Cheers To This
Dallas cocktail king makes Italian restaurant move near new Cowboys HQ
Frisco gets a taste of Dallas with the spring 2016 opening of Vicini, a new American-Italian restaurant from a group of experienced players that includes Brian McCullough, cocktail magician and co-owner of Standard Pour.
McCullough has partnered with Robert Hall, former general manager of Abacus and also part of the Hall winemaking family.
"Robert and I have been friends for several years, and we talked about doing something for a while," McCullough says. "He grew up in Italian restaurants. We wanted to bring something from his childhood and what we feel is a lost piece of Americana, being Italian-American and growing up in the '50s and '60s."
They're still putting the finishing touches on their lineup of dishes, and they aren't ready to talk about the chef. But they know that the menu will feature Italian classics as well as progressive Americana. Pasta will be made in-house; there also will be charcuterie, a fantastic wine program, and a cocktail menu devised by McCullough.
"We just want to do something authentic, with substance," he says.
The restaurant is located at 7777 Warren Pkwy. "We're right across from new Cowboys complex. I'm looking at the cranes," he says. The Dallas Cowboys have planned a sprawling new headquarters facility that will be home to the entire football operations, including administrative offices, coaches' offices, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and an adjacent Omni Hotel.
They're taking over a space that was formerly Tailgaters Sports Bar and Grill, which closed in the spring.
"We're taking a second-generation space and hopefully transforming it into something special with good food and great cocktails," he says. "'Vicini' means 'neighbor' in Italian, and that's what we want, to be a neighborhood place."
