News You Can Eat

Fried chicken and fresh spring menus make a tasty edition of Dallas food news

Arlington gets a new fried chicken concept, Frisco gets another steakhouse and everyone's introducing new menus for the spring. There's more than enough restaurant news to go around, so please dig right in.

KFC has opened a new concept called Super Chix in Arlington, with chicken sandwiches, chicken tenders, fries and frozen custard. There's a big emphasis on pickle toppings with three varieties: kosher, hot and sweet. Eater dubbed it "a fancier version of a Chick-Fil-A sandwich."

"It's a one-off new concept store developed by our New Concept team out of Dallas," says Virginia Ferguson, spokeswoman for KFC parent company Yum Brands.

Perry's Steakhouse is opening a branch in Frisco, at Stonebriar Centre, in November. That makes 12 steakhouses for Perry's, which also has outlets in Texas, Chicago and Denver.

Bocce is an Italian restaurant opening on West Davis Street in the old Inforzato's space. Chef-owner David Rice's menu will include pasta, New York-style and Chicago-style pizza, salads, and sandwiches — including meatball subs. Bocce will be open for lunch and dinner and BYOB.

Ready to graduate into the world of real restaurants, pizza food truckBellaTrinowill open a location off McKinney Avenue, with two more locations in the works, although they will not divulge where. Oh oh where could it be? BellaTrino makes Neapolitan-style pizza à la Cane Rosso.

Restaurateur Jonn Baudoin has left Driftwood along with Omar Flores and will open Sugar Skull Cafe at Trinity Groves. He tells SideDish that it'll serve "authentic-style Mexican city tacos" and will be open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a chef yet to be named

A popsicle maker from Alabama called Steel City Pops is coming to Texas. A store will open in Dallas at 2012 Greenville Ave., across from Trader Joe’s, and in Fort Worth at 908 Currie St. Flavors include pomegranate, orange-mint-green-tea, avocado, buttermilk, caramel and peanut butter.

Fare in the Square, the food truck event at Thanks-Giving Square in downtown Dallas, is back in time for the spring. An assortment of food trucks will be at the Square for lunch every Wednesday and Friday, from 11 am to 2 pm.

Jasper's in Plano has a "dramatically" new menu with calamari; blistered shishito peppers; ricotta flatbread with arugula; Thai green curry mussels; spinach-kale salad; rotisserie chicken with vegetable couscous; pork brisket with Chinese vegetables; flatiron steak; cedar-smoked salmon with horseradish mash; and a surf-and-turf dish with tenderloin filet and yellowfin tuna, fried rice and charred bok choy.

Bread Winners Cafe added new summer salad entrees to its lunch and dinner menus. They'll appear as daily specials; prices are $10.99 at lunch and $12.99 at dinner. Wednesday's sounds good: Thai chicken chop with jalapeno, pineapple, bell pepper and peanuts tossed in Thai coconut dressing topped with chicken and rice noodles. Thursday it's an "Italian wedge," with salami, chicken, peppadew peppers, kalamata olives, mozzarella and tomato. Other options include a Southwest turkey chop salad; Buffalo chicken salad in a blue cheese dressing; and berry salad with spinach and salad greens, grilled chicken, red onion and feta.

Ringo's Pub has a new menu, with heartier and more interesting appetizers such as house-made potato chips with caramelized onion dip, mac and cheese bites with marinara, chicken-fried bacon with cream gravy, cheddar tots with ranch dressing, and Monte Cristo Bites (turkey, ham, Swiss and American cheese) with powdered sugar and raspberry coulis. With patio season back, the restaurant is opening at 11 am on weekends again.

Brio Tuscan Grille has a new brunch menu for spring with berries and cream French toast, ham and biscuit Benedict, and a trio of omelets including one with all veggies and another made with egg whites. Brio's brunch runs on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 am to 3 pm.

Victor Tangos updated its beer list. New additions include Community Public ESB, Duvel Tripel Hop Blonde, Duchesse De Bourgogne Flanders Red, Lindeman’s Faro Lambic and farmhouse-style St. Sylvestre Gavorche Biere de Garde. New drinks include the Tahitian Moon with tequila, aperol, port, lime, vanilla, egg white and orange flower water.

Twin Peaks has launched the Twin Peaks Brewing Company, which will manufacture four draft beers: The Dirty Blonde, Knotty Brunette, Ginger's Ale and Gold Miner's Daughter. The Dirty Blonde and the Knotty Brunette are already available at all DFW locations; Ginger's Ale and Gold Miner's Daughter are coming soon.The beers were previously made for Twin Peaks by another brewer. But the company hired brewmaster Tom Janik and built a brewery at the Twin Peaks in Irving, which opened in 2013 in a former Luby's.

