Japanese Hot Dogs

Former Banh Shop in Dallas preps for hot-doggin' new Japanese eatery

Japanese street food, coming soon to SMU Boulevard.

Photo courtesy of Flickr

While the SMU area is still reeling from the recent closure of Banh Shop, we're here to offer a reason to go on. That location has a new eatery in the works, from a restaurant group with a solid track record.

Banh Shop is the banh mi joint on SMU Boulevard that was a concept from Yum! Brands, developed by restaurant guru Mark Brezinski and Dallas restaurateurs Braden and Yasmin Wages, owners of Malai Kitchen in West Village. It closed on January 28.

The location is being taken over by restaurateur Kenzo Tran, owner of Piranha Killer Sushi and Pho District in Fort Worth, and his team, including two chefs with whom he has worked on other restaurants in Dallas.

Those include Dien Nguyen, who is chef at Wabi House, the ramen restaurant on Greenville Avenue they opened in mid-2016; and Long Nguyen, chef at Sapa House, the Asian restaurant they opened in downtown Dallas, in the former Pho Colonial space.

Tran says they're still deciding some of the details on the new restaurant they'll open, including the name.

"The name is important, but it hasn't been determined yet," he says. "We do know that we'll be doing a fast-casual restaurant with Japanese-inspired fast food, but the menu is still in development stages."

Their inspiration includes Japanese street food, places they've seen in cities like New York and Toronto.

"We know we'll be doing fast-casual ramen and bao, the steamed buns," Tran says.

They're also developing an item that has been a big trend in the Pacific Northwest, namely, Japanese-inspired hot dogs.

At restaurants such as Gourmet Dog Japon in Seattle and Japadog in Vancouver, Japanese-style hot dogs get topped with ingredients such as pickled ginger, fish flakes, seaweed, wasabi, cabbage, and sukiyaki-style beef.

Tran has been a restaurateur since 2001, when he opened Piranha Killer Sushi in Arlington. There are now Piranha locations in Flower Mound, Fort Worth, Austin, and San Antonio, with more on the way. He opened a Vietnamese restaurant, Pho District, in Fort Worth to rave reviews in 2014.

He works in a collaborative manner, as seen with Wabi House and Sapa House, where he served more of a supportive role behind the scenes.

"We feel like whatever we put out there has to have substance, and good flavors that people will come back for," he says. "And you have to have value. It can't be so expensive that people don't want to come back."

The timetable for this new place is that they'll open "fairly quickly," possibly by March.

"There wasn't much to do. Yum! Brands, who owned Banh Shop, did a lot of work," he says. "The building has an industrial feel that fits the area. It has a cool vibe. But the color scheme that was in there, with the lime green and the terra cotta, was not suitable. But I think they were on to something. Asian food is really hot these days, and I think the right concept can do well there."

openings

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