This edition of Dallas restaurant news has our favorite thing: new restaurants. But these are familiar names. It's all about branching out.
When it's not new branches, it's new menus. Everyone's celebrating summer, with barbecue and watermelon salads and veggies galore.
Here's what's happening in Dallas dining:
Snappy Salads is all about the 10s. Now celebrating its 10-year anniversary, the upscale salad chain opened its 10th location in Plano, at the southeast corner of Parkwood and State Highway 121, near Toyota's new North American headquarters. Snappy Salads' food is primo, with top-quality ingredients of an upscale nature, such as grilled salmon. It also takes sustainability to new heights, with wood salvaged from Booker T. Washington School and countertops made from recycled porcelain, beer bottles, and wine bottles. They eschew plastic, going with paper straws, reusable bags for takeout, and compostable corn-based packaging and utensils.
Piada Italian Street Food is opening a branch at Richardon's CityLine, adjacent to Whole Foods, in late summer. The menu includes pasta bowls; chopped salads; and the namesake piada — a thin-crust dough baked on a stone grill, filled with ingredients, and rolled. This is the third Piada, following branches in Frisco and at Alliance Town Center in Fort Worth.
Four Seasons Markets, the European-style farmers market chain, has founded a new market in Flower Mound, on the Town Hall's parking lot at the southeast corner of Cross Timbers and Morriss Road. Hours are Saturdays, 9 am-2 pm. They anticipate about 50 vendors, with 80 percent of that being food.
Freshii has opened a fourth restaurant in Dallas, this one at 2414 Victory Park Ln., in the former Munia boutique space at Victory Park. Freshii serves breakfast, soups, salads, wraps, bowls, burritos, frozen yogurt, juices, and smoothies. It's open Monday-Friday, 7 am-8 pm, and Saturday, 9 am-5 pm.
Snuffer's Restaurant & Bar opened its 10th location, this one in Richardson at 300 W. Campbell Rd.
Julia Pearl, the Tre Wilcox restaurant in Plano, is now open for lunch, serving crab spinach-artichoke dip, deviled eggs with crispy chicken skin, chicken Cobb salad, gumbo, fried catfish, shrimp po'boys, grilled cheese with Texas toast and two cheeses, shrimp and spicy cheese grits, fried chicken, and a brisket plate with potato salad. It's open 11 am-2 pm, Monday-Saturday
Public School 214 has a new spring/summer menu with salmon harissa (grilled salmon coated in a harissa vinaigrette glaze, served over grilled asparagus and zucchini); grilled watermelon and heirloom tomato stack; and a summer veggie pizza with zucchini, onion, roasted tomatoes, kale, mozzarella, and provolone.
Paul Martin's American Grill has new summer items for lunch and dinner, including the vegetable summer roll with crunchy vegetables, avocado, mint, and sweet chili sauce and grilled baby bok choy with lemon and olive oil.
Mimi's, the French-inspired cafe chain, is bringing back its famed "chicken under a brick." A half chicken gets cooked under a brick for crisp, crackling golden-brown skin with breast, wing, and leg meat. It comes in two flavors: cowboy-rub brick chicken with chipotle peppers, garlic, cilantro, and lime, topped with pickled red onions and served with potatoes and ranch salad, and Provençal garlic brick chicken with lemon and herbes de Provence, served with gratin potatoes and red-wine vinaigrette salad.
The Royale Magnificent Burgers is now exclusively using Wagyu beef for all of the beef burger options. Non-beef burgers include lobster, tuna, veggie, and turkey. They've also updated their décor, with umbrellas on the patio; new art; and additional furniture, including high social tables that make it a more adult-friendly social dining and drinking establishment.
Omni Dallas Hotel has gone maple syrup crazy with maple-inspired cocktails and food. Seasonal fruit comes with a maple yogurt dip. A maple chipotle chicken sandwich has maple chipotle sauce. A hot dog has maple mustard. Corn fritters have maple-bacon jam and wild arugula. A salmon sandwich has a maple glaze. Tabbouleh salad has orange zest, sunflower seeds, watercress, and maple vinaigrette. Doughnut holes have a maple-cinnamon dip. MAPLE.
Starbucks has a trio of granitas, a twist on the Italian icy treat made with shaved ice, served after 3 pm. Caramel espresso has shaved ice topped with espresso and cream. Teavana youthberry white tea has lemonade-flavored shaved ice with pineapple, acai, and hibiscus. Strawberry lemon limeade has lemonade-flavored shaved ice blended with strawberry slices and topped with limeade. There are also trifle desserts with whipped cream layered with chocolate brownie or strawberry shortcake and a new Frappuccino flavor called double double fudge bar, with mocha sauce, vanilla syrup, and chocolaty whipped cream.
Einstein Bros. Bagels has a fun new item called the Twist N' Dip. It's a bagel that's been perforated, so it's easy to twist and rip apart. It'll be available all summer.
Spin Neapolitan Pizza has three new summer-themed pizzas and a set of adult fountain drinks. The new pizzas have a barbecue theme. One has burnt ends, caramelized onions, Calabrian peppers, and barbecue sauce. Another has shrimp, potatoes, and Calabrian peppers. A third is vegetarian, with mushrooms, corn, red peppers, and Calabrian peppers. Its "grown-up floats" feature gelato paired with three new beers: Not Your Father’s Root Beer, Coney Island Orange Cream Ale, and Best Damn Cherry Cola. There are also traditional soda floats for the younger crowd, made with fruit-flavored Izze sodas.
Sissy's Southern Kitchen & Bar has expanded its Sunday gospel brunch to include Saturdays as well, from 11 am-3 pm. Dishes include chicken and waffles, crab Benedict on a cornbread muffin, short-rib hash, lobster Cobb salad, strawberry rhubarb shortcake, and fig tart with honeysuckle sorbet.
Coal Vines' latest pizza of the month is a winner: roasted vegetable with crispy prosciutto. The vegetables are broccoli, onion, zucchini, and tomatoes, and it's available through June at branches in Uptown, downtown, and at CityLine in Richardson.
The Pyramid Restaurant & Bar at the Fairmont Hotel has a new chef de cuisine: Brandon Drew. Drew, who holds an associate degree in the culinary arts from the New England Culinary Institute, was previously sous chef at the Four Seasons' Cafe on the Green, where he'd worked since 2009. His menu includes cantaloupe gazpacho, rabbit rillettes, pork and apples, shrimp and grits, squash pasta, bone-in rib eye, and beef filet. Desserts by pastry chef Eric Burrell include fig tart and milk gelato popsicle.
Corn fritters with maple-bacon jam at Omni Dallas.
Salmon at Bar LouieCourtesy photo