Things are cooking in the Dallas restaurant world, with openings at a rapid clip, new chefs, and new menus. Here's the latest dish, from Plano and Frisco to Uptown and downtown:
Top Knot, the restaurant on top of Uchi Dallas, is open for dinner. It has sushi along with more conventional menu items, including entrees, appetizers, and vegetable side dishes, as well as a full bar. Brunch and lunch will be added later this spring.
Julia Pearl, the Southern restaurant in Plano from chef Tre Wilcox, is now open, serving lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. Menu items include biscuits and gravy, seafood gumbo, and shrimp and grits.
Ace's Ice House & Chop Shop is a redo of a sports bar in Frisco, with a new concept, menu, management, and service staff. The only part of the restaurant that's the same is the name and location.
Kitchen LTO has a new chef and artist: It's Nick Amoriello in the kitchen, with decor by Sarah Reiss. Amoriello, a sous chef at Rapscallion on Greenville Avenue, will do classical French technique with contemporary plating. It opens for dinner on March 2, and lunch gets added on March 3. The final night for current Kitchen LTO chef Anastacia Quinones is February 28.
Dugg Burger is opening a second location in March, at 4701 West Park Blvd. in Plano. This is the concept where the top portion of the bun is dug out, filled with toppings, and then the burger is added. Dugg also does wine, beer, milkshakes, and a bread pudding dessert made from the dug out portions of the bun. The original opened in Casa Linda in 2015.
Rodeo Goat, the Shannon Wynne-owned burger joint, has two new burgers: a beef patty with mojo-braised pork and Havarti cheese, and a beef patty with olive tapenade and arugula.
Crossroads Diner, the breakfast restaurant from chef Tom Fleming, reopened on February 9 at its new location at 17194 Preston Rd. in North Dallas, at Campbell Road, which is across the street from Deli News.
Pat's & Mike's, the burger reboot from Snuffer's founder Pat Snuffer, shut down. Snuffer opened in the former Battuto's Italian Kitchen with his son Mike and cousin Steve Cole in November 2014. It seems to be a tough location; Spork, across the street, closed in January.
Wheat & Sour is a new bread outfit from baker David Madrid, who trained at the San Francisco Baking Institute. He has no retail outlet but his breads and pastries are sold at Houndstooth, Local Press + Brew, and at Market Provisions in the new downtown Dallas Farmers Market shed.
Fearing's at the Ritz-Carlton has named a new sous chef: Gabriela McCormick, an El Centro College graduate who joined Fearing's in 2009 and has worked her way up the ladder. She joins chef de cuisine Eric Dreyer, pastry chef Jill Bates, and, of course Dean Fearing. According to a release, she'll play a pivotal role in launching the spring menus, as well as special events.
Landmark Restaurant at the Warwick Melrose Hotel in Oak Lawn has a new chef: Patrick McElroy, who will also oversee the Library Bar. According to a release, McElroy's classic American menu "with a fresh and modern approach" includes pork tenderloin and steak.
Cook Hall at the W Dallas Victory hotel has a new lunch menu starting at 11 am daily that gets diners in and out quick and cheap. Menu highlights include popcorn shrimp, kale Caesar salad, duck tacos, and black bean soup. Two courses are $12, three courses are $16, and four courses are $20.
Stonedeck Pizza Pub in Deep Ellum has a new Manhattan-style express food bar for $8.99 that gets you unlimited amounts of pizza; pinwheels; mac and cheese; salad; and daily rotating specialties such as sausage and peppers with penne, King Ranch casserole, and more.
Five Sixty by Wolfgang Puck has a new dessert menu, with Fuji apple crumble, banana cream pie, halo halo (a coconut and pineapple dish with puffed forbidden black rice), and passion fruit baked Alaska, all for $14.
Modern Market, the fast-casual chain, has a new spring menu that includes sausage-kale scramble; pesto pizza with arugula and smoked mozzarella; sides such as lemon-garlic asparagus and roasted zucchini; and a BLT with basil aioli, avocado, and arugula.
Brick House Tavern + Tap has a new menu of late-night appetizers priced from $5-$7, served daily from 10 pm until close. They include Kobe brick pizza, zucchini curls, soft pretzels, and duck wings.
Pizza Hut has a new item that will not sound new to anyone who ate at Zoli's NY Pizza Tavern (before its tragic Valentine's Day closure): a "stuffed garlic knots pizza." Much like the Zoli's original, Pizza Hut's has a ring mozzarella cheese-stuffed garlic knots —16, to be exact — that form an edge on the crust. It's $12.99 and available for a limited time.
Steel Restaurant has a trendy item called honey butter chips. Also known as "happiness butter potato chips," it's chef TJ Lengnick's version of a honey-flavored buttery potato chip that's popular in Japan and South Korea.
Sticky buns are back.
