News You Can Eat

All kinds of fried chicken head up this spicy Dallas restaurant news

Family-style fried chicken from Lawry's the Prime Rib.

Lawry's

While pizza continues to be a sizzling-hot trend in the Dallas restaurant world, it's not the only food group that's booming. Fried chicken is having a moment, with some unusual variations on the usual Southern theme.

In other dining dish, there's a taqueria closure and the opening of an ice cream shop.

Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:

Taco Stop Restaurant, located at 1900 Irving Blvd. in the Design District, is closing after nine years. Its last day of operation will be August 29. In a release, owner and founder Emilia Flores blamed reduced foot traffic in the Design District. She received international attention for her annual winter coat drive, where she put a rack of coats out front, free for the taking, during cold weather.

SomiSomi at Carrollton Town Center had its long-awaited grand opening on August 7. They do a special Korean dessert known as Ah-Boong: a fish-shaped waffle cone filled with your choice of filling such as custard, taro, or red beans, and topped with soft serve. You can also just get a cup of soft-serve in flavors such as banana, coffee, chocolate, horchata, ube, sesame, oreo, and more. There's also a location in Frisco.

Jollibee, the Filipino chain that serves fried chicken and spaghetti, opened its first North Texas restaurant in Plano on August 20 and was greeted over the weekend by a big turnout. Yuge. People waited two hours in the drive-thru line, which is almost as bad as Chick Fil-A. @Cedge said that Jollibee Plano was "behaving like the streets of Manila," while @uhhlexii noted that "people in Plano are losing their shit." @joanneraen offered a prayer for her mom and "every Filipino in the DFW area flocking to the new Jollibee," and @DougSpaltro said he happily drove an hour, then sat in line for 2.5 hours to get his fix. "It was heavenly!" he said.

Chicken Chris is a new fried chicken restaurant located at 8300 LaPrada Dr. in Casa View on the border of Mesquite whose motto is "Faith, Food, and Fellowship."

"We offer Home-style Fried Chicken dishes with Jesus Christ as the Head Chef," they say. That is quite a get. They serve Southern favorites, especially fried chicken, which you can get in a basket with marinated chicken strips, custom cut fries, Texas toast, pickles, peppers, carrots, and their Chicken Chris secret sauce. They have hot links, banana pudding, and an item called "nacholatas," featuring chips topped with cheese, sour cream, onions, tomatoes, and choice of shrimp or chicken. Their smothered chicken Daddy Fries are French fries topped with smothered chicken tender bites, available Friday-Saturday only.

TKK Fried Chicken, the Taiwanese fast food chicken that partnered with Kung Fu Tea to open dual concepts across the U.S. including a location in Richardson, has a "spicy series" featuring a spicy chicken sandwich it introduced in July 2020, plus new spicy crunchy tenders and spicy TKK wings. So much spicy.

Lawry's The Prime Rib has a family meal kit program with family-style meals, hot and ready Tuesday-Sunday. Reserve online by 2 pm for same day pickup. Meals vary weekly; for August 25- September 1, it's shrimp cocktail, fried chicken, whipped mashed potatoes, Caesar salad, and strawberries & cream, and it's $89. Which is pretty good for a spread like that.

East Hampton Sandwich Co. has four new lobster sandwiches to celebrate its eighth anniversary: Spicy Lobster Roll with lobster and cherry peppers in a spicy chipotle pepper aioli; Connecticut Lobster Roll, a hot version of the roll with grilled lobster, Old Bay seasoning, and green onion; Lobster Grilled Cheese with Old Bay, and Cooper white & orange American cheese; and Maine Lobster Roll with lobster and celery in an herb aioli.

DFW Restaurant Week officially starts next Monday August 31, with nearly 100 options for dine-in or take-out. Some restaurants are doing Preview Weekend, starting Friday August 28. The list is here.

Watters Creek in Allen is hosting its inaugural BiteNites Restaurant Week which runs through September 2. Guests can enjoy a prix-fixe menu of multi-course dinners at participating restaurants, including P.F. Chang’s and Edith’s.

Taco Cabana has launched QuesoMania, featuring three new loaded queso options, in small or large for $2.99 or $4.29 respectively in the following flavor combinations:

Queso with corn, cotija cheese and Taco Cabana Hot Sauce
Queso with chorizo, beans and jalapenos
Queso with ground beef and pico de gallo

Beyond Meat now has an ecommerce site featuring access to a vast portfolio of signature plant-based meats, including all-new bulk packs, mixed product bundles, limited-time offers, trial packs, and more. The direct-to-consumer site is a convenient way to experience Beyond Meat, with two-day shipping, delivered to your door.

Impossible Burger Patties are now available at Kroger stores. Each pack comes with two pre-formed, quarter-pound patties. You can find them in the fresh meat section of the store, or online.

openings

Comings and Goings

It's a big week for restaurant openings and closings in Dallas

Alara

Deconstructed baklava at Alara.

The headline says it best: It's a big week for restaurant openings and closings in Dallas. Sometimes forces come together to make a week like this busy, whether it's the alignment of the stars or just a Dallas code compliance inspector who finally decides to give a thumbs up.

But along with the good news of openings comes the not-so-good news of closings. Let's do good news first with openings, followed by closings.

