News You Can Eat

Dallas' best burger relocates, fresh summer menus and more newsy morsels

Restaurant openings in Dallas-Fort Worth aren't letting up. We have at least three more coming right up here, plus news of brunch, lunch and summer menus. Eat up:

Hickory, the new restaurant concept from chef Kent Rathbun (Abacus, Jasper's) opens on June 15. Located in far north Plano at Highway 121 and the Tollway, the restaurant has a casual menu of burgers and barbecue but an "elevated, full-service setting," according to a release.

General manager is Dennis Egert and chef de cuisine is Jeff Qualls. Design by Jones Baker "exudes a modern roadhouse feel," with rustic woods and metal; a patio includes picnic tables and a fireplace.

In addition to burgers topped with eggs and such, sides include apple coleslaw, burnt end baked beans, potato salad, onion rings and waffle-cut Maytag blue cheese fries. Each table will be equipped with serve-yourself pickles and other condiments, and there's a full bar. Opening hours are lunch and dinner, but they'll eventually add breakfast.

Off Site Kitchen, chef Nick Badovinus' super-casual restaurant on Irving Boulevard, is relocating to more spacious headquarters at Trinity Groves. That means you won't have to wait in line or jockey for a stool, and it won't feel as divey as the original. Uh-oh, there goes its mystique. The restaurant, which first opened in February 2012, is noted for its cheap burgers (winner in the 2015 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards), but the menu also includes sandwiches, tacos, fried chicken and cheese fries. It opens at Trinity Groves on June 16.

Del Frisco's Grille will open a branch at the Shops at Legacy on June 19. This restaurant will have the new menu that was just recently rolled out for grille locations. It is also the first Del Frisco's Grille in Collin County. The location features an open-air kitchen and second-floor mezzanine that looks out onto the downstairs patio and the street.

Paul Martin's American Grill has an opening date for its Dallas location at 3838 Oak Lawn Ave.: mid-July. This is the restaurant concept from Paul Fleming, founder of P.F. Chang's, with American classics such as spinach dip,  calamari, kale Caesar, short ribs, brick chicken and polenta with vegetables.

Pei Wei has opened a second location in Lewisville, at 4600 State Highway 121. In addition to its regular menu, there is Kung Pao three ways: regular with rice, with crisp lettuce cups instead of rice, or in sushi form with a Kung Pao shrimp sushi roll.

The first Lewisville location of this Asian fusion chain serving "wok'd-to-order" dishes opened in 2003. This second Lewisville location will be the 26th in the DFW area; the last was at Casa Linda in December 2014. Two more are coming to DFW — Richardson and Fort Worth — part of 10 openings total in 2015.

In addition to its Asian cuisine, Pei Wei restaurants offer Coca-Cola Freestyle machines with more than 100 beverage options, as well as wine and beer.

Dallas Fish Market's new chef, Richard Triptow, has a three-course, fixed-price menu for the summer. Choose from options such as English pea soup, watermelon salad, shrimp cakes, almond milk-poached cod, salmon with green pea mash and warm mustard potato salad, flat iron steak, shrimp and summer squash, or cavatelli pasta with goat cheese and basil.

Desserts include lemon ice box cake, yogurt parfait, chocolate canelé or "cherries and berries," with pickled cherries, seasonal berries, candied nuts and pistachio gelato.

The Rustic has launched a "jam and toast" brunch from 10 am to 2 pm on Saturdays and Sundays, featuring bluegrass and blues musicians beginning at noon. The brunch is served family-style and is $16.95 per person. Options include cheese and fruit, baked eggs, butcher shop skillet with bacon and sausage from Rudolph's Market, spicy fried chicken and dill pickles, French toast, cheddar grits with poblanos and cheddar on sausage gravy, and doughnuts.

Coconut's Fish Cafe offers poke and poke bowls, a signature dish from Hawaii. Pronounced POH-keh, poke is the raw fish dish similar to tartare or ceviche, with yellowfin tuna, soy sauce, inamona (roasted crushed candlenut), sesame oil, limu seaweed, and chopped chili pepper.

R Bar & Grill has four new tropical drinks: the R frozen margarita with strawberry infusion, peachy Patrón margarita, raspberry-flavored Raspatrón margarita and a frozen strawberries & cream cocktail.

Greenville Avenue Pizza Company is now serving lunch, beginning at 11 am every day, featuring both the regular menu and a lunch special of a slice of pepperoni or cheese pizza, Caesar salad, and a drink for $10. The regular menu includes salads, sandwiches, baked ziti, garlic knots, hot wings and seasoned fries.

Dunkin Donuts has some new iced coffee drinks and doughnuts featuring the flavors of Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies. There are Coolatta frozen drinks with cookie mix-ins, and two Chips Ahoy doughnuts: one with cookie dough-flavored buttercream filling and another with chocolate icing and crumbled cookies.

Dallas Fish Market has chilled English pea soup on the menu.

Photo courtesy of DFM

Dallas Fish Market has chilled English pea soup on the menu.

news-you-can-eat

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