Opening News

New restaurant Monaco on canals of Las Colinas summons the French Riviera

Redfish with onion marsala and woodear mushroom on a bed of celery root puree and served with sorrel greens.

Monaco

There's a new restaurant opening in Las Colinas inspired by the French Riviera. Called Monaco Restaurant, it's from a local team of food & beverage veterans, including the Lamberti family, who own Lamberti's Ristorante in Irving.

The restaurant will open in the Water Street area of Las Colinas, facing the canals — very French Riviera-like! — in the former Olivella's space at 5238 N. O'Connor Blvd. #134, Las Colinas.

According to a release, they'll usher in a soft opening in mid-August, when they'll serve a limited menu, before going large in mid-September. It'll be open for lunch, dinner, and brunch.

The menu includes:

Tartare of Filet
Burrata and Prosciutto with salsa verde
Hamachi Crudo
Neapolitan pizzas such as the Margherita, made by two cooks from Naples
chicken liver salad
Pork Boudin
Moroccan Beef Cheek with quinoa salad, prune, shallot, parsley, mint, preserved lemon, and macadamia nuts
Redfish Marsala with onion marsala and woodear mushroom on celery root puree with sorrel greens

Come on, that sounds good, especially prune in an entree, and celery root puree. Prices range from $9 to $36.

The restaurant will also feature a worldly wine program with labels not only from obvious places like France, Italy, and California, but also Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Sicily, New Zealand, Serbia, Macedonia, and Argentina.

Owner is David Lamberti, who previously worked in corporate development for I Fratelli, before opening Lamberti's Ristorante in a former I Fratelli space in 2017. Although his family has roots in East Coast Italian food, he's totally Team Irving, having grown up and attended college there, opened his businesses there, and currently residing with his family.

Staff is family, with longtime employees such as Assistant General Manager Johnny Hardy, who worked his way up from washing dishes at 15 to becoming a server, bartender, and into management. Hardy is also a musician and performs at local Dallas spots like Granada Theater and Doublewide.

Executive Chef and Beverage Director Matthew Perry is Hardy's brother-in-law and also worked for Lamberti at I Fratelli when he was a teenager. Perry helped open PM Lounge at The Joule Hotel and was heavily into the cocktail culture and bar programs for Victor Tango Parliament. He's also been a cook, mostly recently a sous chef in Austin; Monaco will be the first kitchen he leads.

General manager and sommelier is Frank Horak, also an Irving native, with sommelier experience at acclaimed restaurants such as Flora Street Cafe, Gemma, and Sachet. His goal is to create a wine program good enough to save local residents from having to drive elsewhere.

The idea for the restaurant was hatched during the pandemic when Lamberti discovered the former Olivella's space. After they get it rolling, they hope to open a bodega next door and a cocktail lounge behind the restaurant.

"It embraced everything we were wanting: a small spot by the water, a hidden gem, a destination, walkable and a place where we can create something special for the locals," he says.

openings

Pub News

New pub The Irish Goodbye to open on Greenville Avenue in Dallas

dallas.culturemap.com

It's a good thing Dallas likes pubs, as a new one is coming to Lower Greenville. Called The Irish Goodbye, it'll open at 1928 Greenville Ave. in the space previously occupied by Hide, which closed in March.

Named for the custom of departing from an event quietly, The Irish Goodbye is from One Esca Group, the hospitality company by restaurateur Michael Kim, who also owns Blackfriar Pub.

He and his operating partner Kevin Bartley plan to begin hosting soft opening events within the week.

Their vision is an elevated Irish pub with a sports bar element, Kim says.

"Our inspiration comes from some of the higher-end pubs we've visited in New York," he says. "These are places that are classy, not a hole-in-the-wall, a place that might appeal to professionals, sports and pub fans."

Kim, who also owns the restaurant Sugarbacon Proper Kitchen, got into the hospitality industry almost by accident.

"My background was in private equity, working for a company that specialized in restaurant acquisitions," he says. "It gave me a unique perspective on the restaurant world from behind the scenes."

His company was involved in the dissolution of Spaghetti Warehouse, and at one point Kim served as president of the chain. (It now has three remaining locations, two of which he owns.) Having caught the restaurant operations bug, he acquired Blackfriar Pub in Uptown, originally founded by Feargal McKinney, in 2019, then opened a second location in Lakewood in 2022.

"When I started, I was foolish enough to think operating a bar would be comparable to restaurants but learned quickly that the experience is dramatically different," he says. "I was lucky that a couple key employees taught me how bars worked."

The Irish Goodbye will be the first concept that he and Bartley create from scratch. The venue will have three zones including a 3700-square-foot interior; a 2,000- to 2,500-square-foot rooftop patio; and a new front patio. It'll be outfitted with 40 TVs, plus a complex AV system that'll allow them to dial in different programming for each space.

The food menu is still being finalized, but will cull from their other concepts such as Sugarbacon, including weekend brunch.

"Our goal, it's probably ambitious, is to be one of the names that pops into everybody's head when you ask about pubs in Dallas," Kim says.

greenville-avenue openings