Restaurant Casualty
Days are numbered for this Greenville Avenue chef's restaurant
Greenville Avenue suffers another restaurant loss with the closure of Clark Food & Wine, the chef-driven bistro from Randall and Courtney Warder. The last day of operation is December 27. That gives you exactly two more days to get a taste of their smoked catfish dip with Saltines.
The couple decided to close after they were approached by a restaurant group who wanted to take over the space. It follows the closure of C'Viche, their restaurant next door, which they shut down on November 29.
"When C'Viche closed, we confronted how difficult this environment is, and I don’t see 2017 being any different," Randall says. "We feel like there are so many questions out there, and when these guys came along, it was kind of a no-brainer."
Warder's resume includes experience at five-star properties with the Rosewood group including the Mansion on Turtle Creek and La Ventanas al Paraiso in Cabo San Lucas. He'd been working as a corporate chef for a few years before he and his wife Courtney decided to tackle the ultimate challenge of opening your own place.
They opened Clark Food & Wine in 2014, and their menu of casual fare, with memorable dishes such as their smoked catfish dip with crackers, earned positive reviews, including the Best New Restaurant title in CultureMap's 2015 Tastemaker Awards.
You don't put your heart and soul into something like this and not have a little bit of sorrow," Warder says. "We were open for two years and two months, but I've been working on this for three years."
And as thronged as Greenville Avenue gets, it can be a dicey location for restaurants, with lots of churn. Qariah, the Lebanese restaurant, closed during the summer, after four years. Cafe Brazil closed its Greenville Avenue location in May. Knuckle Sandwich, barman Eddie Campbell's sandwich shop, closed in October. Remedy will shut down on December 31.
"I think there's a lot of great potential for restaurants in Dallas in the proper location," Warder says. "You see restaurants out in Plano and Frisco that are not serving great food, and yet are packed all the time."
Warder says they'll take stock of their future plans after they close, and he hasn't heard what is being planned for the space after Clark closes. "We're just going to do a farewell blowout today and tomorrow, we'll keep making food until we run out," he says.
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