Self-Serve Is Fun

Dallas Thai restaurant Asian Mint goes cheap and quick with new eatery

Fast, casual, and Thai.

Photo courtesy of EnjoyMint

There's about to be a new kind of Mint in town as the Asian Mint restaurant chain is spinning off a new concept.

Called Enjoy Mint — with Fresh Thai Kitchen as a subhead — it will be a fast-casual restaurant with a self-serve style of ordering. It'll be located in Richardson at 300 W. Campbell Rd., in the space left empty by Tokyo Joe's, and is set to open in spring 2018.

According to owner Nikky Phinyawatana, Enjoy Mint will take a fast-casual approach to "comfort Thai food," that's aimed at professionals, students grabbing lunch, and dinner for families, whether take-out or dining in. Pad Thai time.

There'll be a high-tech element in the ordering process, as customers will use a visual kiosk — sort of like ringing up your own groceries at a supermarket, which people seem to enjoy doing. Prices will be "affordable," ranging from $10-$12 per meal.

Tokyo Joe's closed in mid-2017. It was also a healthy Asian concept, but it was from Colorado and did not have cool self-serve kiosks.

Phinyawatana was inspired to create the concept after a recent trip to her homeland. "Bangkok has this high-tech, millennial-friendly atmosphere when it comes to fast and casual dining," she says.

Phinyawatana is in expansion mode. In 2017, she opened the third location of Asian Mint in North Dallas' Inwood Village, joining the original location at Forest Lane and US-75 and the second location on Oak Lawn Avenue. EnjoyMint looms as a concept that'll be easy to clone.

openings

Churro News

Global churro chain Churro Mania takes hold of Dallas with 3 locations

Churro Mania

A delicious new dining treat has come to Dallas: Called Churro Mania, it's a chain of places dedicated to churros and it opened a location in Lewisville at 801 W. Main St, where they're promising the best churros around.

They have basic churros covered with sugar or cinnamon; bites, both crispy and filled with caramel. They have an oversized fat single churro called Big Mania. You can also get them stacked up in a churro cake, or in an ice cream sandwich, with ice cream set between two circular piped churros.

There's another category called "salted" that features tequeños, AKA cheese sticks: dough filled with melted cheese, in either mini or jumbo sizes. A Churro Dog is as it sounds: a unique salty churro topped with a sausage, which you can get topped with potato stix.

There are also savory empanadas, filled with choice of cheese, shredded meat, or chicken, for $3.50 each. The churros range from $8 to $13.

Churro Mania launched their first location in 1997 in Venezuela. They developed a franchise operation, and subsequently opened more than a dozen locations across Venezuela.

They made their U.S. debut in 2001 with a location in Miami, then in 2012, they formed a partnership with Walmart to open outlets inside Walmart stores.

They currently have five locations in the Miami area and one in Houston.

Founder and CEO is Ariel Acosta-Rubio, who worked in industries such as collections, sales, and real estate, where he learned valuable traits such as customer service, marketing, and how to create a sustainable business.

Happily for DFW, the churromania won't stop in Lewisville. According to a spokesperson, they're opening at least two more locations starting with Dallas at 3636 Frankford Rd. #320, and Irving, at 4100 W. Airport Fwy.

openings desserts