OPENINGS

Alara, a Mediterranean restaurant from Turkish-born chef Onur Akan, has opened in Dallas' Design District at 1628 Oak Lawn Ave. #120, in the former Pakpao Thai space. Akan, who previously worked as a chef at Nonna and had his own catering company, is calling it "modern Mediterranean," with twists such as deconstructed baklava and the so-called Caesar salad, whose gem lettuce, fried anchovies, and green goddess dressing make it seem like not a Caesar at all. During lunch, Alara will feature a casual European cafe-style menu with mezze, doner kebab, sandwiches, and salads. Dinner service expands into a larger menu with nightly specials.

Bojangles, the Carolina chicken chain, opened a location in Plano at 3840 SH-121, in a newly-constructed building west of Kroger Marketplace at the corner of Coit Road. Bojangles specializes in fried chicken, biscuits, and Southern sides such as dirty rice, mac & cheese, and Cajun pinto beans. They made their Dallas-area debut in 2023 with the usual fanfare that first surrounds a chain, followed by the usual fading fanfare that surrounds a chain after it has opened multiple locations. In this case, Plano marks the company’s ninth location in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Maman, the New York café chain making a big expansion in Dallas, opens its new location at Hillside Village, the centrally situated center at Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road, on April 23 in the former Palmer's Hot Chicken space, with pastries, sandwiches, coffee, and exclusive Texas menu items. Opening day will feature an 8 am ribbon cutting with complimentary cookies for the first 100 customers who make a purchase. They made their Texas debut in November 2025 when they opened a location in the Plaza at Preston Center. There are also plans for locations in Frisco, Casa Linda, and the Design District.

PopUp Bagels, a buzzy bagel concept from the Northeast, will make its Texas debut on April 24, opening its first location in Dallas at Inwood Village, in the former I Heart Yogurt shop next to the Inwood Theatre at 5450 W Lovers Ln. #143. PopUp started as a backyard project during the pandemic. Their menu is limited — no sandwiches— and their bagels are sold whole only, not sliced, leading to their nickname "rip and dip," in which customers rip the bagels in half and dip them into spreads. (Their texture is softer and lighter than the traditional New York dense bagel, making them easier to "rip.") On opening day only, they'll serve a Lemon Pepper Schmear that's a collaboration with Wingstop.

Portillo's, the Chicago-based street food chain, opened a location in Frisco at 16499 FM Rd. #423 on April 21, with Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, crinkle-cut fries, salads, shakes, and chocolate cake. Hot dogs come in regular, chili cheese, Polish sausage, and Maxwell Street Polish sausage with mustard and grilled onions. The location features Portillo's "restaurant of the future" design, comprising a smaller, more efficient footprint. It is the 11th location of Portillo's in Dallas-Fort Worth and first in Frisco; the first opened at the Grandscape development in The Colony in January 2023.

CLOSINGS

Super Duper Cookie Co., a social enterprise that employs people with disabilities, is closing its storefront in May. The shop, which opened in 2024 in the former Baldo's Ice Cream space across from SMU at 6401 Hillcrest Rd., will be closing on May 1, according to a post on Instagram. Company founder Benjamin Crosland told the DMN that they're closing because they couldn't afford to stay in business. "We are sad to go but we know that we have made an impact in our community," their post said. "We will be here until May 1, so come and say goodbye and get a cookie and dance under the disco ball one last time."

Bon bons by Kate Weiser Chocolate. Photo courtesy of Kate Weiser Chocolate

Dozo Omakase. Omakase sushi restaurant at Trinity Groves closed on April 14, after a little more than a year. The sushi spot opened in early 2025 with an embrace of the then-trendy multi-course omakase style of dining, in small or large versions with basically four options: 7 or 15 courses, plus hand rolls and a nigiri-handroll combination, with prices ranging from $28 to $120. They had a cool happy hour with a new menu nearly every month, but it wasn't enough. In their closure announcement, they said it was a difficult decision but invited fans to visit their sister restaurant Dozo Sushi in Richardson.

Kate Weiser Chocolate, Dallas' renowned chocolatier famous for its colorful and artistic chocolates, is closing down. That includes all four locations: its flagship at Trinity Groves as well as NorthPark Center, Fort Worth, and Southlake, as well as online sales. Founder Kate Weiser, a pastry chef who founded her chocolate company in 2014 as part of the "incubator" program at Trinity Groves, told the DMN that Trinity Groves' investors owned 60 percent of the company, and that they hadn't been profitable in four years. She's arranged for her signature "Carl the Snowman" hot chocolate kit to have one final Christmas season with Central Market for the 2026 holiday.

Stirr, the brunchy restaurant from Dallas-based Milkshake Concepts, has closed its final location in Addison. According to a post from the owners, they decided not to renew their lease; April 19 was their last day of service. Stirr made its debut in Deep Ellum in 2016, serving chef-driven dishes and cocktails. A second location opened in Fort Worth in 2019, then closed in 2021. Milkshake seems to be in a time of transition. In 2025, they closed Citizen, their lounge on Swiss Avenue and recently replaced it with a dance-music venue called Ctrl Room. They also own the small Mexican chain Vidorra, Serious Pizza, and The Finch, an American grill with locations in Dallas, Grand Prairie, and Nashville.
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Stephanie Allmon Merry contributed to this story.

closings desserts bagels trends openings