Twisted Root has a new shake called the Elvis Presley made with vanilla custard; Dude, Sweet Chocolate's Tub of Love; peanut butter; and banana. It's topped with banana slices, roasted peanuts and crumbled bacon. It's $6.99 and big enough for two to share.

BellaTrino food truck is opening a real restaurant.

Photo by Marc Lee

BellaTrino food truck is opening a real restaurant.

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Flair News

TGI Fridays files for bankruptcy, all 6 Dallas locations now closed

TGI Fridays

Restaurant chain TGI Fridays filed for bankruptcy protection on November 2, saying it is looking for ways to “ensure the long-term viability” of the casual dining brand after closing many of its branches in 2024.

The Dallas-based company's Chapter 11 filing in a Texas federal court accelerates a gradual decline for an iconic chain that was once near the center of American pop culture but has seen its customer base dwindle as tastes changed.

TGI Fridays executive chairman Rohit Manocha said in a statement that the challenges were a result of COVID-19.

"The next steps announced today are difficult but necessary actions to protect the best interests of our stakeholders, including our domestic and international franchisees and our valued team members around the world," Manocha said. "The primary driver of our financial challenges resulted from COVID-19 and our capital structure. This restructuring will allow our go-forward restaurants to proceed with an optimized corporate infrastructure that enables them to reach their full potential."

Until recently, Dallas-Fort Worth had 11 locations including five at DFW Airport. Those airport locations are the only ones still open. The remaining six are all now closed — some closures very recent, most after being in business for a decade or more: 4951 Belt Line Rd. in Addison; 311 N. Clark St. in Cedar Hill, southwest of Dallas; 3700 Towne Crossing Blvd. in Mesquite; and 220 Cornflower Dr. at Firewheel Town Center in Garland.

A Plano location at 2444 Preston Rd. closed in 2022 and is now home to Rise Souffle, while the flagship in Dallas' West End at 1713 Market St. closed in 2020 after 32 years.

Privately owned by TriArtisan Capital Advisors, TGI Fridays has been a beloved dining destination since its inaugural bar opened in Manhattan in 1965. It expanded over the following decades to become a ubiquitous suburban gathering spot known for its ribs, potato skins topped with cheese and bacon, and a decor bedecked with red stripes and Tiffany-style lamps.

The company has boasted that its bartenders trained Tom Cruise for his role in the 1988 film Cocktail, while its serving staff's button-filled uniforms, meant to evoke a fun atmosphere, were later parodied in the 1999 satire Office Space, starring Jennifer Aniston.

Its empire peaked in 2008 with 601 restaurants in the U.S. and a $2 billion business, according to Kevin Schimpf, director of industry research at Technomic. Its sales in the U.S. were $728 million in 2023, down 15% from the prior year, according to Technomic.

It now counts 163 restaurants in the U.S., down from 269 last year and 213 from a week ago. It closed 36 in January and dozens more in the past week. TGI Fridays Inc. said it only owns and operates 39 restaurants in the U.S, a fraction of the 461 TGI Fridays-branded restaurants around the world.

A separate entity, TGI Fridays Franchisor, owns the intellectual property and has franchised the brand to 56 independent owners in 41 countries. Those are independently owned and not part of the Chapter 11 process, and remain open.

A United Kingdom-based franchisee, Hostmore, also sought debt protection in September and abruptly closed locations throughout that country after a failed takeover deal to acquire TGI Fridays.

During the pandemic TGI Fridays made an effort to expand into the delivery market by making itself a hub for ghost kitchens, which have no storefront and only prepare food for delivery. Among the major creditors owed money by TGI Fridays is the delivery service DoorDash, according to Saturday's bankruptcy court filings.

Sit-down chain restaurants more broadly have faced challenges in recent years as diners choose to get food delivered or visit upscale fast-food chains like Chipotle and Shake Shack. In September a U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a reorganization plan for the seafood chain Red Lobster after years of mounting losses. Italian American food chain Buca di Beppo filed for bankruptcy protection in August. PAnother iconic U.S. sit-down restaurant, Denny's, announced in October that it is closing 150 of its lowest-performing restaurants in an effort to turn around the brand’s flagging sales. Wendy’s is also closing up to 140 restaurants, according to a statement from The Wendy's Co. on October 31.