Awards Time

Dallas' best restaurant and top chef revealed at 2018 Tastemaker Awards

This photo should give a clue as to who won top chef.

Whistle Britches

For weeks, we've been celebrating the bars, restaurants, and people that make Dallas-Fort Worth a vibrant culinary community, as part of our 2018 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

In our special editorial series, we honored nominees in a wide range of categories. A panel of expert judges helped compile the contenders, and the panel selected all of the winners — except for Best New Restaurant. That was determined by you, our readers, in a bracket-style tournament.

On April 19, the winners were revealed at an awards ceremony and tasting event at Sixty Five Hundred, emceed by award-winning television personality and Good Morning Texas co-host Jane McGarry.

These are the 2018 Tastemaker Award winners:

DALLAS

Restaurant of the Year: Town Hearth
Chef Nick Badovinus really gets what Dallas is about, and he brings it to the Design District in an over-the-top manner with this blown-up steakhouse. We’re talking $75 steaks, a raw seafood bar, and 64 glowing chandeliers.

Chef of the Year: Omar Flores, Whistle Britches
Critical acclaim follows Flores wherever he cooks: First at Oak Cliff seafood restaurant Driftwood, then at Casa Rubia, his Spanish tapas restaurant at Trinity Groves, and now at Whistle Britches, his restaurant in North Dallas where his chicken and biscuits are impossible to resist.

Rising Star Chef of the Year: Anastacia Quinones, The Cedars Social
"AQ" is known for her elevated take on modern Mexican food at restaurants such as Alma, Komali, and Kitchen LTO. She’s currently wowing diners at Cedars.

Best New Restaurant: Ferris Wheelers
This over-the-top restaurant in Dallas' Design District features barbecue from chef Doug Pickering, along with craft beer, games, live music, and a 50-foot running Ferris wheel. The brisket queso served with chips is divine.

Neighborhood Restaurant of the Year: Nova
This gastropub in North Oak Cliff is beloved by the locals for its comfortable atmosphere and great food by chef Eric Spigner, with homey dishes like scallops with grits.

Best Biscuits: Crossroads Diner
People rave about Crossroads’ sticky bun, but chef Tom Fleming’s biscuits are winners, too. They’re everything you want from a biscuit: golden-brown on top, buttery and moist inside.

Pastry Chef of the Year: Keith Cedotal, The Joule
Keith Cedotal is a highly inventive chef who’s been at the Joule since 2017, where he does all the desserts for CBD Provisions, Americano, and Mirador.

Bar of the Year: Parliament
Speakeasy from legendary mixologist Eddie "Lucky" Campbell is oft-cited as the best bar in Dallas, for good reason. With a welcoming staff and perfectly mixed drinks, Parliament is hard to beat.

Bartender of the Year: Trevor Landry, Jalisco Norte
Prior to his post at Jalisco Norte, Trevor created cocktail menus for the Front Room and Dakota's Steakhouse. He’s worked at many establishments around Dallas and has won numerous awards. None better than this Tastemakers Award!

Wine Program of the Year: Bullion
Downtown Dallas restaurant from chef Bruno Davaillon has a French theme on the menu, and a wine list by sommelier Andrew Schawel to match. It's a stunning collection with some rare bottles and a big selection of wines by-the-glass.

FORT WORTH

Restaurant of the Year: Piattello Italian Kitchen
Chef Marcus Paslay's restaurant in Fort Worth’s Waterside area serves comfortable Italian fare, including pizza and some of the city's best house-made pastas.

Chef of the Year: Lanny Lancarte, Righteous Foods
Part of the legendary dynasty of Joe T. Garcia's, Lancarte has been a culinary trailblazer for Fort Worth, first with his upscale Lanny's Alta Cocina Mexicana, and then again with Righteous Foods, where he blazed another trail with health-conscious food, juices, and great coffee.

Best New Restaurant: B&B Butchers & Restaurant
Steakhouse from Houston is a meat-lover’s paradise with 22 cuts that include Japanese Wagyu, Texas Wagyu, and pA5 Kobe Beef from Japan — and it’s all now being served at the Shops at Clearfork in Fort Worth.

Bar of the Year: Proper on Magnolia
Lisa Adams' cozy neighborhood bar on Magnolia Avenue serves nicely made cocktails in a casual, upscale environment that’s great for dates and grown-up conversation.

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun