News You Can Eat

Taco expansion and new breakfast options fuel this edition of Dallas restaurant news

Dallas diners are about to get their tacos more quickly, plus more food in the morning. One restaurant is adding breakfast hours, and another is expanding its weekend brunch to Fridays, because there is a never-ending appetite for brunch.

Plus there are the usual openings, closings and chef comings-and-goings. Dig in.

Food
After months of renovations, Dallas' most famous taqueria-in-a-gas-station, Fuel City, has doubled its kitchen space, so it now has four serving windows. The goal: shorter lines for customers to get their $1.40 tacos al pastor, picadillo, barbacoa, chicken/beef fajita and breakfast tacos (served 5-10 am).

Oak Cliff restaurant Bolsa has a menu rollout from new chef Andrew Bell. Items include venison tartare with yellow tomato gelee, quail egg yolk and yucca chips; baby beet confit salad with watercress, compressed melon and whipped goat cheese; a vegetarian entree with baby artichoke, tomato and spinach; and a seafood entree with skate, sunchoke, fiddlehead ferns and rhubarb.

Tanoshii Ramen + Bar has updated its menu with new items that are more creative and elevated. For example: blue crab sunomono, raw oyster shooter, seafood ceviche, mushroom ramen, and seafood ramen with shrimp and mussels.

In a major step toward the decline of Western civilization, Sissy’s Southern Kitchen & Bar has expanded its weekend brunch to Fridays. The brunch menu will now be available on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 am to 2 pm. Options include chicken and waffles; Sissy’s Benedict with crab cake, cornbread muffin, poached eggs, caramelized jalapeño, hollandaise and country potato hash; short rib hash with eggs; biscuits and black pepper cream gravy with sausage, eggs and country potato hash; poached eggs over artichoke hearts, chopped ham, creamed spinach with hollandaise and hash; and chicken and dumplings.

Irving barbecue restaurant FM Smoke House is now doing brunch Saturdays and Sundays from 11 am to 4 pm. The menu includes prime rib, smoked brisket with poached eggs on buttermilk biscuits, pancakes made with Live Oak hefe weizen, chicken fried steak on biscuits with sausage gravy, and smoked spinach Florentine — smoked spinach on biscuits with poached eggs and hollandaise.

New sports bar Henderson Tap House just launched a Sunday brunch, from 11 am to 5 pm, with lots of artery-busting options: breakfast pizza with bacon, eggs, cheese, sausage, peppers and onions; French toast crusted in cereal; steak and eggs; eggs Benedict; pulled pork and cheddar grits with two eggs; and Buffalo fried chicken sandwich with fries. For $10, you get a bottle of champagne and a carafe of OJ, and there's a $5 build-your-own Bloody Mary bar.

In important vegetable side dish news, Perry's Steakhouse & Grille is offering a new limited-edition dish called sweet Sriracha Brussels sprouts. The sprouts are roasted, then drizzled with Sriracha. Hey, it's pretty wild for a steakhouse. They're available for a few weeks and are $11.95. Other sides at Perry's include root vegetables, grilled asparagus and roasted cauliflower.

Trinity Groves restaurant Souk has rolled out a new menu with family-style dinners, new flatbreads and a quartet of tagines: sea bass, chicken, veggie or lamb with preserved lemon and confit of apricots. Seafood bisteeya is like a little cake with seafood inside, wrapped in pasta. Flatbreads include one with ground beef and arugula; another has lamb sausage.

Already a hot pick for lunch, East Hampton Sandwich Co. has expanded its hours to breakfast, from 7 to 11 am daily. Following the previously established sandwich theme, the breakfast menu has several varieties of English muffin sandwiches, including fried chicken with cheddar and honey, or spinach with egg white and avocado. All are priced at $4.95.

Speaking of biscuits, Whataburger has a new jalapeño cheddar biscuit, available for an unspecified limited time, which means you must rush there today. It's a buttermilk biscuit with shredded cheddar cheese and diced jalapeños baked inside. You can order the jalapeño cheddar biscuit on a biscuit sandwich, with biscuits and gravy, or à la carte, all by itself.

NYLO Dallas South Sidehotel has new menus at its Terrace Bistro and rooftop SODA Bar. There's a portobello sandwich on sourdough with red bell peppers, onions, spinach, Buffalo mozzarella and basil pesto; fried deviled eggs with bacon, truffle oil and chives; shrimp nachos with queso al fresca, black beans and guacamole; and thin-crust pizza topped with sausage, sweet peppers, arugula and goat cheese. Also: pork chop, sea bass, tahini salad and molten chocolate cake.

Booze
Downtown Dallas bar Prohibition, former home of mixologist Eddie "Lucky" Campbell, has closed. Slip Inn has too.

