Keto News

Quirky limited-edition items give this Dallas restaurant news some flavor

Cream of asparagus, now served at Bulla Gastrobar.

Photo courtesy of Bulla

Spring's a good time for new things, and this roundup of Dallas restaurant news has plenty. There are new restaurants, new dishes, and new drinks. Some are here for a limited time, some are here for spring.

Here's what's happening in dining news:

Kessaku is a new sushi and sake lounge located above Monarch, on the 50th floor of The National in downtown Dallas. It's a creation of chef Danny Grant and chef Hari Chan that serves nigiri, sashimi, and rolls.

Fairgrounds Craft Coffee & Tea has opened its first Dallas location at 4514 Cole Ave., with coffee from a dozen roasters including Ascension, Greater Goods, Colectivo, Verve, and Counter Culture, plus tea, cold brew, kombucha, sparkling tea, and matcha whipped to order. Food includes breakfast, lunch, and grab-and-go such as Breakfast Sammies, Breakfast Tacos, salads, and sandwiches.

Keto Kitchen Creations, an independently owned concept offering grab-and-go meals that are compatible with low-carbohydrate, ketogenic, or gluten-free lifestyles, has opened at 9500 Ray White Rd. in Fort Worth.

Hatchways Café has reopened in Victory Park following a hibernation since November. They have a new menu with bowls, salads, sandwiches, flatbreads, daily specials, and favorites from the original menu. Highlights include Crispy Potato & Kale Burrito, Harvest Veggie Bowl, Lean Green Smoothie, Market Greens Mezze Salad with falafel, Roasted Chicken Club, and Tomato, Pesto, & Burrata Flatbread with arugula. The coffee program featuring a custom locally roasted blend from Full City Roasters has also been reinstated.

Cafe 43 at the Bush Center is reopening April 20, coinciding with the public debut of President Bush's new exhibit Out of Many, One, his portraits of immigrants.

Bulla Gastrobar, the upscale Spanish restaurant at Legacy West in Plano, has a new spring menu faeturing cream of asparagus, fried eggplant, Basque fish stew (with shrimp, fish, clams, steamed rice, and green peas), Iberian ham arepas, and caramel apple mousse. Plus two cocktails: Blueberry Breeze Cocktail with Tito’s vodka, blueberry syrup, and lemon juice; and a lavender margarita cocktail with Luna Azul Tequila.

BarNone Bar & Restaurant has opened a space for outdoor dining, and inroduced new menu items such as empanadas with choice of chicken tinga, short rib, shredded pork, meat combo, or potato & cheese; hummus with pita chips; and avocado toast on hippie grain bread. Plus beef stew, Oaxacan-style chicken soup, Cobb salad, cheesy grits, sautéed spinach & mushrooms, and a loaded baked potato.

Toasted Coffee + Kitchen has expanded its cocktail and bar menus at both locations on Lower Greenville in Dallas and Crockett Row in Fort Worth adding coffee-infused drinks, pizza-themed toasts, and a veggie board, to appeal to an evening crowd. New toasts include sausage & shallot, cheesy tomato, artichoke & arugula, and Balsamic peach. New coffee cocktails include an espresso martini and a cold-brew coffee drink with, gin, honey, and tonic.

Commons Club at the Virgin Dallas hotel has a new menu with locally-sourced spring ingredients, shareable plates, and botanical cocktails. Highlights include garden crudites, croquettes, ricotta gnudi, spring rack of lamb, beef tartare, and a fried chicken sandwich.

Dragonfly at Hotel ZaZa has a new menu that includes a Mediterranean flatbread, a hydro Bibb BLT with green goddess dressing and blue cheese crumbles, and the Superfoods Bowl with tri-color quinoa, sliced avocado, roasted sweet potato, sliced jalapeño, radish sprouts, and lemon-tahini sauce. They've also brought back their epic weekend brunch.

Whataburger has brought back Buffalo ranch chicken for a limited time, available as a sandwich or a salad with Red Roma lettuce blend, carrots, bacon, tomato, Buffalo Sauce drizzle, and blue cheese crumbles. There's also a new Cobb salad that's a regular menu item, with Red Roma lettuce, carrots, cheddar, bacon, tomato, and hard-boiled egg. Both salads can also be ordered with choice of grilled chicken, Whatachick’n, or spicy chicken filet.

Dog Haus the hot dog chain has partnered with TV personality Chris Oh on the Buldogi, a limited-run all-beef dog with Korean barbecue beef, kimchi mayo, pickled vegetables, egg, scallions, and furikake on Hawaiian rolls, available April 1–May 16. It's part of their series to team up with chefs to craft limited-time items.

Owl's Brew, a boozy tea, will be available for the first time in Texas starting April, sold in a 6-pack for $11 in flavors such as Matcha, White Tea, Raspberry, & Watermelon flavors at Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Sprouts.

7-Eleven has a wacky new latte flavor: Peeps Marshmallow, a rich, sweet marshmallow-flavored coffee treat. Customers also can find limited-time flavors of 7-Eleven private label cookies, snacks, and candies including giant frosted shortbread cookies, multi-flavored mini-gummi candies, pretzels in strawberry coating, and sandwich crème cookies with new flavors like Carrot Cake, Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Banana Cream Pie.

openings

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun