Best New Restaurant

The best new restaurants in Dallas: You determine the Tastemaker victor

We're excited to bring back our Tastemaker Awards, honoring the best in local food and drink. With the help of our panel of judges, we're spotlighting the best players in the field, including Bartender of the Year, Bar of the Year and the Best Burgers in town, and we have more categories to come.

But this category, Best New Restaurant, is special: It's the one where you choose the winner.

We have 16 nominees, listed in alphabetical order below, all of which have opened in the past year. We've matched them up, bracket-style; you vote for your favorite from each matchup. The winners advance to the next round. And one final winner emerges.

You can vote once a day for the duration. Round one runs until May 1. Round two spans May 2-5. Round three goes from May 6-8, and the finals take place May 10-13. The winner, and the champions from the other categories, will be announced at our grand tasting event on May 14.

Check out the contenders for Best New Restaurant, then pick the ones that should advance to the next round:

Bohemian Cafe
Small Greenville Avenue spot sells kolaches, klobasneks, hot dogs, coffee from Noble Coyote, tea, beer and wine. It also hosts live music performances and free Wi-Fi. Made onsite from a family recipe, the kolaches come in a variety of flavors, some limited-edition based on what's in season, such as pumpkin during the fall. Menu also offers homey dishes such as chicken and dumplings.

Cafe Momentum
Charitable restaurant concept serves as a culinary training facility for disadvantaged youth. But, happily, it's also a place to get a very good meal, with a staff of experienced chefs led by founder Chad Houser. Menu follows the seasons with dishes such as root vegetable salad with watercress, and short rib with polenta and fried onions.

Clark Food & Wine/C'Viche
After a tenure in the corporate world, former Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek chef Randall Warder dives back into the restaurant fray by opening two adjoining concepts side-by-side, in the hottest stretch of Greenville Avenue. Clark Food & Wine is an American restaurant with a modern European sensibility. The menu features shared plates and house-smoked meats. C'Viche is a casual drop-in with several varieties of ceviche and a fabulous bar with sangria, tequila, mojitos, caipirinhas and margaritas.

Dallas Grilled Cheese Company
As the name implies, this place is dedicated to the grilled cheese sandwich, with more than a dozen versions running from the classic with American cheese on white to a gourmet corker with American, cheddar and Gruyere on sourdough. Salads are nicely composed, but don't overlook the trio of soups, including tomato with basil. Located in hip Bishop Arts, DGC is the perfect match of restaurant and neighborhood.

Eureka
California-based burger and New American restaurant with craft beer. Founded in 2009, Eureka does a slight expansion on the "better burger" trend, with a menu of burgers sporting gourmet toppings, enhanced by other sandwiches, salads and starters.

Fat Rabbit
American tavern in the old Sfuzzi space from club owner Peter Loyd serves gastropub fare. Menu includes chipotle barbecue shrimp on crispy fried grits, short ribs braised in a local ale and served with potato dumplings, and lots of shared dishes — from an assortment of sliders to flatbreads and salads.

Henry's Majestic
Bread Winners' more sophisticated spin-off breaks the jinx in a formerly doomed space at the base of Highland Park. Helmed by chef and Hell's Kitchen alumna Ro DiLeo, the restaurant-bar gives classic dishes a funky, appealing twist such as a burger topped with bone marrow and bacon. Customer amenities include a dog-friendly patio and brunch on both Saturdays and Sundays.

Luscher's Red Hots
Chef Brian Luscher brings a taste of the Windy City to Deep Ellum at this Chicago-style hot dog restaurant. Using his Post Oak Red Hots line of sausages, he offers a variety of sandwiches and dogs in buns that evoke classic Chicago grub, such as the Polish kielbasa with grilled onions, mustard and sport peppers in a poppyseed bun. The menu also includes an Italian beef sandwich, cheeseburger, chili and notable sides such as onion rings and hand-cut fries.

