Supermarket News

New Tom Thumb grocery near downtown Dallas has a restaurant-bar inside

Having a supermarket near downtown Dallas is a very big deal.

Photo courtesy of Union Dallas

There's a new Tom Thumb store opening near downtown Dallas, and it'll come with something extra: a bar and restaurant inside.

The grocery is opening at 2380 N. Field St., at The Union, the new complex that's also home to The Henry, Taco Lingo, and a slew of various restaurants to come.

Not having a supermarket has been a longtime complaint from the small but growing population of people who live within the Central Business District.

Supermarket companies will only open stores when a neighborhood has a certain number of residents. According to Kourtny Garrett, spokesperson for Downtown Dallas Inc., there are now about 12,000 residents in downtown Dallas and 70,000 people within a 2-mile radius. That is apparently enough.

A Whole Foods Market opened on McKinney Avenue in Uptown in 2015. And Tom Thumb is building another store, just a block or so outside the Central Business District, on Live Oak Street near the Latino Cultural Center.

The Union Tom Thumb is a block north of Woodall Rogers Freeway, which puts it also just outside of the official Central Business District. Close enough.

This being an urban location means there is no big suburban-style parking lot; parking is in an underground garage.

The new store comes with Union Tap, a bar with 15 beers on tap, a mostly generic mix with Bud, Coors, Shiner, and the standard locals, such as Community, Deep Ellum Brewing Co., Revolver, Peticolas, Lakewood, Tupps, and Four Corners, as well as 48 beers in cans. You can have a beer on-site or get it to go via growlers.

They also have nine wines by the glass in varieties such as chardonnay, prosecco, and pinot noir, and the prices look good, some as low as $4.

The eatery has sandwiches, quesadillas, fries with toppings such cheese and brisket, and a build-your-own burger bar. There's something they call an Asian bar with poke, a spicy tuna roll, and tacos.

There's a long bar plus booths and tables, and big-screen TVs.

Markets like Whole Foods have been doing this in-house bar and cafe type deal forever, but it's a big leap for Tom Thumb, says spokesperson Connie Yates.

"We do have one other bar like this at a store in Fort Worth, that's our first, but this is the first one like this in Dallas where beer and wine are served, and the menu is a little more expanded than Fort Worth," she says.

The store opens on April 5 and will host a grand opening party with festivities galore.

downtown

Ramen News

Tiger Ramen wins over McKinney with Japanese ramen and handrolls

Tiger Ramen

Tiger Ramen ramen and hand rolls

A Japanese restaurant with ramen and handrolls has debuted in McKinney: Called Tiger Ramen, it's now open at 4041 S. Custer Rd. #2110, in a booming new shopping center by Craig Ranch.

Tiger Ramen is from husband-and-wife Ty and Hiroko Wada, who are residents of McKinney. Hiroko is a successful realtor in McKinney while Ty has worked in the grocery store sushi bar industry as well as for American Airlines. He'd always wanted to own a business, so this is his first.

He chose the location in McKinney because of proximity: It's close to where he lives and he enjoys not having a long commute.

Tiger Ramen serves authentic Japanese ramen, with the star dish being paitan ramen, a hearty chicken tonkotsu broth topped with pork chashu, nitamago, scallion, menma, and lemon. Its point of distinction is its a creamy chicken broth, simmered for six to eight hours.

"That's actually standard for traditional Japanese style of preparing broth for ramen," Wada says. "It enhances the flavor."

Coming in at a close second is spicy miso ramen, featuring a dark tonkotsu chicken broth, with noodles, ground pork, corn, and bean sprouts. There are eight ramen options total, including a "dry" ramen — no broth — with ground beef & pork; and a vegetable ramen with vegetable-based broth.

In addition to ramen, they do onigiri rice balls — steamed rice wrapped in seaweed, often with fillings. At Tiger Ramen, they place the extra ingredient atop the rice. They offer six varieties including pork, salmon, tofu, and chicken meatball, $5 to $7 each, or at lunch, you can order them in a sampler of three for $15.

Mural at Tiger Ramen Tiger Ramen muralTiger Ramen

They also do handrolls, with rice and other ingredients wrapped casually in seaweed, in standard sushi varieties such as salmon, yellowtail, California roll, and shrimp tempura.

Appetizers range from edamame and gyoza to more unique offerings such as a fried vegetable croquette and karaage fried chicken.

They serve limited alcohol including beer from Tupps Brewery based in McKinney, sake, draft beer, and wine. Their beer selection includes a few uncommon options such as Kyoto Matcha beer with green tea powder, which they say adds a tangy hop kick, with spicy clove and citrus.

The space has modern-rustic touches, with corrugated steel panels and MCM-style seats upholstered in orange vinyl. An open kitchen counter with a row of orange stools provides a view of employees as they hand-roll sushi and prepare ramen bowls. One wall has a large colorful mural depicting a street scene from Japan.

They're also hosting workshops, such as a class for pocket koji, used in soy sauce and as a sweetener in sake, and another class on fermentation for making miso. Workshops start at $80.

openings