News You Can Eat
New tacos and healthy eateries spritz up this shot of Dallas restaurant news
This round of Dallas restaurant news begins like a Billy Idol song, with more more more. An Austin taqueria gives Dallas more love and a healthy restaurant opens a second location. There are new chefs, new brunches, and some fab new discounts. Here’s what’s happening in local dining news:
Green House Market, the healthy restaurant at NorthPark Center, opens its second location in Uptown at Rosewood Court on April 17. Chef Ben Hutchison will debut breakfast service along with a daily lunch and dinner menu, with rotating sides, seasonal salads, signature brown rice bowls, and homemade soups. The Market will serve Stumptown coffee plus pastries made in house by pastry chef Carlos Torres, in gluten-free and vegan options. There'll be a robust catering operation to area businesses and residences, with lots of to-go and delivery options.
Tacodeli, the Austin-based taqueria chain, opens a second Dallas location in the fall at the Hill Shopping Center, a new mixed-use development at the northeast corner of Central Expressway and Walnut Hill Lane. The restaurant will be open daily for breakfast and lunch, offering 40-plus tacos and tortillas delivered daily by La Nortena Tortillas, a local tortilla maker. The first Tacodeli opened at Sylvan Thirty in 2016.
Sai Fine Asian Bistro is a new restaurant in Colleyville from "Chef Eddy" Thretipthuangsin, who has opened and closed many restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth in the past few years. Sai Fine's menu includes lobster wontons, crispy Brussels sprouts, calamari, short rib, truffle miso salmon, duck confit, pad Thai, Malaysian curry laksa noodles, Peking duck fried rice, and yakisoba. The restaurant will be open for dinner daily, and is currently BYOB, with plans to add beer, wine, and cocktails next month.
Piada Italian Street Food will open its fourth location in Plano this summer, at 3309 Dallas Pkwy., off the Tollway. This is the fourth Piada in North Texas, following its latest opening at CityLine in Richardson.
Second Floor Kitchen at the Westin Galleria has a new chef, David Smith, who will oversees all culinary aspects of the Westin Galleria Dallas. (Guess they're not calling it Second Floor by Scott Gottlich anymore, LOL.) Smith was born and raised in Ireland, and apprenticed under chef and restaurateur Jonny Oppermann. Second Floor Kitchen is revamping its menus to reflect renowned regional dishes, with new menus influenced by the Westin's "Be Well" movement. Items from the breakfast menu are denoted as SuperFoodsRX, specifically paired with whole foods to boost nutritional benefits and flavors.
Oak has new menu items from culinary director Jeramie Robison, including tomatillo gazpacho, pretzel knots, spring shrimp orzo, and house-cured rib-eye Reuben. Robinson will also launch a new dinner menu with a new sushi bar. Matthew Gold has been appointed chef de cuisine; he worked under Jose Andres at The Bazaar in Los Angeles as well as Canlis, one of Seattle’s most iconic and revered restaurants. The two worked together at Uchi Dallas, so we know they can probably get along.
The Rustic is kicking off a new "Sunday supper" with a family-style comfort-food menu every Sunday at 2 pm for $18 per person. You get your choice of fried chicken, pork chop, or half chicken, with an unlimited amount of sides, yeah load up on those sides. They include young kale salad (far preferable to old), simple mashed potatoes (far preferable to complicated), jalapeño spoon bread, white hominy, or seasonal steamed green vegetable.
CBD Provisions has promoted Coner Seargeant to executive chef, replacing former chef Richard Blankenship. He most recently served as chef de cuisine, and has worked at CBD since it opened in October 2013. Seargeant attended Texas Culinary Academy, then worked at Charlie Palmer with Scott Romano. The Joule's general manager Justin Fields calls him "a superb chef with great vision" and says he's eager to see how he and Junior Borges collaborate. Seargeant will introduce seasonal changes and add his own influences.
Yolk, the breakfast and lunch spot, has launched a "pancake of the month" program, starting with Choco-Berry Cakes, available through April. All day, every day, you're encouraged to indulge in these Choco-Berry Cakes, which are dark chocolate-infused pancakes with chocolate chips, topped with raspberry puree, strawberries, and blackberries.