Modmarket
Colorado-based chain does top job of serving good, healthy food at an affordable price. Menu includes salads, sandwiches, excellent pizzas and homestyle entrées of chicken, steak or tofu, with choice of two sides. A number of dishes can be ordered in half-portion size, including the pizzas, which is very practical. There's wine on tap, starting at $2 a glass. Calories are listed on the back of the receipt.

Oso Food & Wine
Oso is the creation of Dallas dining veteran Michael Cox, who fulfills his longtime dream of owning a restaurant. Cozy atmosphere and friendly service make it the ultimate neighborhood spot. Chef Kelly Hightower oversees a menu that includes a fun mezze platter with falafel to share, burgers with house-made fries, or chicken liver fra diavlo on polenta with honey-glazed bacon.

Public School 214
Gastropub from California features a school theme, with scholastic influences on the menu and in the warmly elegant decor. Food includes trendy basics such as ahi tuna tacos and chicken and waffles, done with a chefly flair. Bar has a serious commitment to craft beer with rotating taps featuring brews that are hard to find elsewhere in Dallas.

Ramen Hakata
Ramen hits Addison at this small yet high-energy spot. Although there are five ramen options and two broths, the basic Hakata ramen comes with special sauce, chashu, soft-boiled egg, green onion, black mushroom and bean sprouts. Ramen is supplemented by a few appetizers, including seaweed and squid salad, fried oysters, raw octopus salad, and tsukemono, or traditional Japanese pickles. The beer lineup includes Japanese brews in addition to domestics.

Remedy
Soda shop concept from owners of HG Sply Co. and chef Danyele McPherson features a menu of comfort food classics — burgers, grilled cheese sandwiches, fried bologna — done up chef style. Cocktails and sodas get the same careful treatment by bar manager Mate Hartai.

Rodeo Goat
Initially launched in Fort Worth in 2012, this stab at the burger concept by the Wynne family (Flying Saucer, Meddlesome Moth) comes off nicely, with a long menu of burgers with quirky titles such as the one named for Mayor Mike Rawlings with Irish cheddar. The classic remains the "Caca Oaxaca," a beef and chorizo burger with avocado, pico de gallo, queso fresco, Tabasco mayo and a fried egg. This being the Wynne family, there is of course a firm commitment to craft beer.

Small Brewpub
Chef Misti Norris is putting some of the things she learned at FT33 to good use at this Oak Cliff brewpub, where she's curing and pickling up a storm. Recent offerings have included house-made pasta with mustard greens and chicken feet from Windy Meadows farms with sweet potato and collards. The pub also makes beer in small batches, from IPAs to exotic brews such as black pepper pilsner.

VH
VH stands for owner Victor Hugo, previously general manager at Bistro 31 in Highland Park Village and manager of Al Biernat's. In the kitchen is chef Eric Brandt, formerly of Lombardi Concepts and the Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek. VH's menu is described as American, with prices starting at $7 for an appetizer of bean dip with chips, and maxing out at $24 for a filet mignon with mashed Yukon potatoes and Broccolini.

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Buy tickets now to the Tastemaker Awards on May 14.

Luscher's Red Hots

Luscher's Red Hots/Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/LuschersRedHots]

Luscher's Red Hots

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Eco Warrior News

Dallas restaurants doing amazing little things for the environment

Southwest Airlines

Cute bamboo cup from Southwest Airlines

One unfortunate legacy left by the pandemic has been a huge increase in the use of plastics — setting back progress that was being made pre-pandemic.

Plastics are bad. They harm everything they touch: the environment, health, food security, and economies. But they're convenient, subsidized, and in some cases necessary.

Before the pandemic, a growing awareness had started to snowball regarding the negative impact of plastics, particularly plastic straws and single-use plastic containers — and it was significant enough to make the plastics industry very nervous.

"In the two years leading up to the pandemic, the public backlash against plastic was a major concern for industry leaders," says a story about plastics and the pandemic in The Guardian. "As a corporate executive remarked during an industry event early in 2019: 'We need to get the image of plastic in oceans out of the public’s mind. Otherwise, we could lose our social license to operate.'"

