News You Can Eat

Openings galore give this round of Dallas restaurant news a happy spin

This round of restaurant news is nothing but good. No closures this time, it's all about new places and new branches, opening all around Dallas. Put on your smiley face button and get ready to get happy:

DiMassi's, the Mediterranean/Middle Eastern buffet chain from Houston, has opened a third branch in North Texas, and the first in Dallas proper. The restaurant just opened at 5500 Greenville Ave., in what was once a location of Another Broken Egg. DiMassi's, which has branches in Las Colinas and Plano, does buffets where you serve yourself, and the price includes drinks, dessert, and coffee.

DiMassi's started out in 1994 as cafeteria-style Lebanese restaurant that charged by the item, before switching to the buffet mode in 2000. It currently has eight locations in Houston, plus branches in Austin and San Antonio.

Shake Shack, a burger joint from New York, is about to make its Dallas debut. The restaurant is going into the space at the Crescent in Uptown Dallas, with an opening tentatively scheduled for the end of August.

Super Chix is opening a location at 1551 East Renner Rd., in Richardson's CityLine development, at the end of August. In tandem with the new opening, Super Chix is also launching four new dipping sauces: Nashville hot sauce, Alabama white sauce, Mississippi come back sauce, and a cucumber dill ranch, all of which are designed to pair with chicken strips or chicken sandwiches.The opening is one of six that the company plans to launch in the next two years, including three in North Texas and three internationally in countries including the United Arab Emirates.

Halal Guys joins the lineup at Richardson Restaurant Park, the complex being built on the site of the former Continental Inn, on the west side of US Highway 75, south of Belt Line Road. The super-casual, super-popular concept from New York made its Dallas debut on Lemmon Avenue in July, generating much excitement for chicken, falafel, and pita bread. Halal Guys joins VertsKebap and Rock Wood Fired Kitchen, the Tacoma pizza chain that has three locations in Fort Worth, Arlington, and Wylie.

JOQ Cafe is a vegan restaurant serving soups, salads, sandwiches, and espresso beverages. It hopes to open on the ground floor of the Mosaic residential building in downtown Dallas. JOQ, which stands for "just outstanding quality," is part of the JOQ Wellness Center, an ambitious fitness and workout hub, with training, food prep, massage therapy, juice bar, dietary programs, dance classes, health spa, and more. The facility held a grand opening of sorts in July, although construction is still ongoing. Big plans though.

Kenny's East Coast Pizza, the new pizza concept opening in Plano from restaurateur Kenny Bowers, has an opening date: August 24 for lunch and dinner. Bowers, whose lineup of restaurants runs from burgers to barbecue, will do pizza in a style more reminiscent of New York than Naples, including baking them in a classic Bakers Pride Deck Oven. In addition to a selection of 14-inch pizzas, the menu will serve Italian-American fare inspired by his Italian restaurant, Kenny's Italian Kitchen.

Pakpao, the Thai concept from Apheleia Restaurant Group, owners of Oak, Quill, El Bolero, and Royale Magnificent Burgers, will open a third branch in Plano with a fanfare: There'll be a grand opening on September 9, featuring celebrity chef Jet Tila. The menu will boast authentic Thai delicacies influenced by the streets of Bangkok. Popular dishes include vegan pad Thai, short rib with massaman curry, Thai chicken salad, and a unique "beef jerky flight" paired with three rotating local brews. The original branch opened next to Oak in the Design District in 2013; a second branch is at Preston Hollow Village.

Piada Italian Street Food opened its third branch in North Texas on August 17, on Rennder Road, near the CityLine complex. Piada is inspired by the roadside family-run food carts and markets of Rimini, Italy, serving snacks made in a thin pizza crust. Its other two branches are at the Center at Preston Ridge in Frisco and Alliance Town Center in North Fort Worth.

Flying Fish, the casual seafood spot from restaurateur Shannon Wynne, will open in the old Purple Onion spot on Irving Boulevard. It'll be the first Flying Fish in Dallas that's south of Lemmon Avenue and is plotted to open in late October.

Hutchins BBQ is undertaking a renovation of its flagship restaurant in McKinney. It'll add 80 seats, a banquet room, and an updated patio to seat 20. Other additional features include a new drive-through, two new pits, new restrooms, dry storage, and a walk-in cooler. Construction is anticipated to start by September and will be completed before 2017.

