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

Tex-Mex News

Get Tex-Mex and bargain margs at Alexander's Cantina in North Dallas

A Mexican restaurant with a killer happy hour has debuted in North Dallas: Alexander's Cantina & Cocina, a family-owned restaurant and bar, has opened at 4805 Frankford Rd. #105, a space most recently occupied by Casa Don Luis Tex-Mex and before that, a Corner Bakery.

Alexander's is a bigger-and-better spinoff of Alexander's Mex Cuisine, a restaurant opened in Plano in 2023 by Bernardo Garduño and his family, featuring Tex-Mex and street food from his hometown Mexico City.

Garduño worked for many years in the service industry before coming to Dallas in 2015. He crafted Alexander's menu by drawing on his restaurant experience, along with recipes from his mom.

Signature dishes include:

Pambazo — Mexican bread dipped in chili sauce, filled with potatoes, chorizo, and queso, then fried
Alambre — steak, ham, and bacon with onion, peppers, and cheese
Bistek a la Mexicana — steak tips, onion, and bell pepper simmered in a spicy tomato sauce until it turns into a stew

Other crowd-pleasers include chicken mole, brisket tacos, birria, fajitas, enchiladas, and more. They have a big selection of seafood including tacos with salmon and coconut shrimp, plus vegetarian options such as veggie fajitas and spinach enchiladas. One favorite extra: Their chips come not only with salsa but also black bean dip.

The new location has given them room to grow in a way they were unable to do in Plano, Garduño says.

"Plano is doing very well but that location is small, and there was no room to expand," he says. "We did extensive renovations at the Dallas location that included the addition of a bar, as well as room for parties and entertainment, like salsa on Fridays and Saturdays."

The menu at the two locations is basically the same but Dallas has a few new dishes such as mojarra frita, a whole tilapia fried and served with rice, plus carnitas, and a few more tacos, he says.

One item they recently dropped: soft-serve margaritas. Garduño was quick to jump on that early 2026 trend, and Alexander's made many a "soft-serve margarita" list, but the trend turned out to be short-lived.

"It did well for a month, but people went right back to regular margaritas," he says. "Those drinks are fun but they're very sweet. The mix has to be highly sugared in order to get the texture correct. The ingredients and equipment to make it were expensive, which meant we had to charge more for it — $16 as opposed to $10 for our regular margaritas."

Garduño has kept an eye on the trend. "We're not the only place no longer doing it," he says.

Besides, it was not a good fit with Alexander's generous happy hour, featuring $5.50 house margaritas, $6 flavored margaritas, and $4 beer, available from 11 am-6 pm every day at the Plano location, and Sunday-Thursday at Dallas.

"Our happy hour has become one of our trademarks," he says.

tex-mex openings