Food Truck News

New Dallas food truck park plots a pocket of green in gentrifying area

The Butcher's Son will be a staple.

A new food truck park is opening in East Dallas to service a neighborhood that has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Called Chuckwagon Park, it's opening at 1716 N. Hall St., just shy of Ross Avenue, where it will host a cluster of food trucks in a parklike setting, with distinctive decorative touches that include reclaimed church-pew seating.

The park will comprise 20,000 square feet of space and accommodate up to 100 people. Founder Patrick Donlin says it'll debut March 4, and be open nights and weekends, with up to three trucks at a time, including two staples — Butcher's Son and Smokey Joe's BBQ — plus others that rotate in and out.

Donlin, who also restores old homes, will decorate the park with recycled materials, and commissioned a mural of their logo by local artist Brennen Bechtol.

"This part of town has been rapidly genrified, mostly with apartment buildings," he says. "We have our office in what used to be the Buddhist Center, and on one side, there's an open grassy area with trees. We thought as a team, what can we do that is going to be positive for the neighborhood? Something that's outside where we can work with creative small businesses, and that's what inspired it."

Another incentive was the idea of helping food trucks, which have seen some fall-off in daytime business since people are working from home and not going into the office. The hours of the park will take place during a gap when food trucks are generally not engaged.

"This will be mostly serving residents who live in this neighborhood and in Dallas, who would be coming nights and weekends," he says. "It lets us optimize the space and gives the opportunity for the businesses to be exposed to the market."

The park location is virtually surrounded by apartment buildings including Modera at Hall Street, Icon at Ross, Olympus at Ross, and Alexan Ross, with another two under construction including The Academic.

The food trucks will also innovate with special items that are not otherwise available.

"Kris Manning from Smokey Joe's BBQ has been in business for 25 years and his customers have their favorites," Donlin says. "Expanding to another location allows him to try some new flavors, which he might not do at the original storefront."

Donlin is adding value by setting up an electrical grid the trucks can draw from, so they're less reliant on generators which can produce a lot of noise and fumes.

"We're working to make it environmentally friendly," he says. "I'm very much into recycling, and that includes things like using church pews as our seating and doing a nursery with trees."

Eventually, they'll expand it into a farmers market type event where small businesses can come and set up shop for a day to complement the food.

There's parking on site with up to 25 spaces total — although with the vast number of apartment buildings that have sprung up in the area, a good majority of their visitors are likely to come on foot.

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News you can eat

Catch up with the new openings in this Dallas restaurant news

Stillwell's

New dishes at Stillwell's Steakhouse at the Hotel Swexan

This latest roundup of dining news around Dallas is a powerhouse, with some big openings, a closing, a re-opening, a relocation, and a coming-soon. There's also an array of new menus to check out, restaurants to visit, new dishes to try.

Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:

Salt and Straw, the cult ice cream brand from Portland, Oregon, has opened its first location in Dallas at 2323 Henderson Ave. #107, in the same shopping center as Gemma restaurant, where it's scooping its trademark hyper-creative, often unexpected flavors. Cousins Kim and Tyler Malek founded S&S in 2011 as a pushcart and the concept has since grown to 59 locations with a huge presence in California and an expansion to the East Coast — from New England and New York to Florida. Flavors rotate with the season such as Jasmine Milk Tea Almond Stracciatella, Strawberry Tres Leches, Rhubarb Crumble with Toasted Anise, Saffron Milk with Wildflower Honey, and Coffee Chamomile Sherbet.

Maman, the French cafe chain from New York bringing its ritzy fare to Dallas, has opened a location in Lakewood at 6465 E. Mockingbird Ln. in Hillside Village, its second in the DFW area, following the original at the Plaza at Preston Center where it debuted in November 2025. They're open during daylight hours with espresso, tea, and pastries such as croissants, kouign maman, Bundt cakes, tea cakes, and cookies.

Sourdough & Co., a fast-casual chain based in Las Vegas known for sandwiches served on San Francisco-style sourdough bread baked in-house, is opening its first Dallas-area location in Frisco at 3311 Preston Rd. #2 in The Centre at Preston Ridge, taking over a space that's been home to a cookie company and a cookie dough company. They serve deli-style sandwiches such as the Italian with salami, pepperoni, mozzarella, balsamic, and olive oil, which can be ordered in a 4-inch size, 6-inch, or 8-inch, with price ranging from $10 to $14. They also do soups such as clam chowder served in a bread bowl. Originally founded in California under the name World of Sourdough, they went through a name change in 2024. The estimated opening date for Frisco is fall 2026.

Cosmic Cafe, the '90s vegetarian haunt, reopened at the beginning of May, after an unprecedented five-year closure. Bringing it back is Deepak Chalise, who cooked at the cafe in the '90s, and who is serving classics such as the Cosmic Stir-Fry of veggies and tofu in yogurt ginger sauce; and their famed Buddha's Delight with curried vegetables, samosa, dahl, rice, pappadam, and naan. In true Cosmic Cafe fashion, it's a bargain with everything priced under $15.

