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    LYFE Kitchen Launch Looms

    LYFE Kitchen chef Jeremy Bringardner spills secrets to healthy cooking

    Teresa Gubbins
    May 27, 2014 | 4:15 pm

    As the Dallas-area arrival of LYFE Kitchen looms, so does the opportunity for an explanation of what it is, exactly, and how it differs from other restaurants.

    An acronym for "Love Your Food Everyday," LYFE is a fast-casual concept where everything on the menu is 600 calories or less. It was launched in 2011 by a group of food industry veterans, including Oprah Winfrey personal chef Art Smith and former McDonald's executives Michael Donahue and Mike Roberts.

    The first DFW location is scheduled to open June 7 at 1900 Preston Rd. in Plano. LYFE is the third "healthy" chain to enter Dallas, following Seasons 52 and True Food Kitchen.

    "People are not willing to make sacrifices on taste," Bringardner says. "That's what we're about. We know how to get things to taste good."

    A nascent chain-in-the-making, LYFE has a team of celebrity chefs who've devised a menu that they hope delivers flavor without using the usual — and not-so-healthy — vehicles of fat and cream. That team includes executive chef Jeremy Bringardner, who recently ramped up his fame quotient by competing on the TV cooking show Chopped — which he won handily.

    For 18 months before LYFE ever launched, Bringardner and Smith worked together to come up with flavorful ways to replace sugar, salt, butter and cream.

    "People want to eat healthy and be healthy, but the problem is, a lot of folks don't understand what the healthier option is," Bringardner says. "They're also not willing to make sacrifices on taste. That’s what we're about. We know how to get things to taste good."

    That means a focus on getting the most out of ingredients, using herbs and spices strategically, and embracing "good" fats like avocado and coconut oil.

    "I have nothing against fat," he says. "But dishes with a lot of cream, not only do they make you feel gross, but they also have the highest concentration of saturated fats."

    Bringardner seems uniquely qualified to be doing what he does. This 39-year-old Michigan native made the connection between diet and a sense of well-being at an early age.

    "I can remember when I was young and would ride my bike to corner store and eat this food and drink pop," he says. "I'd get back onto my bike to cruise, but I'd sit there and no longer be interested. My mood would change. I'd lose all my motivation.

    "I listened to what's going on, and I figured out at a young age that I was not going to eat junk food."

    He's also part of a generational shift in which people are more interested in what they're eating.

    "I think my generation is awakening to food," he says. "I was working with chef Charlie Trotter in Chicago 12 years ago and witnessed how the whole country snapped out of it and decided they love food. They discovered what I've known: that one of the greatest luxuries in life is to have delicious food."

    He used his abilities to focus as a contestant on Chopped, where he let his competitive nature fly. "I studied the show to focus on the skills I'd need to practice, so when I got there, I'd have the greatest chance," he says.

    "It was similar to the tastings I often do for our menu team, which I'll be doing when we open in Dallas. I just had to practice my spontaneous creative thinking."

    Following the opening in Plano, a second branch will open in Preston Center in mid-June. A third restaurant will open in West Village in mid-July.

    LYFE Kitchen is the latest "healthy" restaurant concept to hit Dallas-Fort Worth.

    LYFE Kitchen herbs
      
    Photo by Divine Shots Photography
    LYFE Kitchen is the latest "healthy" restaurant concept to hit Dallas-Fort Worth.
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    Taco News

    Award-winning Dallas restaurant Taco Y Vino branches out to buzzy 'burb

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jul 1, 2025 | 4:16 pm
    Taco Y Vino
    Taco Y Vino
    Taco Y Vino

    An award-winning taco restaurant in Dallas is bringing its taco magic to Garland: Taco Y Vino, the innovative gourmet taqueria and casual wine bar in Oak Cliff, is opening a second location in downtown Garland, in a darling storefront at 706 Main St. that was formerly home to Jim's Barber Shop.

    Taco Y Vino is the brainchild of the ultra-charismatic Jimmy Contreras, a hospitality veteran who cut his teeth at Pappas Restaurants then worked for more than 15 years in the wine industry, representing boutique wineries and helping restaurants build their wine lists.

    He developed the original idea of a restaurant doing a fine-dining twist on tacos, along with an affordable wine list, and opened Taco Y Vino in 2018. Its combination of good food and wine at low prices made it an instant favorite.

    "We always want to be affordable — a place you can go daily to grab bottle of wine and tacos, but also nice enough to bring out of town guests," he says.

    The menu features a "three tacos for $14" that lets you mix and match fillings like cochinita pibil (pulled pork braised in bitter orange & achiote), pork carnitas, carne asada, barbacoa, brisket guiso, ahi tuna, tempura catfish or shrimp, chicken tinga with guacamole, black bean & cheese, and fried avocado.

    Shareable dishes include jalapeno poppers stuffed with catfish and shrimp; and avocado "toastadas" — a witty twist on avocado toast, featuring corn tostadas topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, and pickled onions.

    They do brunch — but it's every day from 11:30 am-3 pm, with dishes like Brisket Con Huevo, featuring stewed brisket and scrambled eggs on a flour tortilla.

    Everything about the place is much like Contreras himself: approachable, friendly, and fun, and has generated intense goodwill and loyalty for the restaurant among locals and foodies alike. There is no one who does not love Jimmy.

    Jimmy ContrerasJimmy Contreras with a glass of wine.Courtesy

    "Oak Cliff has been amazing to us," Contreras says. "We're so grateful for the support from neighbors, diners, and wine lovers, and we have great employees who give a sense that they're happy to be there, which has definitely been a big part of our success."

    With the original location humming along, Contreras began considering another location. It only took one visit to downtown Garland and he and his business partner Brian White were smitten.

    "We immediately fell in love," he says. "The area has great old buildings and businesses like Intrinsic Brewing, Fortunate Son, Rosalind Coffee, Latham Bakery, plus music-forward places like guitar shops and Dead Wax, the record store. It just felt like a cool place to hang out."

    Garland has been undergoing a major transformation, one that includes a big revitalization of the Downtown Garland Historic District.

    The building they're going into was built in 1928 and they're doing as little as possible to alter the original structure. It's 1300 square feet, with a front and back patio, patio being part of Taco Y Vino's DNA. (They even won a CultureMap Tastemaker Award in 2024 for Best Patio, hoo-rah.)

    "We did remove the stucco wall so that the original brick could come through, and we're putting in doors and windows from that timeframe to match," he says. "We just want to keep it as is."

    The menu will be the same, with one exception.

    "Garland will have not only wine but cocktails," Contreras says. "You would not believe how many people walk in and ask about margaritas. So we'll do a frozen margarita, a paloma, ranch water, a sage margarita on the rocks — but not a full bar."

    Their planned for opening date is the end of summer.

    Contreras' idea when he opened was to have a business where he did not always have to answer to somebody, to not have a boss. "But every person who comes in is my boss," he says. "I think that service ideology is something you can never lose."

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