Closure News

Healthy Dallas restaurant eats it at cursed Preston Center address

We will gather no longer at Preston Center.

The bowls didn't cut it in Preston Center. Gather Kitchen, the healthy downtown Dallas restaurant specializing in healthy bowls and nutritious, affordable food, pulled the plug on its Preston Center sibling at 6135 Luther Ln.

Manager Steven Thompson confirmed that the restaurant had closed at the end of May. But he says not to blame the cuisine — it's the location that did them in.

Gather Kitchen is a fast-casual concept founded by Soraya Spencer, a native of Algeria born into a family of chefs. She opened the first location at Thanksgiving Tower in 2017 with a commitment to whole, non-processed foods, served in an innovative, fast-food model.

Her menu offers vegan, vegetarian, paleo, and Whole 30 options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

There are bowls for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Customers choose a base, then toppings from a choice of vegetables; protein; and sauces, made daily without sugar or additives. Options include zucchini "noodles," cauliflower "rice," poached shrimp, grass-fed beef crumble, basil-cashew-pesto, and six-pepper Mexican sauce.

Spencer was ahead of a pack that's marching in, including concepts such as Cava and Mixt.

After building a solid following in downtown Dallas, she opened the Preston Center location in September 2018. The location had longer hours, Monday-Friday 7 am to 9 pm, and weekends, as well, which the downtown location does not have. Preston Center was open all day Saturday from 9 am to 9 pm, and Sundays with brunch from 10 am to 4 pm.

The restaurant earned positive reviews for its food and friendly service. But that address at 6135 Luther Ln., the one-time Cafe Expresso, has not had great luck, having been home to a revolving door of concepts including Bowen's Cafe, Peak Wood-Fired Grill, and Hospitality Sweet.

Thompson says also that the energy in Preston Center has shifted slightly northwest, toward the intersection of Westchester Drive and Berkshire Avenue, where the new mini Target store is.

"It's only a few blocks away, but we just didn't see the foot traffic on our side of the center," he says.

Preston Center has hosted many a healthy concept, including Dallas' only raw food restaurant, Be Raw (now closed), and is currently home to Gem, the healthy juice bar.

Thompson says their downtown location is still going strong, and they're not ruling out another crack at expansion. "We just need a better location," he says.

closings

Sourdough News

Trades Delicatessen in Oak Cliff Dallas books baker for bread & bagels

Trades

Trades Delicatessen

Dallas' Oak Cliff is home to one thing that everyone wants: a deli. Called Trades Delicatessen, it's from longtime neighborhood entrepreneurs Jason Roberts and Amy Cowan (Oddfellows, Revelers Hall) and is serving breakfast and lunch daily with a menu of sandwiches and baked goods — including in-house baked breads and bagels.

The restaurant is at 312 W. 7th St. — a space previously occupied by Chan Thai and Pho 88, a joint restaurant that moved to Davis Street.

Roberts and Cowan had a vision for a combination brewery (called Jaquval), bakery, and sandwich shop. They opened Jaquval in December 2023, and then Trades in February 2024.

"We had been brewing our beer for a while and roasting our coffee, so we decided to do our own bread as well," Roberts says. "We wanted to have bagels in the neighborhood and new style sandwiches where we baked our bread and smoked our meats."

The two spots are connected by an open door. Sandwiches from Trades are sold at Jaquval. Both spaces share the bakery, roaster, and brewery in back.

The deli menu includes hot and cold sandwiches, modeled after places like Russ & Daughters and Katz Deli. There's a pastrami sandwich, French dip, and an Italian cold cut. There's a meatball sandwich, a pulled pork torta, and a mushroom melt with Swiss and provolone cheese.

There are also breakfast sandwiches on bagel, seeded roll, or sourdough toast.

All of their sandwiches are served on bread made in house. To lead their bakery, they brought in Devin Reynolds, who previously worked under David Madrid, founder of Wheat & Sour bakery and former baker at the now-closed Meridian.

At Trades, Reynolds is overseeing a program with all kinds of bread: hoagie rolls, hotdog and burger buns, rye, whole grain, sourdough, and bolillos, as well as pastries served at the deli, Jaquval, and Oddfellows.

You can get a baguette for $4, a Danish for $4.50, a pistachio croissant for $5, or a 6-pack of burger buns for $5.75.

They are also doing bagels with choice of in-house smoked lox, traditional lox, or pastrami lox. During the week, they make and sell about 150 bagels daily, and that number doubles on weekends, with varieties such as plain, blueberry, poppyseed, and everything. For extra authenticity, they installed a water filtration system with the same PH balance as water in New York.

Their beverage program includes coffee and espresso drinks, house-made root beer, and a made-to-order limeade/lemonade.

The space resembles a classic European bakery, with brass signage and a big window with visibility to the back bakery. There’s seating space for about 15, but the opening to the Jaquval space allows for fluid traffic and additional tables next door.

During COVID, they started a European-inspired bodega in Oddfellows and that moved to the current Trades Delicatessen space, where customers can find wine, nuts, candy, sardines, and olive oil. The deli also has sliced meats to-go, Luscher’s sausages —which is also used for the kolaches — house-made jams, coffee, wine, and sodas.

desserts openings