Stirr, the Deep Ellum eatery coming soon from the owners of Citizen, has named a chef: Chad Bowden. Bowden has worked at Beau Nash, The Grape, 2900, and Culpepper Steakhouse. His menu will include foie gras with purple hull pea hash and blackberry balsamic coulis, and filet with cheddar chorizo grits, shishito peppers, cilantro cream, and melty asadero.

The Cedars Social, the cocktail den and restaurant on South Lamar Street, welcomes Justin Box as executive chef. Box has worked at Fearing's, Café Momentum, Bolsa, and Restaurant Ava. He'll introduce a new fall menu September 23.

Hutchins BBQ is getting a remodel.

Photo by John Miller

Hutchins BBQ is getting a remodel.

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Uptown News

Uptown Dallas burrito shop serves gourmet Mexican and Italian fusion

Burrito Bellas

An innovative new restaurant spotlighting burritos has opened in Uptown Dallas: Called Burrito Bellas, it's serving Mexican-Italian fusion burritos, and it's open at 2523 McKinney Ave. in a space that was most recently a Black-owned turkey leg place called Turkey DAM, but was previously home to the bar Nickel & Rye.

The concept is the brainchild of Shawn Horne, a longtime veteran of Dallas' restaurant scene whose resume dates back to fine-dining spots like Star Canyon, Aquaknox, and the Green Room. Horne is an irrepressible enthusiast who also has experience in the real estate world, currently working with OR Asset Holdings, a company founded by DFW businessman Oscar Renda, who owns the property where Burrito Bellas is located.

Their goal is to revive the space and the corner on which it sits, starting with Burrito Bellas, which fuses Mexican and Italian cuisines. There's also an adjoining courtyard that's home to a newly opened sibling concept called Goomba's Hoagie Hole, serving grinders, sandwiches, and muffalettas.

"Mexican and Italian are the two highest-selling cuisines in Uptown — Mexican is No. 1 and Italian is No. 2 — so I jammed them together," Horne says.

There are:

Mexican-style burritos filled with fajitas; barbacoa with rice & beans; and a vegetarian papas, with potatoes, refried beans, and guacamole.
Italian-flavored burritos, including chicken parm burritos, and sausage & peppers with onions, marinara, and Calabrian pepper paste.

Quesadillas include the "pizza-dilla" with pepperoni and the "fajita-dilla" with either steak or chicken, peppers & onions, and mozzarella.

Fries are a special passion for Horne — "I always wanted to serve skinny fries," he says — and they're offered in three loaded versions including one with blue cheese queso, and two with spicy Calabrian queso. Calabria is the region in southern Italy that forms the "toe" of the Italian "boot," and it's where Oscar Renda is from.

Salads include a fajita salad, chopped salad, and a Calabrian Caesar. For dessert: frozen lemon sorbetto, and churros with Calabrian espresso coffee sauce. Prices range from $12 to $18.

The restaurant also has a full bar with cool items including cocktails on tap.

"The bar program is eco-friendly," Horne says. "You won't see 200 bottles of liquor lined up on the wall. We have drinks on tap with vodka, bourbon, a sangria, and a margarita on tap. We also have six frozen machines doing limoncello, frozen coffee from Calabria, a mango margarita, bellinis on tap, a paloma, and the coco loco — it's like a pina colada with rum and THC in it, as well."

Burrito Bellas facadePhoto courtesy of Burrito Bellas

Courtyard
Behind the restaurant is an open-air courtyard as well as a parking lot. There are ambitious plans to open more concepts in the courtyard — pasta! pizza! gelato! — but first there is Goomba's, a kiosk serving a gourmet take on sub-style sandwiches, which is open now. (They've posted a map of the property, showing where Burrito Bellas and Goombas are, along with the courtyard, patio, and parking.)

"In the courtyard, we opened a sandwich board with two to-go windows where you can walk up and order a sandwich," Horne says. "This is something the neighborhood really needed."

Goomba's menu has about a dozen sandwiches including classic Italian-American grinders such as chicken parm, veal cutlet with broccoli rabe, sausage & pepper, and Big Mike's Italian grinder with Italian deli meats and cheese.

Horne has also planted an herb garden and hopes that his foodie sensibilities can override an Uptown corner that's definitely been down on its luck.

"We're not open late at night, there's no booty shakers, no basketball hoops — we want to become a piazza where people can come back and relax," he says.

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