Chef News

Chef Misti Norris' limited-run restaurant in downtown Dallas is now open

Chef Misti Norris has a big foodie following.

Photo courtesy of Misti Norris

If you want to know where all the foodies are gonna be, it's in downtown Dallas where acclaimed chef Misti Norris is opening a temporary restaurant at the AT&T Discovery District.

Called Stepchild, it describes itself as an Acadian/French-inspired restaurant "with a focus on seasonality, art and French Hip Hop," LOL, and it's a temporary restaurant from the chef and owner of Petra & the Beast in East Dallas.

According to a spokesperson, it's opening on June 24.

Stepchild is located in The Second Floor space and is part of a new rotating chef concept called Attalie. Norris was originally scheduled to preside over the space from June to July, but that will be extended "indefinitely," the spokesperson says.

The talker on the opening menu is the 5-day aged Koji brined chicken, battered and fried, with rolls and gravy, enough to serve 4 to 6 people, must pre-order 72 hours in advance, for the amazing price of $200.

Other entrees include bone-in pork chop, A Bar tri-tip, and two vegetable-based dishes: trumpet mushroom with morel ragout, and embered okra with tomato, pickled okra, and "jasmoon" rice.

Starters include:

confit frog legs
duck boudin
summer tomato salad
crab butter
French onion soup
garlic soup

Desserts include a peach tart and a chocolate-black-banana cake.

A half dozen cocktails include classics with a twist such as a Vieux Carre, a "Deja Vu" with vodka and espresso, and a frozen framboise.

There's also a dozen-or-so wines by the bottle and the glass, heavy on selections from Europe, with some interesting French chardonnay and Bordeaux.

You can make your reservation on Resy.com, it's open Thursday-Sundays for dinner.

Norris opened Petra and the Beast in 2018, and it has won numerous awards including Best New Restaurant in 2019 by Bon Appetit. Norris also won Best Chef of the Year in CultureMap's 2019 Tastemaker Awards, although for some reason she does not list this in her little bio and yet does list that Petra won a Best Charcuterie award. I mean, I feel like a Best Chef beats a Best Charcuterie hands-down but I'm probably biased towards the Tastemaker Awards for probably obvious reasons.

Attalie is part of a recent shakeup on the part of the AT&T Discovery District, that also included the addition of Easy Slider, the slider-centric concept from Caroline Perini and Miley Holmes; and Birdie, a fried chicken concept featuring chef Joshua Harmon.

chefs downtown openings

Dumpling News

Asian soup dumpling chain Ugly Dumpling to open location in Allen

Ugly Dumpling

Colorful dumplings from Ugly Dumpling

A new dumpling concept is coming to Dallas-Fort Worth: Called Ugly Dumpling, it's a chain specializing in Chinese soup dumplings, and it's opening its first DFW location in Allen, at 213 N. Central Expy., near the intersection of McDermott Road, where it will debut in early fall.

Ugly Dumpling is from Vertex Hospitality Group, a national restaurant franchise organization whose portfolio includes two other Asian chains, KPOT Hot Pot & Korean BBQ (which has a location in Arlington and another coming to Fort Worth), and Kinya Ramen.

Buoyed by the success of those two brands, Vertex launched Ugly Dumpling in 2023, opening the first location in Edison, New Jersey. They now list 26 locations on their website, in Virginia, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Texas, although 14 are "coming soon," including one in Austin that's been in the works since 2024.

Soup dumplings — official name, xiao long bao — are a dish of Shanghai origin that are popular due to their unique combination of a delicate dough wrapper enclosing a tender filling and savory broth, which releases when you take a bite — making for an indelible comfort food experience.

Ugly Dumpling's menu includes six varieties of dumplings, accompanied by a savory soup broth, as follows:

chicken
pork
pork & crab
pork & truffle
pork, shrimp, & spinach
Szechuan pork

Porky! They can be ordered in a dumpling sampler, one of each variety, for about $14. No vegetarian options, although they do have a couple of vegan dishes such as vegan wonton soup.

There are also Chinese classics like spring rolls, cream cheese wontons, hot & sour soup, salt & pepper popcorn chicken, garlic green beans, orange chicken, beef & broccoli, Mongolian beef, Kung pao chicken, and fried rice; plus tempting Asian favorites like edamame and bao buns, and even chicken wings.

They also serve boba tea and other beverages.

Bringing the concept to DFW is Grace Zhao, who previously owned Zhao Star Chinese Bistro in Frisco, which she sold. She's all in on Ugly Dumpling — "we're hoping to open more than one location, but Allen comes first," she says.

A statement from marketing head Margaret Farrell says that "when we created Ugly Dumpling, we wanted to tap into the historical Shanghai street food movement but do so in a way that caters to the modern palette. [Surely she means 'palate'?] Our menu respects Shanghai's centuries-old cooking techniques while cultivating an exciting experience for today's restaurant goer."

openings