Dallas founder of Chili's stokes new BBQ restaurant at Plano food hall

Barbecue plus food halls, does it get any more trendy than this? You can add barbecue to the menu at Legacy Food Hall in Plano via Carlton Provisions, a new concept from a team that includes a highly rated Dallas catering company teamed up with a restaurant industry veteran.

The players are Vestals Catering, a 10-year-old catering company founded by Jordan Swim, and Larry Lavine, the famed founder of Chili's.

Legacy Food Hall is the food-hall concept opening at Legacy West, a massive mixed-use project at Dallas North Tollway and State Highway 121 in the fall. It will be home to more than two dozen food vendors, a full-service restaurant, a brewery and beer garden, and a live music stage.

Lavine's most recent foray into the barbecue world was as a frontman of sorts for Ten 50 BBQ, which opened in Richardson in 2014; he's no longer involved with that restaurant.

Swim is a graduate of El Centro Community College whose company has earned a name as one of the area's top caterers for weddings. A culinary arts instructor as well, he became involved with City Square, the nonprofit focused on helping the homeless, where he created a program to provide food-service training for folks in search of a career. That's where he met Lavine, who was also helping out at City Square.

"Larry had an opportunity to do a barbecue stall at Legacy Food Hall, the food hall in Plano, and suggested we do it together," Swim says. "To me, it made sense because barbecue is a great option in the world of catering. And with the level of service and ingredients we've achieved over the past 10 years, it seemed like we'd be able to do some high-quality prime Texas barbecue."

Carlton Provisions will reside in the food hall's beer garden. "We're in a 40-foot shipping container that's going to be open from lunch to midnight," Swim says.

With the limited space for production at the Food Hall, they'll make the barbecue at a commissary off-site. Their menu will include prime brisket; prime pastrami; five-hour ribs; sausage from Elgin, Texas; and turkey that they'll brine and smoke. They'll have two sauces, including one that's vinegar-based.

Sides will include bacon-wrapped stuffed jalapenos, hand-cut french fries, apple-fennel cole slaw, poblano creamed corn, and slow-cooked beans. Desserts will include a trio of puddings — banana, coconut, and chocolate — plus cookies, seasonal cobblers, and pies.

They'll also have a special menu for late at night. "What's fun about Legacy Hall is that we'll have a full late-night menu with dishes like brisket queso, that we serve from 9 pm to midnight, Thursdays through Saturdays, almost like barbecue bar food," Swim says.

"More than anything, we love the lore around barbecue," he says. "If you ask 10 people for their opinion on what makes good barbecue, you'll probably get 10 opinions. It truly is this communal conversation piece in Texas. We want to pay homage to that. Everybody's got an opinion, here's our stab at it."