The Establishment, the Knox-Henderson bar which was to be home to mixologist Michael Martensen (now headed for One Arts Plaza), is open, and so is old-schoolVagabond on Greenville Avenue, in the old J. Pepe's space. Beer spot Lakewood Growler opened at Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road.

Chefs
Hilton Anatole has a new executive chef: David Scalise. He'll be in charge of the culinary operation of the hotel, including its five restaurants, pasty shop and banquet facilities. Scalise joins the Anatole from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

HG Sply Co. has a new executive chef: Megan Foley. Her resume includes stints at Omni Dallas hotel and Stephan Pyles.

Chef Andre Natera, without a home after the closure of Village Kitchen in Highland Park Village, joins Omni Barton Creek in Austin.

Sous chef Justin Holt left his post at Driftwood to return to Bishop Arts restaurant Lucia.

Chef Chad Starling is at Dallas Chop House in downtown Dallas.

Souk at Trinity Groves has a new menu, with family-style dinners, flatbreads and tagines.

Exterior of Souk restaurant at Trinity Groves in Dallas

Souk at Trinity Groves Facebook

Souk at Trinity Groves has a new menu, with family-style dinners, flatbreads and tagines.

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Coffee News

East Dallas coffee shop Killer Joe crackles with sharp New York style

Killer Joe

Killer Joe Coffee

A hip new coffee shop is energizing a busy corner in East Dallas: Called Killer Joe, it's a new shop at 108 N. Fitzhugh Ave. right on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue, next to (and in the same building as) Pupusas To Go.

Killer Joe is from Christine Sweet and Christian Napolitano, who moved from New York to Dallas in 2022 in search of entrepreneurial opportunity.

"We had been wanting to open up a business in New York for a long time," Christine says. “After the pandemic, it was really hard doing business there. We were looking for a good place to move that offered an opportunity to open our business."

Christine previously worked in travel/destination marketing, living in different places around the world. Christian was in hospitality, having worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan, most recently at Bond Street Sushi in Soho.

Their goal: to bring a little New York culture to Dallas.

“We are more than a coffee shop — we're a place for foodies and musicophiles, we are really into music and rock & roll. Our shop is not a sleepy, quiet coffee shop," Christine says.

They serve notice of their intentions on the exterior with a quirky, personal mural by Anthony Z. Padilla, rendered in taxicab yellow, with elegant line drawings of the Statue of Liberty and highway-style signs that say "Now leaving New York" and "Welcome to Texas."

The interior is casual-chic, with pale wood furniture and an original cement floor that still sports intentional patches of old paint. The walls have a mix of B&W vintage photos and the occasional cowboy hat. The space was for many years a closed-in bar called Los Dos Reales; but now, the building boasts expansive windows that look out on Fitzhugh and create a bright and sunny space.

For their coffee program, they use organic espresso beans and make their drinks in an Italian Sanremo machine. They serve all the classics plus signature drinks such as French Toast Latte, Sea Salt Caramel de Leche, and Caliente Mocha with a hint of cayenne pepper.

Seasonal drinks include a pistachio caramel matcha latte — featuring toasted pistachios like a baklava, but balanced by the earthiness of the matcha. Other specialty drinks include rose water matcha, orange blossom matcha spritz, and cucumber lemonade.

Panini at Killer JoeKiller Joe

They also serve food, including breakfast all day: steak & eggs, avocado toast, and bagels with plain, scallion or vegan cream cheese. The "Spaghetti Western" is a twist on the traditional ham & cheese sandwich with spicy capicola, roasted tomato, Calabrian pepper sauce, and chimichurri on toasted ciabatta.

Bread is from Empire Baking Company and the bagels are from Shug's.

At lunch, they serve an umami tuna melt; a "K-Pop Cuban" with ham and cheese, plus kimchi pickles and wasabi mayo; and The Texican, with soyrizo spicy sausage, cheddar roasted poblano peppers, tomato, and avocado.

Reeves Family Farm in Princeton provides fruits and vegetables, and DiveDWN brings their microgreens. Pastries are baked in house and sauces such as black olive pesto and Killer chipotle sauce are made from scratch.

“We are trying to blend our edgy New York style with a Southern Texas flair," Christine says.

They're open daily from 7am-3 pm, with a late-hour program every second Saturday featuring live DJs; people gather inside and outside the shop for music, food, and drinks.

"This community is just so great, very eclectic, and has really embraced our style," Christine says. In fact, a few customers had a tattoo made at neighbor Franklins Tattoo and Supply with the coffee shop's skull logo.

"I had to follow and get one done too," she says.

coffee openings