Downtown Dining

Downtown hotel lures lauded chef back to Dallas to man Southern restaurant

Chef Chad Starling returns to Dallas for a new restaurant opening downtown.

Photo courtesy of Chad Starling

Downtown Dallas is in line to get another new hotel restaurant, this one from a lauded chef.

The restaurant is called Grayson Social, and it will open in the Hilton Garden Inn, at 1600 Pacific Ave. Returning to run the show is chef Chad Starling, who comes back to Dallas after a stint in Colorado. Opening date is penciled in for mid-August.

A hotel staffer confirmed it would be open "in about three weeks."

Starling moved to Colorado in 2015 to work at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, the famed resort in the Rocky Mountains. But family reasons served as good motivation to reconsider Dallas.

"My fiancee didn't like the town," Starling says. "It was super small, and she's a city girl. Too bad, because it was so beautiful there. And working at the Stanley was a really good job. But family comes first, and I left to open this place."

Starling earned praise during his tenure in Dallas as executive chef at Saint Ann's, sous chef at Bolsa, and executive chef at Dallas Chop House. He's also worked at restaurants in other big cities, such as Tru and Le Lan in Chicago. He also has hotel restaurant experience, having worked at Aria at the Fairmount Hotel in Chicago.

His return to Dallas was sweetened by the fact that this is a big project. "I got this great opportunity to open this new restaurant in Dallas, so here I am," he says.

The Hilton is a Garden Inn, which took over the skyscraper most recently known as 1600 Pacific Tower; it opened last year.

As a hotel restaurant, Grayson Social will be open for all three meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Starling, who's currently in the process of devising the menu, already has a shorthand for what it will be.

"I'm doing upscale Southern — kind of Sean Brock-style at Husk," he says, referring to the restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, called the "mecca for modern Southern cuisine" and noted for dishes such as ham and biscuits and fried catfish.

He's hiring staff now, and he had a hand in naming the place. "My son's name is Grayson, so the restaurant is named Grayson Social," he says.

openings downtown

Hummus News

Revered family-owned Mediterranean restaurant debuts in North Dallas

Samantha Marie Photography

Zon Zon food spread

An upscale Mediterranean restaurant is coming to North Dallas from a trusted name: Called Zon Zon, it'll open at 5455 Belt Line Rd. #130, in the Work/Shop center, and it's hospitality group Yela Concepts led by Yaser Khalaf (Darna, Baboush), together with his son Mak Khalef in their first collaboration.

According to a release, it'll open on December 22.

Named for Mak's sister Zaina (“Zon Zon”), the restaurant will be open for lunch and dinner with a refined take on Mediterranean dining, rooted in tradition but with modern influences.

"We tried to merge what embodies Mediterranean cuisine with dishes that people in Dallas love," Mak says. "A lot of the dishes we have on menu are Mediterranean but have American and Texan influences."

Mezze favorites include hummus topped with green shatta and extra-virgin olive oil; baba ghanoush with charred eggplant, tahini, dukka, and pomegranate; crispy cauliflower with saffron labneh; tuna neya with tahini, mixed pickles, and Aleppo pepper; and kibbeh with ground lamb, onions, pine nuts, and dill labneh.

Salads include seared tuna salad with freekeh and golden beets; Tahini Caesar with tahini–Caesar dressing and za’atar croutons; and roasted beets with burrata, oranges, and pistachios.

Entrées include roasted chicken with garlic-batata and pomegranate jus; chicken shish kebab over saffron rice with almonds and raisins; hanger steak shawarma frites — a clever twist on steak frites with hand-cut fries; ZZ’s Wagyu cheeseburger with smoked provolone and house pickles; Prime ribeye with za’atar chimichurri and heirloom carrots; and apricot lamb couscous.

The beverage program complements the menu with a Mediterranean-focused wine list and creative cocktails such as the coffee-kissed Midnight Istanbul and ZZ’s Margarita, with burnt pineapple and ras el hanout.

Designed in collaboration with Dallas-based Coeval Studios, the restaurant features a 2,130-square-foot interior with an expansive 735-square-foot patio that seats 76, for a total occupancy near 100.

The restaurant boasts an open kitchen, while decorative finishes include modern woodwork, rich textures, and Middle Eastern-inspired details — stylish yet inviting, with a setting that feels like home.

“The inspiration behind Zon Zon came from wanting to create the kind of place we’ve always wished existed — a neighborhood Mediterranean spot that feels both familiar and exciting - we wanted to create a comfortable space where guests can meet up with friends or neighbors on a regular basis,” says Yaser in a statement.

Mak went to college to sudy biomedical engineering, but says he couldn't resist the lure of the restaurant world in which he grew up.

"Zon Zon is a reflection of everything we love about food," Mak says. "What makes this especially meaningful is building it with my dad — bringing our family’s story and passion to the table."

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