News You Can Eat

Dallas' best burger relocates, fresh summer menus and more newsy morsels

Restaurant openings in Dallas-Fort Worth aren't letting up. We have at least three more coming right up here, plus news of brunch, lunch and summer menus. Eat up:

Hickory, the new restaurant concept from chef Kent Rathbun (Abacus, Jasper's) opens on June 15. Located in far north Plano at Highway 121 and the Tollway, the restaurant has a casual menu of burgers and barbecue but an "elevated, full-service setting," according to a release.

General manager is Dennis Egert and chef de cuisine is Jeff Qualls. Design by Jones Baker "exudes a modern roadhouse feel," with rustic woods and metal; a patio includes picnic tables and a fireplace.

In addition to burgers topped with eggs and such, sides include apple coleslaw, burnt end baked beans, potato salad, onion rings and waffle-cut Maytag blue cheese fries. Each table will be equipped with serve-yourself pickles and other condiments, and there's a full bar. Opening hours are lunch and dinner, but they'll eventually add breakfast.

Off Site Kitchen, chef Nick Badovinus' super-casual restaurant on Irving Boulevard, is relocating to more spacious headquarters at Trinity Groves. That means you won't have to wait in line or jockey for a stool, and it won't feel as divey as the original. Uh-oh, there goes its mystique. The restaurant, which first opened in February 2012, is noted for its cheap burgers (winner in the 2015 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards), but the menu also includes sandwiches, tacos, fried chicken and cheese fries. It opens at Trinity Groves on June 16.

Del Frisco's Grille will open a branch at the Shops at Legacy on June 19. This restaurant will have the new menu that was just recently rolled out for grille locations. It is also the first Del Frisco's Grille in Collin County. The location features an open-air kitchen and second-floor mezzanine that looks out onto the downstairs patio and the street.

Paul Martin's American Grill has an opening date for its Dallas location at 3838 Oak Lawn Ave.: mid-July. This is the restaurant concept from Paul Fleming, founder of P.F. Chang's, with American classics such as spinach dip,  calamari, kale Caesar, short ribs, brick chicken and polenta with vegetables.

Pei Wei has opened a second location in Lewisville, at 4600 State Highway 121. In addition to its regular menu, there is Kung Pao three ways: regular with rice, with crisp lettuce cups instead of rice, or in sushi form with a Kung Pao shrimp sushi roll.

The first Lewisville location of this Asian fusion chain serving "wok'd-to-order" dishes opened in 2003. This second Lewisville location will be the 26th in the DFW area; the last was at Casa Linda in December 2014. Two more are coming to DFW — Richardson and Fort Worth — part of 10 openings total in 2015.

In addition to its Asian cuisine, Pei Wei restaurants offer Coca-Cola Freestyle machines with more than 100 beverage options, as well as wine and beer.

Dallas Fish Market's new chef, Richard Triptow, has a three-course, fixed-price menu for the summer. Choose from options such as English pea soup, watermelon salad, shrimp cakes, almond milk-poached cod, salmon with green pea mash and warm mustard potato salad, flat iron steak, shrimp and summer squash, or cavatelli pasta with goat cheese and basil.

Desserts include lemon ice box cake, yogurt parfait, chocolate canelé or "cherries and berries," with pickled cherries, seasonal berries, candied nuts and pistachio gelato.

The Rustic has launched a "jam and toast" brunch from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, featuring bluegrass and blues musicians beginning at noon. The brunch is served family-style and is $16.95 per person. Options include cheese and fruit, baked eggs, butcher shop skillet with bacon and sausage from Rudolph's Market, spicy fried chicken and dill pickles, French toast, cheddar grits with poblanos and cheddar on sausage gravy, and doughnuts.

Coconut's Fish Cafe offers poke and poke bowls, a signature dish from Hawaii. Pronounced POH-keh, poke is the raw fish dish similar to tartare or ceviche, with yellowfin tuna, soy sauce, inamona (roasted crushed candlenut), sesame oil, limu seaweed, and chopped chili pepper.

R Bar & Grill has four new tropical drinks: the R frozen margarita with strawberry infusion, peachy Patrón margarita, raspberry-flavored Raspatrón margarita and a frozen strawberries & cream cocktail.

Greenville Avenue Pizza Company is now serving lunch, beginning at 11 am every day, featuring both the regular menu and a lunch special of a slice of pepperoni or cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and a drink for $10. The regular menu includes salads, sandwiches, baked ziti, garlic knots, hot wings and seasoned fries.

Dunkin Donuts has some new iced coffee drinks and doughnuts featuring the flavors of Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies. There are Coolatta frozen drinks with cookie mix-ins, and two Chips Ahoy doughnuts: one with cookie dough-flavored buttercream filling and another with chocolate icing and crumbled cookies.

Will the burgers at Off Site Kitchen taste different at Trinity Groves?

