McCallister Take 2

Matt McCallister heads to hot Dallas neighborhood with new restaurant Filament

FT33's Matt McCallister is opening a new restaurant in Deep Ellum called Filament.

Chef Matt McCallister, of Design District restaurant FT33, has announced his much-anticipated second restaurant, opening in Deep Ellum: Filament. It'll go into a prominent location at 2626 Main St., and it is slated to open in spring 2015.

According to a release, Filament will honor simply prepared ingredients of the South. It will echo the naturalistic style and modern approach to seasonal fare that McCallister observes at FT33, but with a more casual approach to dining.

"The menu at Filament will be full of items that I eat on my own time," McCallister says. "A couple of months ago I took a road trip with a couple members of my team and really thought about the food that is representative of our region."

He says that Filament's menu will be approachable, but not without the unexpected. "The menu I'm working on looks straightforward on paper, like spicy pork sausage with fire roasted peppers, pickled onions and yogurt," he says. "There will be surprises, though."

Filament will have a large, horseshoe-shaped bar that seats 24, and it will be overseen by managing partner Jeff Gregory, who has created and maintains the beverage program at FT33. It will include about 100 bottles of wine; a rotating lineup of craft beers on tap; and an inventive selection of seasonal cocktails, with variations on the julep, Sazerac and milk punch, with an emphasis on use of preserved fruits.

The space was first an early-1900s machinist shop, and the restaurant will preserve parts of the original interior, including exposed brick walls, wooden beam ceilings and an industrial style appropriate for Deep Ellum.

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Spicy Food News

New restaurant Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine does it for real in Plano

Dallas Spicy

Fried rice and chicken at Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine

An authentic Chinese mom-and-pop restaurant has debuted in Plano: Called Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine, it opened in late 2025 at 4140 Legacy Dr. #310, at Coit Road, in the same center as Sprouts, taking over a space previously occupied by 369 Chinese BBQ, a long-timer that closed in 2025 after more than a decade.

Dallas Spicy Chinese Cuisine stands apart in the Chinese restaurant field thanks to a trio of elements:

Unusual dishes
They offer an array of Sichuan, Shanghai, and Taiwanese dishes, some not commonly found in DFW, such as:

Hot & Spicy Crayfish
Cumin Beef
Sweet & Sour Pork Ribs
Sauteed Bullfrog with Pickled Peppers

Dishes like their humongous Braised Lion’s Head Meatballs, a Huaiyang-style dish from Eastern China featuring pork meatballs simmered with Napa cabbage, and their Spicy Stinky Tofu — a Chinese tofu dish often sold as a snack at roadside stands — are earning raves for their home-cooked authenticity.

The menu has a big assortment of vegetable dishes, mostly stir-fries such as stir-fried shredded cabbage and stir-fried green beans with garlic, which has emerged as a major crowd-pleaser.

There are rice and noodle dishes such as chow mein, beef noodle soup, and dan dan noodles, a Sichuan classic with noodles, minced pork, scallions, and peanuts. An "American Chinese" category on the menu offers familiar staples such as honey walnut shrimp, orange chicken, and broccoli & beef.

Set price
A second distinction at Dallas Spicy is their "set price" dinner, like a Chinese version of omakase, featuring 10 dishes for about $150. It can be ordered in spicy or non-spicy versions.

The pandas
Dallas Spicy is obsessed with pandas: They've made pandas their decorative them, putting them everywhere: panda wall stickers, panda condiment shakers, and a massive installation featuring dozens of stuffed panda toys tacked to the wall in a heart shape.

The owners are hard to reach; they rarely answer the phone. But they'll provide attentive service if you dine in. They vow to be more than just a restaurant. According to their manifesto, they're a place "where stories are told through taste."

Dallas Spicy decor Pandas rule the decor at Dallas Spicy Chinese.Yelp

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