Cane Rosso, the award-winning restaurant chain known for its authentic wood-fired Neapolitan pies, will begin serving Saturday and Sunday brunch at its White Rock location. Founder Jay Jerrier says they're bringing brunch back with a mash-up of breakfast classics and a Cane Rosso twist. He'll be launching brunch at other Cane Rosso locations, date TBD. Options include a meatball waffle sandwich; vegetable frittata; Italian stallion frittata with sausage, hot soppressata, and prosciutto cotto; breakfast pizza; fried chicken on a bacon marmalade biscuit; biscuits and gravy; breakfast panini; hash and eggs; and wafflebird, a sweet waffle with vanilla mascarpone, Nutella, cookie butter, crushed cookies, and toasted marshmallows.
Nikkei, the Japanese-Peruvian restaurant in Uptown, has new Sunday brunch from chefs Nick Harrison and Ross Demers. Menu items include deviled eggs with caviar and bloody Mary oyster shooters. Koji chicken and waffles are made with a miso fried chicken thigh, waffle, infused syrup, and green-tea whipped butter. Wagyu saltado is Wagyu beef sautéed with potato, sweet onion hash, and a sunny side egg. Crepes come with spiced banana and rum compote, fresh berries, and blood-orange whipped cream.
Nerdvana food+spirits, the video game-themed restaurant in Frisco Square, has added 12 new booths with game consoles, revamped its dinner and brunch menus, extended the brunch hours, and created kid’s menus.
Pie Tap Pizza Workshop + Bar has a new late-night menu Sundays-Thursdays after 10 pm, and Fridays-Saturdays after midnight. It includes chicken meatballs with rosemary bread, goat cheese fondue, and a variety of pizzas including Margherita, pepperoni, sausage, salami, mushroom, and veggie with eggplant and broccolini. All items are $10. Nightcaps are also available with $2 off all taps.
Q Tacos is hosting "taco Tuesdays," with $2 tacos, beginning at 11 am and continuing until closing. Let's not forget that most tacos are under $4 to begin with, but a deal's a deal. This is the former Quesa space, transformed into a modern taqueria with tacos and Mexican sides such as queso and traditional street corn from Proof + Pantry chef Nick Hurry. Tacos are served until 4 am Fridays and Saturdays.
Henderson Tap House has a new "juicy Tex" burger with two patties stuffed with cheddar cheese topped with pickles and caramelized onions, on a cheddar-cheese stuffed artisan bun, served with fries for $12. Can you really call a bun that's stuffed with cheese "artisan"?
Houlihan's will debut its Field & Farm menu on April 20, focusing on produce and foods harvested in fields and farms. Items include spiralized beet chips, French fried asparagus, steak and grilled Romaine salad, a burger topped with chorizo and fried egg, chicken and Italian sausage rigatoni, and a chicken sandwich. The special menu will be available until late September.
Blatt Beer & Table, the gastropub at Preston Hollow Village, has new German-themed menu items including schnitzel and spatzel (German dumplings with smoked kielbasa sausage) and the Vegan Plate with beet hummus, pita bread, lentils, cucumber, and curry roasted carrots. Blatt's famous mac and cheese has three new varieties: truffle mac, manhandler mac, and Buffalo bleu mac.
La Madeleine has a new seasonal menu inspired by flavors from the south of France. The menu incorporates fresh, quality ingredients in maison-made dishes such as the Mediterranean Chicken & Feta Sandwich, Provençal Chicken & Rice Bowl, Lemon Cream Cake and Lemon Tarts — all available until early fall.
Starbucks has an insane new drink called the Unicorn Frappuccino, available April 19-23, while supplies last. It's called a Unicorn because it changes color and flavor, and also because its gimmicky quality symbolizes the end of society as we know it.
The drink starts out as a crème Frappuccino with mango syrup, layered with a sour blue drizzle, and a sprinkle of sweet pink and sour blue powder topping. Take it away, Starbucks: "Like its mythical namesake, the Unicorn Frappuccino blended crème comes with a bit of magic, starting as a purple beverage with swirls of blue and a first taste that is sweet and fruity. Give it a stir and its color changes to pink, and the flavor evolves to tangy and tart. The more swirl, the more the beverage's color and flavors transform."
Starbucks is also making its "Pink Drink" available year-round. Pink Drink is a light and refreshing beverage featuring the sweet flavors of strawberry acai refreshers, with accents of passion fruit and acai combined with coconut milk, and topped with a scoop of strawberries. Pink Drink uses coconut milk instead of water to give the drink its signature rosy pink hue. It first gained popularity in spring 2016, when the beverage customization took social media by storm. It has enjoyed much fandom online, as Pink Drink lovers continue to share photos on social media channels using #pinkdrink.