The new year may just be an arbitrary date that we've set for ourselves to delineate another revolution around the sun, but it's also a great time to make wild predictions about what's in store for humanity in the near future and to ask the big questions about the meaning of life.

Namely, "What's for dinner?"

Look, I'm no astrologer, but I've read the proverbial tea leaves and consulted with a Mars bar for insight into 2019.

Here's what the year ahead looks like from my seat on the local dining beat.

More restaurants will close

Amidst dozens of buzzy openings and high-profile out-of-town-chefs planting flags around metro Detroit, the local restaurant scene also lost some heavyweights of yore in 2018.

From the high-profile closure of Andiamo in Royal Oak (and the very public spat between the owner and the mayor that grew out of it) to the loss of Ferndale vegan stalwart Om Cafe to Cheli's Chili Bar and the Hard Rock Cafe both calling it quits downtown, "turnover" might be the word that most succinctly sums up last year's dining scene. Even new kids on the block like Maccabees Traders, the Conserva and Fist of Curry couldn't hang long in this climate.

The good news is that none of those locations will likely stay empty long. The bad news is we can expect even more closures in 2019.

Turnover is common in restaurants, sure, but the industry is facing challenges on multiple fronts. Low unemployment and limited staff, among other things, are pushing labor costs (i.e. wages) up. Add rising food costs, skyrocketing rents and increased competition from grocery stores and food delivery services eating away (sorry!) at restaurants' already thin profit margins and you have a climate in which only the most attuned or well-funded operators can succeed.

Fears of a coming economic recession and less-than-encouraging news coming from the Big Three in recent months will also undoubtedly spill over into the restaurant world. Dining out is one of the first line items to feel the squeeze of budgetary belt-tightening in most households.

This all means more restaurants — especially those longtime family-run neighborhood spots that we all love (and some we don't love enough) — will close in 2019.

It also means the booming local dining scene may finally begin to show signs of slowdown. Expect at least a few already announced projects to never materialize. The ones that cross the finish line will likely skew toward projects backed by deep-pocketed investors or be located in areas with less competition and lower rents. Others will focus on lowering labor costs through counter-only service and automation.

The other kind of edibles

Considering how long it takes the legislature to seemingly do anything related to Michigan's marijuana laws (what are they smoking?), 2019 might be too soon to expect homegrown greens as a substitute for farmed spinach.

But there's no doubt that the newly legal recreational marijuana industry will begin to have an impact. As my colleague Kathleen Gray explains it, the new law "allows communities to designate spots for cannabis consumption at businesses that aren’t accessible to people under the age of 21." That could mean bars, restaurants after a certain hour or John Sinclair's new Detroit cafe. At the very least, late-night food delivery services may see an uptick in business from glassy-eyed customers.

There's also the impact legalized weed will have on the already tight restaurant labor market, if cities like Denver are any indication. Presented with the chance for higher pay, a relaxed work environment and more manageable hours, countless restaurant grunts will undoubtedly jump ship for — cough — greener pastures.

New Center takes center stage

One of the Detroit neighborhoods that's already benefiting from the restaurant saturation in Midtown and Downtown is New Center, which is set to get a dizzying number of new restaurants.

Many will begin to materialize this year.

For starters, there's the Afro-Caribbean YumVillage restaurant headed for the former Atomic Chicken space and the East African cafe Baobab Fare on the other end of the block. Popular Detroit carryout restaurant the Jamaican Pot is also aiming for a space nearby on the Boulevard.

Then there's the new project from the team behind Selden Standard, a second location for Supino Pizzeria and an impending announcement about the old Zenith space inside the Fisher Building that sources say will pair a pedigreed out-of-town operator who grew up in Michigan with a hotshot local chef.

There's also another chef with Michigan roots and a few Michelin stars to his name not named Thomas Lents rumored to be setting up shop nearby.

Finally, River Bistro and Coop chef Max Hardy has been eyeing New Center for his full-service sit-down concept Honey.

More information is coming soon on all fronts.

Rocking these suburbs

With all the recent turnover in Royal Oak, skyrocketing real estate costs in nearby Ferndale and already sky-high rents in Birmingham, communities on the fringes of what we here at the Free Press call the Woodward 248 zone stand to benefit.

Especially cities like Oak Park and Madison Heights.

Long-dry Oak Park is actively trying to court breweries and other establishments that serve alcohol with bargain-basement liquor licenses. Prices are so low the plan just might work.

Madison Heights has long had one of the most active dining scenes in Detroit's northern suburbs thanks to its large Asian population and its proliferation of Vietnamese pho joints and Chinese markets. But the late-November arrival of a second location of the buzzy Detroit noodle shop Ima added a new element of cheffy "hotness" to the 7-square-mile 'burb. You can thank the spicy tori ramen.

Upcoming openings to look forward to

It may not turn out to be a blockbuster year like 2018, but there are plenty of not-yet-mentioned restaurant developments already in the pipeline that should make their debuts soon.

A couple were on this list last year and have been delayed into early 2019. There's the coming Eastern Market restaurant from local charcutier Gratiot Avenue Provisions. Expect a well-traveled and thoughtful wine list from Lady of the House alum Christian Stachel and a snacky, meat-centric food menu that highlights the work of the group's in-house butcher, former Roast executive chef Aramis Jones.

Magnet, the Core City restaurant from the team behind Corktown sensation Takoi, is also readying a spring debut. Wood-fire cooking is the centerpiece here, along with an emphasis on vegetables. And if a preview dinner at Frame is any indication of the restaurant's final direction, you can expect heavy but playful Middle Eastern and Mediterranean influences.

Poppies, a full-service dinner restaurant and bakery serving modern Polish food from Rose's Fine Foods proprietor Molly Mitchell, is also nearing the finish line in West Village.

There's also the long-delayed New Orleans-style restaurant Gabriel Hall, Kate Williams' new casual restaurant Karl's at the Siren Hotel, Leila in Capitol Park from the family behind Phoenicia, the revival of Ferndale's Como's by new ownership, the return of Matt Prentice and a big announcement coming for the former Cafe Via space in Birmingham.

And what of the nearly year-old news of a James Beard Award-winning chef coming to plant his flag atop the RenCen? At last check a few months back, the project was still on, though very delayed. And that was before the news that GM would be shutting down plants and cutting its workforce. (The RenCen is owned by GM's real estate arm.) Gulp.

Contact Free Press Restaurant Critic Mark Kurlyandchik at 313-222-5026 or mkurlyandc@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @mkurlyandchik and Instagram: curlyhandshake.