A Deli for Downtown

Downtown Dallas gets a deli courtesy of Latin Lakewood favorite

Latin Deli's chicken sandwich is a best seller, and it comes with thick skin-on French fries dusted with black pepper.

A charming and distinctive Lakewood-adjacent restaurant is opening a second branch in a hot-hot neighborhood. The restaurant: Latin Deli. The neighborhood: downtown Dallas.

Fernando Barrera, who owns Latin Deli with his wife, Lydia, says that they're aiming to open the new restaurant in early spring. They're going into the beautiful old MKT Building, aka the Katy Building, on Commerce Street, across from the JFK Memorial and El Centro College, in a space that was briefly a poorly received restaurant called the Mello Cafe.

"If you look out the door, the Kennedy monument is right in front of you," Barrera says. "We're excited to be downtown. There are a lot of offices, and we already have a bunch of customers who come from downtown."

He's also a believer in the idea that any downtown should have a deli. "I'm a deli, and a deli in a downtown area is always good," he says.

He opened the first Latin Deli in 2011 with a menu of sandwiches, crepes, salads, baked goods, and coffee drinks, and it is truly a restaurant like no other. Berrara is Mexican, but he champions all Latin-American cuisines.

"I do dishes from Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, but I add my own touch," he says. "My Cuban sandwich, I do not press it. The way I do it is more like they do in Puerto Rico. People say, 'That's not a Cuban,' but it's my food, the way I do it."

His best seller is his chicken sandwich, which features thick chunks of white-meat chicken with pork and thinly sliced red onion on good ciabatta bread. His crepes — which he does in savory versions such as the vegetarian, as well as sweet, such as the one with strawberries and bananas — are hugely popular.

Attentive customer service is also a big factor in Latin Deli's success. Yelpers speak highly of Barrera's accommodating personal touch.

The downtown Latin Deli will offer basically the same menu as Lakewood, but he's still mulling the hours.

"We're not familiar with the downtown schedule, but we want to be available, so when we first open, we'll be open from 7 am to 9 pm," he says. "For for first month, we'll try that and see how it goes. If it's not working, then we'll close at 5 pm."

This is Barrera's second stab at expansion. In 2014, he opened a taqueria called Taqueria Latina, just a few blocks away from Latin Deli. His well-prepared ingredients, including house-made tortillas, got raves, but he discovered how dramatically a neighborhood mien can change from block to block. He shut it down in 2015 but hopes to reopen.

"People call and ask, 'Why did you close taqueria?'" he says. "I want to find another location and reopen it. But for now I'm focusing on the deli downtown."

openings downtown

Closing Time

Some surprising names in this list of Dallas restaurant closures

Photo courtesy of On the Border

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The end of one year and beginning of another often provokes soul-searching, some closing of doors. That's definitely the case in the Dallas restaurant world, with a rash of closings that have taken place in recent weeks — so many that it requires a list to keep track.

These six restaurants have either just closed or are about to, and there's another seven closures we've already reported, listed at the bottom. In good news, despite media reports to the contrary, Pizza Inn is not closing its Dallas location.

Here's the latest round of closures:

Bam's Vegan vegan smoothies and wraps spot, at 2301 N. O'Connor Rd. in Irving, is closing at the end of month, after five years. According to their statement, they are choosing not to renew their lease and their last day will be January 26. Founder Brandon Waller said he will be taking a step back to focus on his family, as well as creating ways to make the business even better "to reach people across the globe."

Black Walnut Cafe, the family-friendly, casual restaurant concept based in Houston, has left the Dallas market after 11 years. The chain had two locations in the Dallas area, in Allen and Coppell. They were known for upscale home-cooking, such as chicken-fried steak, but would regularly rotate in new dishes such as shrimp & spinach salad, portabella & goat cheese pasta, roasted vegetable sandwich, Thai chicken noodle, and ahi & avocado toast.

Eddie's Napolis, the family-owned Italian pizzeria chain, has closed its location in Prosper. The chain was founded by namesake Eddie Vllasaliu and had a number of locations spread across the northern suburbs. Vllasaliu sold some of those locations over the years, which were subsequently deemed not as good, Prosper being one of those locations. You haven't lived in an outlying suburb until you've ordered pizza from an Eddie's Napolis only to find that you ordered from the "wrong" location. The only Eddie's still in the family's hands is in Frisco at 8822 Teal Pkwy. They also own Dua Trattoria, an Italian-Mediterranean fusion restaurant they opened in Frisco in 2024.

Meddlesome Moth, the craft beer gastropub in Dallas' Design District, is closing in the spring. A spokesperson did not respond to queries, but employees were told that that the longtime beer haunt would not be renewing its lease due to an increase in rent. The Moth was Dallas' original gastropub, a pioneer not only in the craft beer world but also a pioneer in the Design District when it opened there in 2010 — followed by restaurants such as FT33 (now closed), Sassetta (now closed), Wheelhouse (now closed), Carbone (now open, yay) and Carbone Vino (also now open).

Morton's the Steakhouse, which had been operating in Dallas since 1987, closed its Dallas location at 2222 McKinney Ave. According to COO Scott Crain, they opted not to renew their lease and shut down on December 31. Morton's had been at that location since 2011, the same year it was acquired by Landry's. (It started out in the West End.) Crain says they are looking for a new location "but until one is found, we encourage our Dallas-area guests to join us at our nearby sister properties including Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Steakhouse, Catch, The Oceanaire Seafood Room, and Saltgrass Steak House." Four Morton's are still open in Texas — three in the Houston area and one in San Antonio — among nearly 50 across the U.S.

On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, the Tex-Mex chain known for margaritas and fajitas, closed its Frisco-adjacent location in Plano at 5000 SH-121; according to a company representative, it closed on December 31. It had been in that location for nearly 20 years. On The Border was originally part of Brinker International and opened its first location in Dallas on Knox Street in 1982. The closure leaves only 20 locations in the Dallas area, with the closest being the location at Willow Bend.

These six recent or pending closures join a growing list of closures that have emerged in recent weeks, as follows:

Trova Wine Market, the Dallas wine bar, will close on January 18, sale is underway.
400 Gradi, the global Italian pizza chain, closed its location in McKinney, and will close its original Dallas location soon.
Sushi Marquee at The Star in Frisco shut out the lights.
City Works, vibrant brewpub at The Star in Frisco, closed after New Year's.
Petra and the Beast, the award-winning Dallas restaurant from chef Misti Norris, closed on December 29.
Terra Mediterranean, the Mediterranean favorite in Plano, closed on December 8, almost four years to the day they opened.
Whistle Britches, the fried chicken & biscuits concept from chef Omar Flores, quietly closed its location at 6110 Frankford Rd. in November, but is rumored to be reopening as Flores' Mexican concept Muchachos.

Not closing
One restaurant that is not closing, despite a story claiming so by WFAA, is Pizza Inn. The restaurant, which has been open at 4304 Live Oak St. (and not Oak Lawn Avenue, as the WFAA story originally claimed) for over 25 years, is merely changing hands. According to a statement, "we want to assure our guests that our location at Live Oak is not closing but transitioning to new management as of January 20, 2025. We are excited for this new chapter and we deeply appreciate the ongoing support from our local Dallas community. Pizza Inn looks forward to serving our guests for many years to come."

closings lists