Deep Ellum Dining Guide

Best neighborhood eats: 6 hot restaurants in Deep Ellum

St. Pete's Dancing Marlin makes the Deep Ellum dining scene feel complete.
Photo courtesy of St. Pete's Dancing Marlin
Local serves as a showplace for its chef-owner, Tracy Miller.
Photo courtesy of Local Restaurant
Angry Dog was doing good burgers before burgers became A Thing.
Photo courtesy of Angry Dog
Cane Rosso was the game changer for Deep Ellum.
Photo courtesy of Cane Rosso
Comfort-food enchiladas from Pepe's Ranch.
Photo by Teresa Gubbins
In a world dominated by chains, Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop is the rare indie.
Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop/Facebook

Historical Deep Ellum has led many lives, from its century-old blues scene to its 1990s heyday as the center of live music. In 2013, the neighborhood rebounds again as one of Dallas' hottest dining destinations, with dozens of places to get a bite.

What makes this dining scene a standout is that nearly all of the restaurants are independently owned, and they cover a wide span of cuisines and experiences: from coffee house to grocery to buzzy artisan doughnut shop.

With Mama Mia's, Serious and Zini's, there is no shortage of pizza. You can find breakfast at Allgood, Cafe Brazil, Buzzbrews, Murray Street Coffee Shop and the new Glazed Donut Works; barbecue at Baker's Ribs; soul food at Mama Faye's; Vietnamese at Lemongrass; Japanese at Deep Sushi; Cajun at Free Man; Tex-Mex at Maracas (formerly Monica's); fried pie at the Original Fried Pie Shop; burgers at Twisted Root; and ramen coming soon to Tanoshii. There is also a Subway's and a Fuzzy's.

You can get wine at Calais, beer at Deep Ellum Brewing, sausage at Rudolph's, cheese at Mozzarella Co., produce at the Deep Ellum Outdoor Market, and takeout at Deep Ellum Postal & Grocer. Even the bars have food, from vegan nachos at Anvil Pub to tacos at the Boiler Room.

Narrowing down Deep Ellum's six best seems impossible, but here's our shot.

Angry Dog
This grizzled bar-restaurant has stuck by Deep Ellum through thick and thin, with reliable service, 20-plus beers on tap, and an amusing rigidity about the jukebox volume. Its menu of bar food is unpretentious yet proficiently executed, from wings to its no-nonsense burger, a category Angry Dog took seriously long before burgers became The Thing they are today. They don't do much here, but what they do, they do with care.

Cane Rosso
Twisted Root gets credit for blazing the trail back to Deep Ellum. But Cane Rosso was the game changer, in that its Neapolitan-style pizza was so good that it made everyone forget whatever grudges they still had. From the top-of-the-line toppings to the chewy, charred crust, this is incomparable pizza, overseen by authentic pizzaiolo Dino Santicola and delivered with a wink by witty owner Jay Jerrier.

Local
With its Maine lobster cakes and beet salad with arugula, toasted hazelnuts and goat cheese, Local gives Deep Ellum a gourmet refinement you don't get with burgers and pizza, no matter how artisan they are. Not unlike Lucia in Bishop Arts, Local occupies a vintage building and serves as a platform for its chef, Tracy Miller, to execute her simple yet Southern vision: from trend-setting battered fried green beans to funky tempura-fried Caesar salad.

Pepe's Ranch / Pepe's & Mito's
Sandy and Pedro Rojas generously give Deep Ellum two places to get great grub: the straight-ahead Tex-Mex of their original Pepe's & Mito's — good enough that it warranted a profile on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives — or the hybrid cuisine of their new place, Pepe's Ranch, which combines Tex-Mex classics with home cooking. Either way, you're guaranteed to get excellent enchiladas cloaked in house-made sauces as complex as any four-star joint.

St. Pete's Dancing Marlin
St. Pete's fills an essential niche that makes Deep Ellum's dining scene feel complete: It is useful. Its broad menu, with seafood, pasta, salads, burgers and dinner entrees, offers room for everyone — whether you're celebrating a special occasion, in the mood for a fresh salad, or in need of an affordable $7 plate of pasta. The secret weapon is owner Pete Zotos, whose hospitable friendliness makes you feel right at home.

Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop
The sandwich world is dominated by chains, but Uncle Uber's Sammich Shop, ensconced in one of Deep Ellum's classic brick buildings, is the rare indie. Owners Bryan and Kathy Crelly respond to customers by adding new items regularly, such as a veggie burger made with grains and mushrooms. Sandwiches like shaved rib-eye steak are generously portioned, but with a balance of filling to bread that sits well with Dallas' neatnik diners.

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Chocolate News

Richardson dessert shop Chocolate Drip lays out eye-catching treats

Chocolate Drip

Chocolate bear with pistachio sauce at Chocolate Drip

A dessert shop in Richardson has become the toast of the sweets world: Called Chocolate Drip, it opened in August at 1057 S. Sherman St., in a center east of US-75 near Spring Valley Road, where it's rolling out some eye-catching chocolate treats.

Chocolate Drip is a passion project from Mohammad Quzmar, a Palestinian-born owner who moved to Dallas four years ago and taught himself to cook through tinkering. That experimentation has translated into a constantly evolving menu, with new creations appearing whenever inspiration strikes — earning him a growing reputation as something of a modern-day Willy Wonka.

"Chocolate is my passion. I just love being in the kitchen and creating,” he says.

The cafe's offerings are extensive, from sweet breakfast staples like pancakes and waffles to off-menu items teased on the café’s Instagram, such as the Dubai Drip platter — an interactive fondue plate with fruit, brownies, waffles, marshmallows, to be dipped into melted chocolate and pistachio cream.

Many of his items have the kind of eye-catching twists and table-side presentations that draw attention on Instagram, such as the cruffle (a waffle made from a croissant) topped with spaghetti-like strands of gelato, which a server extrudes through a potato ricer right before your eyes.

Other signatures include a teddy bear made of chocolate mousse and kanafa, finished with pistachio sauce for $13.30, and crepes filled with a brownie, with pistachio and chocolate sauce for $15.

Prices are not cheap but these are ultra-decadent items with generous portions, often meant for sharing.

The drink list is ambitious, spanning coffee, matcha, smoothies, milkshakes, and nonalcoholic mocktails. It's obvious Quzmar is having fun, rolling out his versions of viral items like the famous s'mores hot chocolate pioneered by New York dessert shop Glace, which features a cap made of marshmallow meringue that’s torched and topped with a chocolate bonbon.

There are also a few savory offerings like egg-and-cheese crepes, a salmon croissant, and a turkey waffle. Those in the know also come to order Middle Eastern treats like salab, a creamy milk drink topped with cinnamon; and Om Ali, a sugary pudding with nuts, dried fruit, and coconut.

Named after the Gen Z slang for “cool” or “stylish,” Drip is meant to be a hangout spot more than a quick dessert stop, Quzmar says — a place to linger over brunch, then return late night to a place that feels buzzy and fun sans alcohol.

“Everyone who works here is either family or treated like family and everything is homemade with love," he says.

desserts openings