Pickle News

Venue combining chicken and pickleball ready for Grand Prairie debut

You've got your chicken and you've got your pickle.

Photo courtesy of CNP

UPDATE 12-15-2021: Chicken N Pickle is ready for its Dallas-Fort Worth debut. The unique indoor/outdoor entertainment complex which includes pickleball courts, shuffleboard, yard games, restaurant, and sports bar, will open on Sunday, December 26 in Grand Prairie, near the 2900 block of Esplanade and adjacent to the service road along the President George Bush Turnpike.

Chicken N Pickle Grand Prairie features six indoor pickleball courts, three outdoor and two outdoor covered pickleball courts, lawn games, rooftop bar and event spaces. The menu offers rotisserie chicken, pork and beef sandwiches, and hand-cut fries and tots.

------------------------

There's an unusual restaurant-entertainment concept breaking ground in Grand Prairie that combines rotisserie chicken with the "sport" of pickleball.

Called Chicken N Pickle, it's a Kansas City-born chain that dubs itself the nation's leading pickleball-focused dining and entertainment venue. That's probably an easy claim, given the dearth of competition? (Although there are places to play pickleball in Dallas-Fort Worth and an entire Facebook page dedicated to Dallas pickleball with 779 followers drawn from Dallas, Plano, Rowlett, Rockwall, DeSoto, Arlington, etc.)

It'll break ground this week in Grand Prairie's Epic Central development; a release says it'll open in late 2021.

Chicken N Pickle is an indoor/outdoor complex centered around the sport of pickleball, combined with a restaurant/sports bar, lawn games, fire pits and TVs.

According to company lore, founder Dave Johnson conceived the idea in 2016 in the Grand Cayman Islands, where all great ideas are conceived. There, he discovered his love for wood-fired chicken and the game of pickleball.

He opened the flagship location in Kansas City, Missouri, followed by Wichita and San Antonio, which premiered in summer 2020. Three more are in the works for 2021, including Grand Prairie, Oklahoma City, and Overland Park, Kansas.

Grand Prairie's location will comprise 77,000 square feet with:

six indoor pickleball courts
five outdoor pickleball courts (two covered)
7,500 square feet of outdoor yard games
dining room
rooftop bar
stages for live performances

Food
The menu includes wood-fired and rotisserie chicken dishes, pork and grass-fed beef sandwiches, and salads.

You can get 1/4 chicken or 1/2 chicken which comes with a flour tortilla, avocado, and a fried serrano pepper, a flourish not unlike the pickle you get with barbecue.

There's a hot chicken sandwich, a chicken-fried chicken sandwich, a burger, pulled pork, and pulled jerk chicken.

Salads include a Caesar, Cobb, and a couple of power bowls such as the one with sweet potato, kale, quinoa, mint, jalapeño, cilantro, and avocado, in citrus vinaigrette.

"Munchies" include fries, tots, biscuits, chorizo fondue, avocado hummus, and fried pickles, which seem essential at a place dedicated to pickleball. There are also four desserts served in cast-iron skillets that include a s'mores cookie and apple crisp.

Pickleball
Chicken N Pickle - Grand Prairie will host pickleball clinics for beginners or advanced players and pickleball tournaments. Wow, there are advanced pickleball players out there, who knew.

Is it time yet to post a definition of pickleball? Yes. Yes, it is time:

Pickleball is a paddle sport where two to four players hit something resembling an enlarged whiffle ball back and forth on a court. Think of it as a combo of ping-pong, tennis and badminton, with a few variations. First-timers and advanced players can have fun playing at Chicken N Pickle.

The release says that pickleball is the fastest growing "sport" in America, and is most popularly played as doubles on a court half the size of a tennis court, with an oversized ping pong paddle and a plastic ball. The rules are a mix of tennis and ping pong and are easy and fun for all ages.

The mayor of Grand Prairie and the Grand Prairie city council are totally on board.

"We are so excited that Chicken N Pickle has selected Grand Prairie as the site of its sixth location nationally," says Mayor Jensen in a statement. "We have so many residents who are ready to play pickleball and eat chicken, some of whom serve on the City Council with me."

He calls it a wonderful addition to the Epic Central project, which already includes Epic Waters, The Epic, The Summit and PlayGrand Adventures, with hotels, more restaurants and retail coming soon.

openings sports

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun