Celebrity Chef News

Rootsy restaurant from Dallas chef Tiffany Derry will set a Southern table

Roots fried chicken.

Photo courtesy of Roots Southern Table

Dallas celebrity chef Tiffany Derry is opening a new restaurant inspired by her upbringing on her family's Southern farm. Called Roots Southern Table, it's opening at Mustang Station in Farmers Branch, at 13050 Bee St. #160.

According to a release, it'll open on June 18.

Derry is famous from her appearances on food network shows such as Top Chef, Top Chef Junior, and Bar Rescue. She's also the founder of Tiffany Derry Concepts and co-founder with partner Tom Foley of T2D Concepts, the hospitality group behind Roots Chicken Shak, Roots Southern Table, and 'Shef Tiffany spice and apparel line.

Menu highlights at Roots Southern Table include

Gumbo with chicken, Zummo sausage, Louisiana shrimp, TexJoy file, and herb rice
Cast-Iron Cornbread topped with Steen’s syrup, smoked salted butter, and preserves
Black-Eyed-Pea Hummus with a crispy pea fritter, XO chili sauce, and pea shoots
Spring Pea Salad with burrata, preserved lemon, radishes, and candied bacon
Crawfish Boil Ravioli with crawfish tails, Zummo sausage, corn, and herbs
Halibut with lima bean, okra, corn, spring onion, and roasted tomato
Pork Osso Bucco with Texas tamale, West African peanut sauce, and mustard green salad.

The menu centerpiece is Tiffany’s famous Duck Fat Fried Chicken served family-style with drop biscuits, watermelon rind preserves, and house-made sauces.

Derry retains the principles of her family's cooking style: eating with the seasons, canning and preserving fresh-picked fruits and vegetables, and never letting anything go to waste.

"My grandmother was cooking field-to-table before it was a trend, and always welcomed guests with food," Derry says in a statement. "The dinner table was the heart of our family where we’d gather for special occasions over fried chicken, fish-fries, and crawfish boils. Inspired by my culinary roots, this concept is something I’ve been cooking up for years and I’m thrilled to introduce it to Dallas."

Cocktails
Cocktails are also Southern-inspired and seasonal, to wit:

Southern Collins with gin, Steen’s cane syrup, seasonal melon shrub, club soda, and lemon
Kingfish, a spin on a classic Vieux Carre with house infused plum rye whiskey, cognac, sweet vermouth, and lemon bitters
Debutante with house Orangecello, Lillet Blanc, prosecco, and seasonal fresh herbs
Kool-Aid Cocktail with vodka, hibiscus tea, strawberry, dry curacao, lemon, and pounded sugarcane

The bar will always be prepared to make classic Southern libations such as the house Old Fashioned or the New Orleans-born Sazerac, as well as a list of craft temperance beverages for those who don’t partake.

Decor
Roots Southern Table will hve a minimalist, understated, yet welcoming design, with an open kitchen, allowing food, cocktails, service, and conversation to shine. An AirPHX filtration system has been installed in the dining room to clean the air. An outdoor patio will be added during the summer for al fresco dining.

Derry's partner Tom Foley says that he and Tiffany are fierce advocates for creating equity in the hospitality industry.

"Through our advocacy and efforts to design a scalable model empowering ownership, we aim to bridge the gender and racial wealth gap," Foley says. "We believe great food brings people together and great conversation unites people—we want Roots to be that gathering place where everyone is welcome."

Hours at opening will be Tuesday-Sunday 5-10 pm, with brunch and lunch service to follow.

The Shops at Mustang Station is a retail development with restaurants, retail, and entertainment set in the Station Area, a master-planned district unfolding in West Farmers Branch. The shopping and restaurant village will also be home to Cox Farms Market, Cedar Creek Brewhouse & Eatery, Red Stix – Asian Street Food, Victoria's Mexican Kitchen, and Starwood Cafe.

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Chocolate News

Richardson dessert shop Chocolate Drip lays out eye-catching treats

Chocolate Drip

Chocolate bear with pistachio sauce at Chocolate Drip

A dessert shop in Richardson has become the toast of the sweets world: Called Chocolate Drip, it opened in August at 1057 S. Sherman St., in a center east of US-75 near Spring Valley Road, where it's rolling out some eye-catching chocolate treats.

Chocolate Drip is a passion project from Mohammad Quzmar, a Palestinian-born owner who moved to Dallas four years ago and taught himself to cook through tinkering. That experimentation has translated into a constantly evolving menu, with new creations appearing whenever inspiration strikes — earning him a growing reputation as something of a modern-day Willy Wonka.

"Chocolate is my passion. I just love being in the kitchen and creating,” he says.

The cafe's offerings are extensive, from sweet breakfast staples like pancakes and waffles to off-menu items teased on the café’s Instagram, such as the Dubai Drip platter — an interactive fondue plate with fruit, brownies, waffles, marshmallows, to be dipped into melted chocolate and pistachio cream.

Many of his items have the kind of eye-catching twists and table-side presentations that draw attention on Instagram, such as the cruffle (a croissant waffle) topped spaghetti-like strands of gelato which a server extrudes through a potato ricer in front of your eyes.

Other signatures include a teddy bear made of chocolate mousse and kanafa, finished with pistachio sauce for $13.30, and crepes filled with a brownie, with pistachio and chocolate sauce for $15.

Prices are not cheap but these are ultra-decadent items with generous portions, often meant for sharing.

The drink list is ambitious, spanning coffee, matcha, smoothies, milkshakes, and nonalcoholic mocktails. It's obvious Zuzmar is having fun, rolling out his versions of viral items like the famous s'mores hot chocolate pioneered by New York dessert shop Glace, which features a cap made of marshmallow meringue that’s torched and topped with a chocolate bonbon.

There are also a few savory offerings like egg-and-cheese crepes, a salmon croissant, and a turkey waffle. Those in the know also come to order Middle Eastern treats like salab, a creamy milk drink topped with cinnamon; and Om Ali, a sugary pudding with nuts, dried fruit, and coconut.

Named after the Gen Z slang for “cool” or “stylish,” Drip is meant to be a hangout spot more than a quick dessert stop, Quzmar says — a place to linger over brunch, then return late night to a place that feels buzzy and fun sans alcohol.

“Everyone who works here is either family or treated like family and everything is homemade with love," he says.

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