A healthy restaurant chain from Alabama has made its DFW debut: Urban Cookhouse has opened its first outpost in Texas at the Gates of Prosper, a small center at 1151 S. Preston Rd. #10, taking over a former location of Sauce Pizza.

Urban Cookhouse was founded by David and Andrea Snyder, an entrepreneurial couple who opened their first location in Homewood, Alabama in 2010. The chain now has eight other locations in Alabama and one in Tennessee.

The concept has a healthy, homey vibe with a menu featuring more than a dozen sandwiches and wraps, salads, soup, and fork and knife offerings such as pork tenderloin with red chimichuri, lime-marinated steak & rice, and ‘The Down Home’, a BBQ-style plate with smoked turkey, pasta, and broccoli salad, as well as vegetarian options and a kids' menu.

A weekend brunch on Saturday and Sunday features a breakfast charcuterie board for $25 with pastries, deviled eggs, yogurt parfait, and bread. There are mimosas, bloody Marys, Micheladas, sangria, beer, and wine by the glass, plus a coffee bar with a signature blend from 1418 Coffee in the works.

There's a whole thing with their orange rolls, one of the three items Urban Cookhouse is best known for (along with their Broccoli Salad and Half-Baked Cookie). It's like an orange version of a cinnamon roll, featuring a yeast roll been smeared with a sweet paste flavored with orange zest, baked, then and topped with a thin orange glaze that hardens as it cools.

Urban Cookhouse serves a complimentary orange roll with its meal-size salads and entrees.

Their other shtick is that they prepare their meats on The Big Green Egg, the dome-shaped ceramic oven favored by many a gourmet home cook.

A portion of the Prosper restaurant is dedicated to a petite market selling sauces, dressings, chicken salad, broccoli salad, the signature orange rolls, spiced pecan, honey and pickles and cheddar pasta to-go. Family-style meals are also available for pick up after 3 pm.

Bringing the concept to Frisco is James Zemlock who has 30 years of culinary and management with Grimaldi’s Pizzeria, The Capital Grille and Tommy Bahama.