When it comes to Italian food, red sauce continues to hold strong. There seems to be no stopping Major Food Group’s insistence that there be a chicken parm in every port, and the biggest names are even ensuring that the red-sauce joint is jarred and sold at the grocery store. But amid that scene, a new trend emerged in 2022, attempting to evoke more of a luxury vacation than a seat at Nonna’s (or Rao’s) table. This is Coastal Italian. And it means whatever you want it to mean.

Broadly, the Coastal Italian restaurants — or coastal Mediterranean or “Italian riviera” or a handful of other descriptors — that have opened across the country this year tout seafood as the main difference between them and other, un-adjectived Italian restaurants.