Happy Healthy Dining

Flower Child restaurant blooms for Dallas' healthy hippie diners

Flower Child restaurant Mother's Eart Bowl

The opening date for Flower Child restaurant has arrived.

Photo courtesy of Flower Child

Opening day has arrived for Flower Child, the latest concept from Fox Restaurant Concepts, the Arizona-based group that also owns True Food Kitchen. Flower Child is the fast-casual chain that skews younger and healthier, with more vegetarian and vegan options on the menu.

Look for it to open in all its hippieish pop-art glory on March 14, in the former Gap store at 5450 W. Lovers Ln. in Inwood Village, near Empire Baking Co. and the Inwood Theatre.

A preview was held on March 11 for media, neighbors in the shopping center, and various bon vivants who took in Flower Child's food, fruity drinks, and "modern bohemian abode" setting, with splashes of '60s-era colors — lots of lime green and a pretty rainbow-colored mural on the back wall.

You order at a counter and get a number, and the food is delivered when it's ready. Silverware is metal but drinks are served in plastic cups with lids and straws, which doesn't seem to go with the hippie spirit. There's an open kitchen, wrap-around patio, and designated "yoga mat parking," where you can drop off your mat while you eat.

The menu offers organic, gluten-free, vegetarian, and vegan items for lunch and dinner seven days a week. There is much mix-and-match, with make-your-own combination bowls where you can choose vegetables, grains, and proteins if you must. There are also salads, wraps, and entrée bowls designed by the restaurant, combining foodie ingredients such as quinoa and heirloom beans.

So you can order anything from a side of mashed potatoes to a wrap sandwich to something as composed as the Forbidden Rice, a bowl with black pearl and red japonica rice, snap peas, bok choy, broccoli florets, and root veggies in season such as maroon carrots or turnips.

The Mother Earth bowl combines ancient grains with sweet potato, portobello mushroom, avocado, cucumber, broccoli pesto, leafy greens, red pepper miso vinaigrette, and hemp seed.

Salads include kale with grapefruit, apple, black currant, smoked almonds, white cheddar, and apple cider vinaigrette, and a "vegan ingredient" salad with Romaine, diced cauliflower, avocado, roasted corn, grape tomatoes, olive bits, and sunflower seeds in a lemon-tahini dressing.

You can slap a slab of protein on top of anything you order, from a selection that includes chicken, grass-fed steak, salmon, and tofu. They're all grilled until they acquire a browned crust, including the tofu, which had an impressively creamy-yet-firm texture.

There is wine and beer, kombucha on tap, and Flower Child's own cold-brew coffee.

The first Flower Child in Texas opened in 2016 in Austin, which seems only fitting. It'll be the second Fox restaurant to open in Dallas; True Food Kitchen opened in Preston Center in 2013.

But Fox isn't done with us yet. It'll open another TFK in Plano at Legacy West plus a branch of North Italia, the Italian concept. A second North Italia will open in Uptown Dallas in 2018, alongside The Henry, cast as the "greatest neighborhood restaurant."

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new roots

L.A. celebrity favorite The Ivy plants Dallas branch near Katy Trail

Photo courtesy of The Ivy/Facebook

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A Los Angeles restaurant famous for celebrity sightings on its bright floral patios is opening a branch in Dallas: The Ivy will debut in fall 2027 at 4205 Buena Vista St. inside The Terminal at Katy Trail.

“This will be the first Ivy outside of Southern California,” says India Wolfe, the restaurant founders' daughter, in a release. "I felt a strong calling to bring The Ivy somewhere new and to plant roots there with our family.”

India’s parents opened The Ivy on Robertson Boulevard in 1980, followed by Ivy at the Shore in Santa Monica five years later.

While her father, chef Richard Irving, and mother, Lynn von Kersting, remain in LA, Wolfe and her husband, Ernest Wolfe IV, will move to Dallas in February with their two children and dogs, to operate The Ivy. The restaurant will be located inside a luxury apartment tower overlooking the Katy Trail.

India started working as a teen at the family's third branch in Santa Monica and learned everything "from greeting guests and waiting tables to staging events, filming viral social media, and modernizing the business for a new generation," says the release.

Both she and her husband spent time in other professions but were drawn to the dining field. Ernest helped his in-laws so often at The Ivy that they finally employed him full-time.

“I love working with him," India says, "and we complement each other’s skills really well, not unlike my mom and dad.”

The Ivy The family behind The Ivy.Courtesy photo

The Wolfes say they want the Dallas restaurant to retain The Ivy’s familiar cooking, warmth and character, while making it feel like home in a new city.

“I love the idea of people taking a walk on the Katy Trail and then meeting friends for brunch at The Ivy,” India says.

Her parents are assisting with the design and menu; India wants a contemporary vibe but doesn’t plan to change what works so well.

“I don’t want to make it too different because I think the reason that people from Dallas come to The Ivy is because they love The Ivy,” she says. “That said, this new restaurant will certainly stand on its own two feet.”

Unlike the original, the Dallas Ivy will have a bar, an idea India dreamed up. While restaurant bars are nothing unusual, India actually envisioned what her family jokingly calls “the D Bar" (so named for Dallas), where guests can clink glasses and share good energy around a curved, D-shaped counter.

Her interest in art and flowers will result in a space well-appointed with roses, a family tradition, and local blooms like zinnias and snapdragons.

The Ivy serves upscale American comfort food and Californian cuisine with influences from Italian, French, Cajun, and Mexican cooking. Dishes are made with seasonal ingredients, so the menus evolve throughout the year.

While the Dallas menu is being developed, the restaurant's Southern California winter menus, for example, include starters such as crab cakes, Caesar salad, and grilled-vegetable salad. Pasta options include lobster ravioli with Ivy pink sauce and lobster tagliatelle. Wood- or stone-fired pizzas include margherita and Cajun shrimp pies, while house-baked breads, old-fashioned red velvet cake, coconut cake, and chocolate chip cookies round out the menu.

The Ivy has always been at the center of family life, India notes. Now she and Ernest are bringing that way of life to Dallas.

She adds, “I am confident it will be a great home for The Ivy and for our family.”

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