DOA Restaurants
East Dallas' favorite gourmet taqueria bids hasta luego
East Dallas' Good 2 Go Taco, who pioneered the gourmet taqueria concept in Dallas, closed in early January. After more than seven years, owners Jeana Johnson and Colleen O'Hare decided that, with the advent of 2017, they were ready to move on to something new.
"We don't come to the decision lightly, but we feel like we’ve accomplished everything we wanted," Johnson says. "When we first opened inside the Green Spot in 2009, we felt like we were blazing a trail with our chefs' take on the humble taco, and we were so grateful that people agreed."
Johnson and O'Hare both had fine-dining experience at restaurants such as Stephan Pyles and the Green Room when they turned their attention to tacos. Their fine-dining treatment included fillings such as fried chicken, brisket, and sweet potato hash, all of which felt like a culinary revelation. Good 2 Go soon earned numerous accolades, including a high-profile feature on the Food Network's The Best Thing I Ever Ate.
Johnson and O'Hare opened their own free-standing restaurant in what was then an unsettled corner at the intersection of Garland and Peavy roads. It was a neighborhood with few dining options, and their success attracted other restaurant concepts to the area including Goodfriend Beer and Burger House, 20 Feet Seafood, and Goodfriend Package Store.
"We feel proud that we settled in an area that felt undiscovered and attracted so many other businesses," Johnson says.
Their restaurant served as home to an outlet for Cultivar Coffee, and then for Cow Tipping Creamery, the Austin-based soft-serve ice cream shop, which opened with great fanfare in March, only to close in December.
Johnson and O'Hare also opened a Vietnamese restaurant, Mot Hai Ba, in Lakewood, which they sold in 2016.
Good 2 Go doesn't have a finite closing date other than sometime this week. "We’ll be hosting a goodbye party until the food runs out," Johnson says.
Wings and nachos at Shark Club.Photo courtesy of Shark Club