Bam's Vegan, a vegan restaurant known for its vegan comfort food such as pulled "pork" and mac & cheese, has closed its Dallas location at 1499 Regal Row. Owner Brandon "Bam" Waller said that he wants to focus more on family, faith, and creativity. "I’ve been in the restaurant business for 9 years now, and I will tell you it’s one of the TOUGHEST businesses to operate in for multiple reasons" but that he was grateful. He’ll still do pop-ups around the city from time to time but hopes to segue to special invite-only events and preorders.

K-Cup Kitchen, a mom-and-pop restaurant that specializes in Korean street food, has relocated to 232 Town Pl., Fairview, taking over a space that was once a Twisted Root. K-Cup started out at Revolving Kitchen, the shared kitchen concept, where owners Sandra and Michael Oh earned a following for their Korean comfort food served in bowls, including dishes like bulgogi, spicy pork, mandu dumplings, and rice bowls. and ready to serve you the most delicious, flavor-packed Korean street food The K stands for Korean, and the Cup refers to their signature "cup-bops" — rice bowls topped with meat like bulgogi or spicy pork, veggies, and sauce.

Irish spice bag with chicken, French fries, peppers, onionsYouTube

The Crafty Irishman Public House, the beloved Irish pub in downtown Dallas, has a unique new menu item that brings a true taste of Ireland: the Irish Spice Bag. This hugely popular Irish street food features a meal in a paper bag: fried chicken with sautéed peppers & onions, French fries, and a curry-style sauce. Hugely popular in Ireland, authentic Spice Bags are rare in the U.S. Owner Alan Kearney says they wanted to bring an authentic piece of Irish food culture that's unlike anything else. The Irish Spice Bags are $16 and are also available at the Crafty Irishman in Victory Park, as well as The Playwright Pub at One Arts Plaza, Patrick Kennedy's Irish Pub at One Main Place in downtown Dallas, Cannon's Corner Irish Pub in Oak Cliff, and Henry McCarty Irish Pub in Fort Worth (which has a reel showing how to eat it).

Electric Shuffle, the high-tech shuffleboard bar from London that opened in Deep Ellum in 2021, has a new fixe-prix weekend brunch for $50 which includes a bottle of bubbly, 90 minutes of shuffleboard play, and a menu with new dishes such as maple-glazed doughnuts, silver-dollar pancakes, avocado deviled eggs, and farmer’s salad with spring mix, apples, strawberries, and balsamic dressing — joining favorites like candied bacon, breakfast quesadillas, maple bacon boneless wings, truffle parmesan fries, and margherita pizza. New beverages include iced coffee with cold brew; breakfast cereal espresso martini with vanilla-infused vodka, espresso, coffee liqueur, and cereal milk; and spicy paloma with jalapeño tequila, grapefruit, and lime.

Centrale Italia, the Italian restaurant at Preston Hollow Village, has added new dishes including chicken parm, roasted beet and burrata salad, and rock shrimp scampi toast with Calabrian chili butter.

Hendy’s on Henderson, the restaurant-bar at 2401 Henderson Ave. has a new menu for spring with shareables, sandwiches, seafood, and customizable bowls devised by chef Peja Krstic and executive chef Fares Hussein, including crispy agnolotti, lobster roll, club sandwich, prosciutto Caprese sandwich, branzino, and poke bowls.

Stillwell’s Steakhouse at Hotel Swexan is rolling out “Dining Like the Duttons,” a limited-time tasting menu inspired by Paramount’s upcoming Yellowstone spin-off, Dutton Ranch. The exclusive dining experience arrives as scenes filmed at Stillwell’s and Hotel Swexan are set to appear in episodes three and four. It'll be available May 15-June 21 for $115 and includes deviled egg; skillet cornbread with cheddar and honey butter; chili with HWD beef, chilis, corn nuts, and Mornay; 6-oz filet with potatoes, spring onion, and bone marrow bordelaise; brick chicken with ’nduja, hominy, corn; and Texas sheet cake with candied pecans and bourbon caramel.

Radici Farmers Branch has a new dinner menu with items like Wagyu Denver steak with Italian salsa verde, pork ribs with Sicilian potato salad, and chicken sausage pasta with cassarecce, charred broccoli, and pistachio pesto.

North Italia has debuted a new seasonal menu featuring kale & goat cheese salad, steak panzanella, a seasonal chef’s board, house focaccia, and Heirloom tomato burrata. Seasonal cocktails include the Donatella and Don Giorgio.

Dock Local has a new grouper sandwich, featuring battered, grilled, or blackened grouper topped with spring mix, tomato, pickles, and lemon dill pickle tartar sauce, served on a toasted bun.

Eatzi’s Market & Bakery is bringing back spicy pork wings: tender, bone-in pork wings tossed in a spicy sweet chili sauce, hot and ready from the Grill every Thursday.

Dee’s Table at The Star in Frisco has added one of the hottest cocktail trends to the menu: Soft-Serve Margaritas in three seasonal flavors for $15 each: pineapple, strawberry, and pineapple-strawberry swirl.

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