Mex-Mex News

A new Mexican restaurant sidles up to downtown Dallas' Klyde Warren Park

Cool Lark on the Park will soon become warm and spicy.

Photo by Jerry McClure

The curtain has been lifted on the new restaurant concept replacing the former Lark on the Park at 2015 Woodall Rogers Fwy., which closed in 2018.

It'll be called Miriam Cocina Latina, named for Miriam Jimenez, an F&B veteran who worked at Mr. Mesero and Mesero restaurants during the tenure of Mico Rodriguez.

According to a release, it'll debut in May 2019.

Lark on the Park owner Shannon Wynne says he's been a Miriam fan for a while.

“I walked into a fashionable Mexican restaurant several years ago and was struck by the charisma and charm of the big grin on the authoritative woman greeting folks as they entered,” Wynne says.

"I returned weekly because of this woman," he says. "When her bosses moved her to a new Addison location, I perceived a drop in my enthusiasm for my weekly visit. When it came time to re-conceive our LARK concept I told my partners I was fresh out of new ideas, except for one. I wanted to track down that woman with the giant grin and build a concept with her."

Wynne, who has no experience in Mexican food, acknowledges that Dallas already has a lot of Mex and Tex-Mex options.

"We need another Mexican restaurant in Dallas like we need another hole in the head," Wynne says. "But what we don't have enough of is that feeling I had when I walked into that fashionable Mexican restaurant years ago. Recognition, love, and appreciation from the second I entered."

Miriam Cocina Latina will open at 2015 Woodall Rogers Freeway on the edge of downtown’s Klyde Warren Park. Stay tuned for details at www.miriamcocina.com.

downtown tex-mex

Ice Cream News

Global gourmet ice cream chain debuts in U.S. with 2 Dallas-area shops

Dumont Ice Cream

An ice cream concept from India has made its U.S. debut, right here in Texas: Called Dumont Creamery & Cafe, it's a ice cream chain founded in Hyderabad that now has two locations in the Dallas area.

Their first location was Frisco, which opened at 1951 FM 423 at the end of 2023; a second location opened in late October in Coppell at 1535 S. Belt Line Rd. #160.

Dumont was founded in 1999 by brothers Vivek and Bhashkaar, and currently has 23 locations in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Vijayawada listed on their website.

Bringing the concept to Texas are local franchisees and friends Sai Sashank and Tarang Tirumala, who moved to the U.S. in 2005 to attend college.

Both have successful consulting careers, but craved a taste of home.

Ice cream is the centerpiece at Dumont with more than two dozen flavors, ranging from gourmet to classics to flavors boasting global influences: from Italian-inspired sorbet to a New Zealand-inspired honey ice cream called "hokey pokey."

There is vanilla, chocolate, and mint chocolate chip — but also unique options such as cake and jam, an ice cream with a vanilla base, bites of cake, and spiced jam; and kheer, a coconut ice cream studded with dried fruits and nuts — a nod to the kheer rice pudding that's one of India's favorite desserts.

A single scoop is $4. They have cups and a cute version of waffle cones: shorter and fatter than usual, to provide a greater ratio of ice cream-to-cone.

In addition to ice cream, they have a beverage program with coffee and espresso drinks such as lattes, plus boba tea. There are also special drinks like falooda — an exotic Indian milkshake with rose syrup and vermicelli — as well as limited-edition drinks like iced kheer, a cool beverage version of that same popular rice pudding dessert.

Both locations are spacious, bright, and clean, with pale green banquettes at Frisco, and pale blue chairs and tables at Coppell. Both feature an astronaut theme with statues and framed photos and cartoons on the wall. The Coppell location also has a mural dedicated to great moments in Coppell history.