Coronavirus News

Dallas ghost kitchen delivers hummus and Greek classics in a tidy box

Give me all the meze.

One new Dallas business that's sprung up during the coronavirus lull specializes in Greek food, with all of the best classics of the cuisine packaged up in a tidy box to go.

Called Mezes & More, it features "Mediterranean gourmet to go," and it's from a Dallas baker and chef whose family is Greek.

Owner is Anne Marie Cariotis, who also does catering and pastries for Greek Cafe & Bakery in Oak Cliff, owned by her cousin. She was emboldened to launch Mezes & More after encouragement from friends.

"Everyone is stuck at home, and my friends and I have all been ordering charcuterie boxes," she says. "One day I threw it out there that maybe I'd put some Greek stuff together. They all ordered it, posted photos on Facebook, and suddenly I had a business."

She has four offerings:

Small meze box with hummus, pita, dolmas, spanakopita, cheeses, and olives
Large meze box with hummus, tzatziki, pita, dolmas, spanakopita, tiropita, cheeses, and olives
Vegan meze box with hummus, pita, vegetarian dolmas, and spanakopita featuring house-made vegan feta cheese
Dessert box with 6 baklava, 2 Nutella baklava, and 2 cookies

The meze boxes are $35 and $55, and the dessert assortment is $20. She accepts orders Monday-Wednesday, via a message on Facebook or through her website. The food is ready for pickup/delivery on Fridays from 3-5 pm, either in the Lake Highlands area or in Oak Cliff.

Offering a vegan option was in response to customer requests.

"At the Greek Cafe, we'd have customers who came in and said how much they'd like vegan options," she says. "I am not vegan by any means, but I began experimenting and created a vegan feta cheese and a really good vegan version of my baklava. A lot of our customers ask for it."

Cariotis grew up in Duncanville, after her parents moved here from Connecticut back in the '50s. Her recipes come from her family.

"But I like to give them a Texas twist — a cookie that might ordinarily have almonds, I use Texas pecans," she says.

"It's all self-taught or through my grandmother," she says. "I grew up around restaurants. I worked in sports marketing for a while but gravitated back into this industry, which is very rewarding."

openings oak-cliff

Get Well, Michelle

Pioneering Restaurant Beatrice in Dallas' Oak Cliff to close

Restaurant Beatrice

Gumbo from Restaurant Beatrice

In a huge loss for Dallas' dining scene, an acclaimed restaurant in Oak Cliff is closing: Restaurant Beatrice, the Cajun restaurant at 1111 N. Beckley Ave. from award-winning chef Michelle Carpenter, will close on June 7, after four years.

Carpenter and her partner Hanh Ho are closing the restaurant so that Carpenter can recuperate from recent surgery she underwent to remove a brain tumor.

"Michelle is getting world-class medical treatment at UTSW," Ho says. "She’s herself, but there’s no cheffing during recovery. People might not understand the volume of manual labor required to be a real chef in a real restaurant."

“I can’t do recovery and run Beatrice,” Carpenter told D Magazine. “That is the reason [it is closing]. Even though these are difficult times, it would be hard to navigate while only giving 20 percent, or anything less than 100 percent of my focus.”

Carpenter opened the restaurant in 2022 as an effort to offer a new face of contemporary Cajun cuisine to Texas. Pronounced "bee-AT-russ," the restaurant is named after Carpenter's "Mammaw" or grandmother, Beatrice, and featured contemporary classics in a setting that embraced Louisiana hospitality and the Oak Cliff spirit of inclusiveness.

Chef Michelle Carpenter at Restaurant BeatriceCourtesy

Beatrice was her second restaurant, following Zen Sushi, which she opened in Bishop Arts in 2007, well before it became the hipster hangout it is today. She was also the first to offer vegan sushi, at least a decade before vegan became a major trend.

Zen Sushi will remain open.

Beyond the cuisine and culture, Restaurant Beatrice also pioneered a number of important initiatives including earning a B-Corporation certification — the first and only restaurant in Texas to obtain it. B Corporation is a for-profit business that has been verified to meet the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability.

The restaurant's significant efforts at environmental stewardship included composting, re-purposing of oil (they recycled their fryer oil to be re-used as bio-diesel), and repurposing of single-use items by encouraging guests to return their mason jars and bring their own re-usable to-go boxes to limit single-use containers. And like its sibling Zen Sushi, Beatrice also championed vegetarian dishes.

Capstone dinner Chef Michelle Carpenter, center, mentoring student chefs Taqoya Williamson (left) and Riauna Clarke WRLP

In addition, Carpenter and Ho partnered with Dallas College to launch the Women in Restaurants Leadership Program (WRLP), an eight-week, tuition-free program that provide seminars, training, and stagiaire opportunities. Carpenter conceived the program with a goal of helping retain and advance more women in the industry and creating a more positive restaurant culture.

The restaurant earned multiple awards including a James Beard Award semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2023, Open Table's Icon Awards in 2024, plus multiple Tastemaker Awards including Best New Restaurant, Best Chef in 2023, and again in 2025, plus Best Dessert Program in 2026.

Their final meal will be brunch on Sunday, June 7.

oak cliff closings chefs