Boston this Saturday. Where, exactly? While the location is a well-kept secret until the day of and guests are whisked away to the event, past popups have transformed the Rose Kennedy Greenway and Seaport Harbor into Instagrammable temporary dining rooms, swathed all in white. This year’s theme, “Une Soirée Parisienne – La Belle Époque,” references the pre-World-War-I cultural golden age in France that gave rise to Art Nouveau and Impressionism.  

Event details: July 25, starting at 5 p.m., tickets from $71. Guests will receive an email listing the official meeting destination, then will be guided to the event location.