Photo by Rich Vana

Will the burgers at Off Site Kitchen taste different at Trinity Groves?

news-you-can-eat

Punk News

Tasting menu restaurant Punk Noir to open in Dallas' Design District

Courtesy rendering

Punk Noir

A new restaurant doing a tasting menu only is coming to Dallas' Design District: Called Punk Noir, it'll open at 139 Turtle Creek Blvd, #130, Dallas, TX 75207 with a 20-course tasting menu and an immersive, multi-room design — smashing the conventions of fine dining, as a press release so articulately states.

It's set to debut Tuesday, June 2, in time to welcome World Cup visitors.

Led by James Beard Award-winning chef RJ Cooper, the restaurant will combine "world-class cuisine, irreverent artistry, and edgy elegance."

Punk Noir A funky, punky cocktail.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

Owners are Dallas natives John McKeel and his sons Cole and Clay McKeel, who conceived the project as a passion project.

“Punk Noir is a rebellion against the ordinary,” Cole McKeel says in a statement. “What initially inspired us to open this concept were our personal experiences traveling across the USA, Europe, and Japan. We’ve eaten at many Michelin-starred restaurants, even some ranked among the Top 50 in the world. So many of them had amazing food, but the experience often felt flat—stiff, quiet, and even intimidating. We wanted to create something different: food that is just as refined and world-class, but an experience that is unforgettable, irreverent, and full of energy."

Punk Noir — which is no relation to Punk Royale, a similar-sounding European concept founded in Stockholm in 2015 that has since opened spinoffs in Copenhagen and Oslo — will be in a 9,500-square-foot warehouse where it will host two to three seatings per night, with only 26 seats per seating.

The space will incorporate:

a dramatic communal dining room with projection-mapped visuals and graffiti art led by a “Mistress of Ceremonies”
an open kitchen where Cooper presents select courses to an intimate neon-lit dining room
the Noir Lounge, which will seat 46 guests and offer cocktails alongside “mini tasting” menus for those not partaking in the full experience

A VIP car service option will also be available, chauffeuring guests directly to the restaurant in a black SUV and delivering them up a private ramp and into the restaurant where they will be escorted to the first room to begin the immersive dining experience.

One of the 20 courses at Punk Noir.Photo by Amy Zawacki

The food
The experience will consist of a 20-course tasting menu that weaves together global influences, cutting-edge gastronomy, and Cooper's personal inspirations. The release says that diners can expect courses that are "playful and provocative — some just a single bite, others layered with theatricality and multi-sensory touches."

From the release:

"The menu will change often but the experience begins with an 'agrarian prologue,' exploring the quiet intimacy of soil, root, and garden before moving toward the pull of the sea. Early courses such as camote morado with huitlacoche and blue crab with seaweed and calamansi establish a dialogue between land and ocean.

"As the progression unfolds, the menu builds tension through fire and transformation - featuring dishes like scallop with turmeric and Kaluga caviar, turbot with mussel and plankton, and cod cheek with dashi. Later sample courses explore indulgence through restraint, with compositions including Peking duck, Australian wagyu, and fermented endive - each emphasizing controlled richness and depth.

"The experience concludes with unexpected, thought-provoking pairings, for example, onion with Amur caviar, white chocolate with kombu, and sunchoke with ash - designed to challenge and resolve the palate in equal measure."

Ingredients will feature seasonal highlights from Italy, Japan, Central America, and closer to home. Each course will be paired with wines, cocktails, and zero-proof beverages.

The 20-course tasting menu is $295 per person.

The chef
RJ Cooper won a James Beard Award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic in 2007. His prior concepts include Rogue 24, serving a 24-course tasting menu, in Washington, D.C.; Gypsy Soul, a Southern bistro; and Saint Stephen and Acqua in Nashville. He previously worked at Vidalia in D.C. for seven years and has earned national press.

Punk Noir Artwork by Michael Shellis in the Noir Lounge.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

The bar manager
The cocktail tasting program, led by acclaimed bar manager Shane Scully, is "a multi-course exploration of form, flavor, and restraint - reimagining signature cocktails through a lower-ABV lens without sacrificing depth or impact," the release says. The wine program will focus on wines "with a clear sense of place and straightforward appeal, drawing from classic and emerging regions including Champagne, Burgundy, and the Loire Valley in France, as well as Napa Valley and Sonoma in California, alongside selections from Italy and Spain," they say.

The owner
John McKeel shares his and his sons' vision for Punk Noir: “It is irreverent fine dining. The lounge has punk graffiti wall art and unrestrained departure from the familiar. We are here to challenge the norms of traditional fine dining, turn the Dallas dining scene on its head. We are disruptors. We are here to challenge our guests' conventions of what elevated dining should be. We provide an experience that is surprising, provocative, entertaining, and delicious."

Reservations can now be booked at https://www.exploretock.com/punk-noir/.

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This story originally was published on September 25, 2025 and has been updated with opening date, new menu and personnel details.