Dinner Is Growing

New downtown Dallas restaurant will devote entire room to indoor farm

This is the kind of setup they'll have at Bullion.

Photo courtesy of Dallas Urban Farms

The new downtown Dallas restaurant Bullion, from former Mansion on Turtle Creek chef Bruno Davaillon, opens in October with a feature you won't find at other restaurants in town: an indoor farm.

Bullion is opening at 400 S. Record St. in downtown Dallas, in the former Belo Building, which is being given a massive upgrade by the Hartland-Mackie family, with a new lobby, sky garden, fitness center, and conference center.

Bruno has partnered with Dallas Urban Farms owners Jody and Max Wall to install an indoor vertical farm where he will hydroponically grow herbs, vegetables, and lettuces to service the restaurant. Bullion is the first Dallas restaurant to grow plants from seedlings on the property.

The farm will be located in the catering kitchen on the second floor of the restaurant, occupying a 40-square-foot space. It is a self-contained structure utilizing ebb and flow irrigation. The system will flood the growing trays with a nutrient solution and cycle the remaining into a reservoir.

The farm will be made up of two growing racks, approximately 5 feet wide, each with four shelves, and will have four vertical tiers. Each shelf will have 6 feet of growing space, for a total of 80 square feet.

It will have a 40-gallon nutrient tank on the bottom of each rack. Nutrients are carried up through plumbing on the side of the rack and then drained back into the tank.

The levels are individually lit with four horticulture full spectrum lights, and each tray will grow a particular item. The opening produce list includes: little gem lettuce, Merveille des quatres saisons lettuce, micro cilantro, micro red sorrel, micro burnet, sweet Thai basil, basil genovese, marjoram, oregano, lemon balm and chives.

General manager is Victor Rojas, who previously was with Flora Street Cafe and Stephan Pyles; he's procured partnerships for Bullion with the finest companies for service and tableware, such as Christofle, Bernardaud, and Garnier-Thiebaut.

"I'm so excited to have the opportunity to create a new restaurant for Dallas," Davaillon says in a release. "The building, and the downtown location, makes this project very special. I'm ready to write this next culinary adventure."

CORRECTION: This story originally misstated the amount of growing space and has been updated with the correct square footage.

openings nature downtown chefs

Escargot News

New all-day French bistro in downtown Rockwall is all from scratch

Facebook

Belle View Bistro Rockwall

An all-day French bistro has made its debut in Rockwall: Called Belle Vie Bistro, it’s a new mom-and-pop in the charming historic downtown district, at 112 E. Rusk St., the former home of The Fatted Calf restaurant, where it opened its doors on November 12.

Belle Vie is from Luis and Iliana Marquez, a hard-working couple who also own Los Marquez, a popular taco--themed food-truck-turned-restaurant in Rockwall they first debuted in 2019. In May, the couple took over the former Fat Chicken space to open a brick and mortar location of Los Marquez, where they serve well-made Mexican food like tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, but also burgers & fries. They open for breakfast with breakfast tacos, and run a daily lunch special, often creative, always popular, such as birria ramen with choice of beef or lamb for $11.

But the couple had a bigger vision of creating a place where chef Luis could stretch and showcase his skills.

"Luis has a lot of culinary experience, and it’s something that he’s been putting aside,” Iliana says. “We were just waiting on the perfect time to bring this to life.”

"This is something exciting and new for us, it’s something that we always wanted to make,” Luis says.

Like Los Marquez, Belle Vie is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, serving classics like French onion soup, moules frites, escargot, and duck confit. There are also comforting and American dishes like spinach-artichoke dip, crab cakes, and fish & chips.

Lunch features Cobb salad, a French dip, and chicken & Brie panini, while an extended breakfast -- which runs from 7 am to 4 pm — includes pancakes, waffles, eggs benedict, beignets French toast, and crepes, plus pastries and breads made from scratch.

Mural on the wall at Belle Vie Bistro RockwallFacebook

The bakery counter is a delight, with eclairs, croissants, scones, fruit tarts, and cake slices in flavors like carrot cake and white chocolate raspberry. There's also a serious coffee program with espresso drinks such as lattes.

"We pride ourselves on making everything from scratch," the duo says. "Our bread—whether for sandwiches, paninis, hamburgers or anything listed on our menu is made fresh just for us by our incredibly talented pastry chef and baker. The same care goes into our pastries and desserts ensuring every bite is special and crafted with love."

The dining room is warm and cozy with dark wood chairs and plush booths and a full-wall mural depicting a street in Paris. They also have a full bar, with cocktails and beer on tap. Prices are reasonable, ranging from $9 for a Belgian waffle during breakfast to $45 for prime ribeye at dinner.

For now, they're not taking reservations — it's first come, first serve.

openings