But then the pandemic came along, igniting mass hysteria about contagion, and suddenly, bans on single-use plastics that had been in the works were reversed in countries around the world: North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

“Overnight, plastics went from public enemy No. 1 to consumers asking for everything to have as much packaging as possible and to be single use," said one gleeful analyst for Shell Oil, who are a major plastics player.

The urgency of the plastics situation remains invisible to most people, lined up at the drive-thru for their coffee or Chick-Fil-A, piling up nearly 250 pounds of plastic waste every year. (That's what the average American amasses — more than any other country.)

But there are brave, pro-environment efforts being made by Dallas companies and organizations, big and small.

La Casita Bakeshop cup Revolutionary compostable cup at La Casita Bakeshop.Facebook

Dallas efforts
The Dallas restaurants and organizations listed below have taken steps to fight waste, even though it costs them money.

Plastic Free Lunch Day is November 22
Dallas ISD’s Food and Child Nutrition Services will participate in Plastic Free Lunch Day on November 22, to help reduce the amount of single-use plastic in school cafeterias.

Plastic Free Lunch Day was started by middle school students in Brooklyn. The initiative was such a success that it was adopted by all New York City public schools in 2022. The concept has since spread to public schools across the country — including Dallas ISD, which was the first in Texas to participate, when it joined up in 2022.

It creates an opportunity to educate students and the community on ways to positively impact the environment, including skipping plastic. Dallas school cafeterias will replace the plastic items they regularly use during lunch with biodegradable alternatives. (Plastic cutlery, cups, and straws will be available upon request for the crybabies.)

Southwest Airlines bamboo cup
Southwest Airlines Co., the Dallas-based airline, has introduced a new bamboo cup for inflight cold beverages, and a wood stir stick in place of a plastic stick. The airline expects the new items to reduce its inflight single-use plastics by more than 1.5 million pounds annually.

In July 2024, Southwest transitioned to a paper overwrap for its napkins made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled materials — fully eliminating plastic from this service item. The airline is making an effort to eliminate single-use plastics from inflight service by 2030.

La Casita Bakeshop compostable cups
La Casita Bakeshop, the award-winning bakery and cafe operation, recently debuted fabulous new cups that are 100 percent compostable, soil- and marine-biodegradable, breaking down naturally after 90 days. and are made from natural materials.

"We are always trying to find ways to be more environmentally friendly and this is a big way we can," they said in their post announcing the new cups. "We just want to be proud of our paper trail and being a restaurant it's hard to do that."

Smoothie King biodegrable cups
Smoothie King, the Dallas-based smoothie chain, previously used styrofoam cups, but began testing a biodegradable cup in 2019. They now offer it as the default choice. They're using Vio Foam, specially made cups that biodegrade 92 percent in four years. They'll still accommodate whiny selfish customers who insist on getting a plastic cup instead, but their Vio foam cup not only helps the environment, it also keeps their smoothies cold a little longer.

Kate Weiser Recycle Box Program
Kate Weiser, the Dallas chocolatier, sells its gorgeous eye-catching bon-bons in a variety of boxes, from 4 pieces all the way up to 35 pieces. (OK, they'll sell them individually, too, but who goes to a chocolate shop and buys a single chocolate?) They have a program where you can bring your empty box to the store and get a refill and get 5 percent off. (Weiser amusingly calls it a "secret hack.")

Dude Sweet Chocolate freezer packaging
Dude Sweet Chocolate, the Oak Cliff chocolatier, has a next-level campaign in which they will accept cold-ship packaging you've received in the mail and re-use it. Say, for example, that you ordered an 8-pack of ice cream pints from Double Rainbow in San Francisco, and it arrived in a box with freezer packs and a foil liner. You can drop that packaging off at Dude Sweet's factory location at 1340 Inwood Rd., and they'll re-use it in one way or another when they're doing shipments of their chocolate.

Note: Whether you're putting it in the blue bin or the gray bin, your plastic is not being recycled. The best course when it comes to plastic, especially single-use plastic, is to not use it at all.

sustainability