Avanti Heads West

Chic Uptown Dallas restaurant and night-owl hang joins migration west

Avanti is opening another location in Fort Worth.

Photo courtesy of Avanti

Uptown Dallas mainstay Avanti Ristorante is about to join a migration west. The restaurant will open a Fort Worth location in mid-March, in the One City Place development, on the site of the former Tandy Center.

The original Italian-Mediterranean restaurant has been on McKinney Avenue for more than 30 years. It's a cozy rendezvous spot and top go-to for night-owls, thanks to its willingness to stay open late, with its trademark "moonlight breakfast."

Owner Amin Malek says that the Fort Worth branch will be much like the original, but with additions to the menu and twice the space.

"The menu will be similar, but because of the added square footage and the bigger, beautiful kitchen, we'll be adding more Mediterranean items," he says. "We're also introducing some flatbreads for our patio and bar diners, and extending our appetizer selection."

That includes a favorite of his: cheese.

"One thing I've always wanted to have is a nice cheese and charcuterie selection, which we were not able to do in Uptown, due to the lack of space in the kitchen there," he says. "You can't fit more than three people in that kitchen. But I'm a huge cheese fan, and want to offer a nice cheese selection."

Fort Worth will also have another unique feature that's been high on Malek's wish list.

"One thing we've never been able to have on McKinney is a private room," he says. "This has a room that seats more than 60 people, with AV connections for corporate events."

This is not Avanti's first expansion. In 1995, a second Avanti opened at Fountain Place in downtown Dallas, where it became a lunch destination for downtown workers and a popular spot for weddings and other catered events. That branch closed in 2014.

Avanti Fort Worth will pick up the slack. Located at Throckmorton and Second streets, abutting a grassy area it'll share with fellow Dallas emigre Wild Salsa, it re-creates McKinney Avenue's ambience, with an elegant chandelier, huge windows, and patio.

"When we realized we were going to close Fountain Place, we began looking for a place we could host events," Malek says. "Once we saw the location in Fort Worth, we realized it wasn't an event space but would be better suited for restaurant. It gave us a good incentive to go West."

Flour power couple

Oprah-endorsed Cookie Society rolls out 3 new Dallas-area locations

Photo courtesy of Cookie Society

Stuffed banana pudding cookies are among the rotating seasonal offerings.

There are secret societies and honor societies, but the sweetest sort of society will soon boast several new Dallas-area storefronts: Cookie Society, the wife-and-husband-owned gourmet bakery, will open at 232 W. Campbell Rd. in Richardson on November 21, and at 906 W. McDermott Dr. in Allen on December 4, a spokesperson says.

An Inwood Village store will open next year at 5560 W Lovers Ln., the website says. No date has been announced.

When Jeff and Marissa Allen opened their second Cookie Society in Addison in 2022, they spoke of plans to expand across North Texas. With Addison and the original Cookie Society in Frisco — plus Mansfield, Prosper, and Southlake — the three new stores will make eight, and the Allens do not intend to stop there. In a release, they say they are preparing to announce another location inside Dallas proper, besides Inwood Village, "very soon." (It is not yet listed on the website.)

The expansion plan may seem ambitious, but there is reason for their confidence. Back in 2020, when they had just one store struggling in the face of a global pandemic, Oprah featured their cookie Gift Crate on her famous "Oprah's Favorite Things" holiday gift list, published in the December issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.

That gave them a jumpstart, and the rest ... involved no rest but relied on the couple’s hard work and consistent production of an irresistible product.

“Before there were storefronts, there were pop ups and markets and a whole lot of hustle,” Marissa says on Instagram.

cookie society Marissa and Jeff Allen, both retired athletes, began testing recipes in their home kitchen before building their doughy empire.Courtesy photo

It started small, with Marissa, a former college soccer star, baking at home. She experimented with nostalgic flavors like banana pudding, apple pie, and frosted oatmeal. Jeff — a former NFL player with a Super Bowl ring — and his teammates tested her output.

The menu includes six year-round classic cookies — chocolate chip, salted caramel, frosted oatmeal, banana pudding, snickerdoodle, sugar — and an array of featured flavors (pumpkin white chocolate, cookie butter milkshake in November) that keep things interesting. All are described as Texas-sized (big) with a crisp edge, soft chewy insides, and bold flavors.

The couple adds on their Story page that Cookie Society is the largest Black-owned cookie brand in Texas. In addition to the numerous storefronts, they offer nationwide shipping and a monthly subscription program.

"The company has grown, but the soul of the kitchen stays the same," they add, "real butter, uncompromising ingredients, and a relentless drive to make the perfect cookie."

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