RIP Restaurant News
Dallas fried chicken scene gets hit by Trinity Groves restaurant closure
Tough news for Dallas' fried chicken trend: Fat Chicken, one of the restaurants at West Dallas incubator Trinity Groves, served its last meal on New Year's Eve.
Fat Chicken was the restaurant from chef DJ Quintanilla and partner Linda Mazzei, with a menu of Southern fried chicken with biscuits, plus roasted chicken, grilled chicken, pot pies, and "chickarrones. As part of its Southern heritage, it also had a pie cart with a daily selection of scratch-made pies.
Quintanilla and Mazzei were among the first restaurateurs to launch at Trinity Groves when they opened Resto Gastro Bistro in 2013, a French- and Asian-influenced spin on American dishes such as crab cakes and a corn dog made with lobster.
But after three years, Trinity Groves founder Phil Romano decreed that Resto had run its course and that fried chicken was what customers wanted instead. Fat Chicken debuted in February 2017.
Fried chicken was definitely a thing in 2017. CultureMap included it in its top 10 dining trends for 2017 story, and did a list of the 10 best places to find it for our 2017 Tastemaker awards.
But in recent months, the fried chicken world has endured some key closures, including Sissy's Southern Kitchen in September and the August closure of Max's Wine Dive in the West Village. Fried chicken is so 2017.
Mazzei says that she and Quintanilla are grateful for the support and mentoring they received. "We put our heart and soul into taking care of customers and creating delicious food," she says.
A replacement concept has not been named, but Romano says that, as an incubator, Trinity Groves is "constantly evolving and gaining valuable insight" from customers.
"As Trinity Groves expands to include new residential, commercial and retail development, we are more excited than ever to welcome new concepts from aspiring restaurateurs," he says.
