Tastemaker Awards

Raise your glass to these 10 Dallas restaurants pouring fine wine

Wine time.

Photo by Julie Soefer

Dining may look different these days, but there's always a time and place for a glass of wine. As part of our annual Tastemaker Awards, we include a category called Wine Program of the Year to spotlight restaurants with wine lists or features worth noting.

This year's nominees run the gamut: from neighborhood spots to fine-dining destinations, and their lists depict a similar range, from small and approachable to big and bold.

From these 10 finalists, one will be singled out as best wine program of the year. Tune in on July 30 at 7 pm as we reveal the winner during our first-ever Tastemaker Awards — Virtual Edition.

Cibo Divino
Casual restaurant and market has two locations, the Sylvan Thirty original and a second location downtown, and wine is an important component at both. You can sit down and have a glass or take a bottle to go, which is a great amenity for the downtown population of workers and residents. They do rotating features on specific wineries, offer pairing classes, and owners Daniele and Christina Puleo are so into wine, they launched their own in-house label.

Eden Hill/Dallas Farmers Market
Boutique winery in Celina makes all of its wine from Texas grapes including Tempranillo grown in the vineyards at its Celina property. In 2019, they opened a tasting room at the Dallas Farmers Market, where they share a space with a floral and gift shop in the Lofts building, usually open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday afternoons and evenings. Visitors are able to purchase tasting flights, wines by the glass, and wines by the bottle, and they regularly offer classes. Currently, the tasting room is closed but you can still buy wine to go.

Ellie's
Located at the Hall Arts Hotel in Dallas' Arts District, Ellie's features a Napa-inspired menu with pasta, salads, sandwiches, and a sterling wine list — no surprise since owners Craig and Kathryn Hall are well known wine buffs who own Hall Wines in Napa Valley. Currently, the restaurant is open Tuesday-Saturday from 4-9 pm for walk-ins only.

French Room
The French Room, which has endured the test of time for more than a century at The Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas, was acquired by Ohio-based Rockbridge Capital in 2012, who executed a five-year makeover. Among the updates was a refresh of the wine program to make it more vital and approachable, with a large by-the-glass selection that ranges from California to France, with an unsurprisingly robust selection of champagnes tht includes Taittinger by the glass. Currently, the French Room is closed and will reopen on October 4.

Haywire
Texas-centric restaurant from Frontburner group is probably better known for its whiskeys, but as a sibling to the very wine-friendly Sixty Vines, Haywire has a worthy wine list with labels that are familiar but not run-of-the-mill. Meiomi wines, for example, may be not be rare these days, but they sure are tasty and not outrageously priced. And like Sixty Vines, Haywire also offers a couple of selections on tap. Currently, dining room is open limited hours, plus delivery and curbside pickup.

Homewood
Casual-chic restaurant from chef Matt McCallister specializes upscale comfort food with an adjoining raw bar featuring oysters, bluefin tuna, and dry-aged beef tartare. His wine list is a good match, with creative selections from around the world you don't see everywhere else that are perfect for pairing with food but also exciting on their own. One especially valuable aspect is the way they're broken into helpful categories such as "bold reds" and "aromatic & crisp whites." Currently, open for dinner 5-9 pm with inside and patio seating, reservations required.

Lovers Seafood & Market
Stylish restaurant for seafood with a fish market for home cooks. Its wine list is suited for seafood, and small, but with some neato bottles including the distinctive, crisp sancerre from France and some distinctive roses. Currently, open for dine-in and takeout, Monday-Saturday, 11 am-9 pm, and 10 pm on weekends.

Macellaio
Oak Cliff restaurant specializing in cured meats and small plates is a spinoff of Lucia Dallas, the Italian restaurant from husband and wife David & Jennifer Uygur, acclaimed both for its food and wine list. They tend to choose unusual wines you can't find elsewhere, many though not all Italian; they're currently offering an appealing-sounding 2019 Black Cottage sauvignon blanc from New Zealand, $30 for a bottle. Currently, curbside pickup only, Thursday-Sunday 4-7 pm, with a new menu posted every Tuesday.

Pyramid
The longest-running AAA / Four Diamond establishment in the city, The Pyramid at the Fairmount Hotel has been a pioneer in many respects such as its location in the Arts District before there was an Arts District, and its on-site garden. The wine selection includes more than 200 wines from around the world, and more than 60 grape varietals. They also stock a notably large selection of half bottles as well as organic, sustainable, and biodynamic wines. Currently, the hotel and restaurants are closed until July 31.

Seasons 52
The ever-rotating food menu at this fresh-forward chain is matched only by its wine list, which is constantly changing. They offer an unprecedented 52 of the wines featured at their wine bar by the glass. Twice a year, they uncork a new selection of next-generation wines from the world's premier winemaking families. They're also quick with free advice and education via a tips section on their website. Currently, open for dine-in and takeout.

wine tastemakers

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