Lots of action surrounds downtown this week, as a restaurant with good old fried bar food opens at the Dallas Farmers Market and another opens at Trinity Groves with spuds on the brain. Meanwhile, be sure to read to the bottom, to find the latest news on Restaurant Week 2014.
The reconstructed Green Door Public House, at 600 Harwood St. at the Dallas Farmers Market, opens its doors softly with a game-watching party on July 1 when it serves a limited menu from 2 to 9 pm. This is the building that was carefully rebuilt, brick-by-brick, from the remains of the historic Liberty Bank building at Elm and Cesar Chavez, slated to be torn down until architect Craig Melde intervened. Photos of the food posted on the Facebook page reveal a typical bar menu, with plenty of fried items: Cajun shrimp roll, chicken wings with celery sticks and chicken strips with homemade fries.
July 1 is opening day for Potato Flats, the Phil Romano concept featuring baked potatoes. Photos on the Facebook page show a thirtysomething test group chowing down on homey-looking food with a range of toppings available to be doled over your potato. They'll have sweet potatoes, for sure, and probably some kind of potato chips too. Spuds, tubers, taters — how many synonyms exist for potatoes?
West Village gets juice with Buda Juice, opening July 3 off McKinney Avenue, across from the Gap. Owners are Bernard Lucien Nussbaumer and Horatio Lonsdale-Hands. Nussbaumer founded Global Peace Factory Coffee; Lonsdale-Hands co-founded ZuZu Handmade Mexican Food and coined the term "fast casual." Unlike competitors that use juicers or blenders, Buda hand-squeezes the fruits and vegetables in a cold-press. Flavors include green juice with apple, lemon celery, cucumber, ginger, parsley, spinach and kale, as well as blue lemonade with apple, cucumber and lemon.
A Dunkin' Donuts has opened at 2705 Flower Mound Rd. with the latest menu offerings from the Northeast chain, such as chicken flatbread sandwich and a Southwest breakfast burrito with steak, eggs, vegetables, potatoes and cheese in a flour tortilla. In addition to the regular iced tea, Dunkin' Donuts launched iced green tea and fruity iced tea flavors blueberry, raspberry and peach. Hours are 5 am–11 pm daily, and there are doughnuts and coffee too. Another branch opens in Arlington in mid-July.
A "dual-concept" Luby's positioned side-by-side with Fuddruckers has opened in Rockwall at 2235 S. Goliad St. This is the company's third project of its kind; it debuted in Pearland in August 2012, and a branch in Austin followed in March 2014.
Austin-based Pluckers Wing Bar will open its first Forth Worth location in the Fort Worth Alliance Town Center. In addition to wings, the new location will serve chips and queso, burgers, chicken club sandwich and blue cheese chicken club salad. Pluckers has 17 locations from Baton Rouge to San Marcos.
The last Dallas branch of Good Eats, located at the Turtle Creek Village complex on Oak Lawn, will close on July17. Owner Consolidated Restaurant Operations offered to pay double the rent, but landlord Lincoln Properties passed. CRO spokesman John Harkey says they want to find another location in the Oak Lawn area; meanwhile sibling restaurant Lucky's, up the street, will add some of Good Eats' most popular items to their menu. The only other Good Eats is in Houston.
The Green House Truck returns this summer in a new vehicle powered entirely by electricity. First launched in 2009, the truck spawned a brick-and-mortar restaurant at NorthPark Center called Green House Market. Reviving the truck allows Green House Market to launch its catering division, from box lunches to buffets to cocktail bites. Green House handles all restrictions: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, Paleo, nut-free and dairy free diets. The truck will appear across Dallas-Fort Worth for catering, special events and delivery.
Belly & Trumpet chef Brian Zenner has returned to the executive chef slot at Oak; Oak chef Richard Gras resigned.
All three Olivella's locations — University Park, Victory Park and Lakewood — have three new items: chicken Alfredo pizza, fettuccine Alfredo pasta, and tomato-cream based pasta with pancetta and tomatoes.
Barter has new menu items such as Cajun BBQ shrimp and biscuits, black bass, deviled eggs and green beans with uni butter. Drinks from Rocco Milano include the Cloontang, from a tap with a George Clooney bobble head that includes George Clooney's Casamigos Blanco, lime and pineapple juice, and blackberry and elderflower tea.
Olenjack's Grille in Arlington updated its dessert menu from pastry chef Paige Lawrence. New items include coffee and chocolate four-layer cake, crème brûlée trio, banana pudding cheesecake, chocolate pistachio truffles and strawberry shortcake.
Hopdoddy Burger Bar is featuring a limited-edition shake with an unusual blend of flavors: avocado, honey and lime. It's available through July 6.
Reservation day for the 2014 DFW Restaurant Week is July 14. Participating restaurants will be unveiled, and reservations will open. A kickoff party takes place on August 7, a preview weekend runs from August 8-10, the actual week is August 11-17, with extensions through August 24 or August 31
Buda Juice opens soon at West Village.
