News You Can Eat
This Dallas restaurant news roundup can barely contain all the openings
If you want pizza, doughnuts, and coffee, you've come to the right place. We bring you tidings of a new pizzeria, ice cream, and a Starbucks drink that you'd better try now if you want to try it at all.
Here's the latest Dallas restaurant news:
Taverna Rossa, the pizza and beer place that debuted in Plano in 2013, opens its Southlake branch in April. Taverna specializes in thin-crust pizzas, salads, pastas, and sandwiches. It'll have cocktails plus 30 beers and four wines on tap. Design by Plan B includes a year-round patio with outdoor fireplace and indoor stage for live music on Saturday nights.
Taverna Rossa is from 33 Restaurant Group, which owns and operate five restaurants, including Palio's Pizza Cafe and Cadillac Pizza Pub in McKinney.
Dos Jefes, the replacement for Nick & Sam's Grille in Uptown Dallas, is about to open. The new concept is a "high-end tequila and tapas restaurant."
Rock & Brews, the restaurant chain started by KISS members Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, opened a branch on March 14 in The Colony near the Nebraska Furniture Mart. The menu has wings, burgers, tacos, sandwiches, and pizzas. An outdoor area has games and live music.
Tre Wilcox Cooking Concepts opened on March 14 with seafood demonstrations, hands-on Asian cooking, and couples classes focused on Southwestern/Texas cuisine. The venue features four kitchens and chef's tables, and guests can BYOB. Classes start at $75 and run two and a half hours long. After each class, guests can take a seat and eat. Upcoming classes include Tiffany Derry and Jon Stevens.
Hash House A Go Go will open its first Texas outlet in Plano at 1900 Preston Rd. on March 25. The chain launched in San Diego in 2000; nearly a dozen have opened in Las Vegas, Reno, Chicago, Orlando, and Connecticut. The Southern menu includes chicken-fried steak, Benedict, fried green tomatoes, nachos, Bloody Marys in a variety of flavors, and cold-brewed coffee by Nitro Coffee.
A new branch of Dunkin' Donuts, partnered with Baskin-Robbins, opens at 14841 Coit Rd. on March 23.
Downtown bakery and coffee shop Hospitality Sweet opened its new location in Preston Center on March 16.
McKinney's Patina Green Home and Market now offers lunch service seven days a week, with sandwiches, salads, soups, and sides that change with the season.
Newly opened Matchbox at Preston Hollow Village is out of the gate with a brunch menu, served Saturdays and Sundays from 10 am-3 pm. Options include blueberry muffin French toast; burrito with short rib and scrambled eggs; and a burger with a fried egg, bacon, Bloody Mary mayo, cheddar and gouda cheeses, mixed greens, and mustard vinaigrette. This is the first Matchbox in Texas.
Hotel ZaZa restaurant Dragonfly has new items for spring, including scallop crudo, pork chop, and brioche toad in the hole French toast with pickled rhubarb, whipped basil-mint goat cheese butter, and sorghum molasses drizzle. Rhubarb!
Hard Rock Cafe has a new Guinness and Irish whiskey infused-burger, available through April 10. It features an Angus patty with Irish wWhiskey bacon jam, Guinness stout cheese sauce, tomatoes, and arugula.
Top Knot, the concept on top of Uchi, is serving a late-night menu from 10 pm-midnight. The menu features items not on the regular menu including poutine with short ribs, kim chi caramel, cheese curds, and a fried egg.
Central Market has a new house brand line of super-premium ice cream. Flavors include chile pepper pecan, whiskey honey, Tahitian vanilla, dark chocolate ganache, hazelnut latte, Saigon cinnamon, coconut ginger, Jamaican rum, and lemon creme with rosemary shortbread. The ice cream is $4.48 per pint.
CiboDivino Marketplace at Sylvan Thirty has partnered with Dallas-based Paciugo to open a gelato stand. "Eating Paciugo takes me right back to times with my grandfather in Sicily," says CiboDivino owner-chef Daniele Puleo in a release. CiboDivino Marketplace will offer more than 10 Paciugo seasonal and classic flavors available in cups or cones.
Starbucks has outdone itself with its latest Frappuccino flavor: cherry blossom, which blends strawberries, cream, white chocolate sauce, and matcha drizzle. It's only available until March 20.
Cherry blossoms are Japan's national flower. Families gather under sakura trees and enjoy picnics and parties under the delicate pink blooms, a tradition that dates back at least a thousand years. This is the first time cherry blossom Frappuccino has been available in the United States, but stores in Japan have offered a version of the beverage since 2010.