Downtown News

Famous Food Network chef opens sweet cafe in downtown Dallas

The menu will include avocado toast.

Photo by Kathy Tran

A new restaurant is coming to downtown Dallas with coffee, pastries, and avocado toast. Called Rise & Thyme, it's a seasonal American cafe from celebrity chef Amanda Freitag and according to a release, will open in the new AT&T Discovery District on September 18.

Located at 211 S. Akard St., this will be the second restaurant to open in the AT&T Discovery District, following Jaxon, the restaurant and beer garden that opened in March.

Rise & Thyme will open first for breakfast and lunch, and add dinner later with a menu of salads, sandwiches, pastas, and patty melts.

Freitag is the acclaimed chef and Food Network regular who has battled Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America, competed for the title of America's Next Iron Chef, and serves as a judge on Chopped.

The R&T menu will include:

Taco Thyme – scrambled eggs, muenster, bacon, thyme potatoes, griddled onion on a flour tortilla
Smoked Salmon & Everything Toast – cream cheese, pickled red onion, capers, cucumber, tomato, dill, "everything" spice on sourdough or seeded whole-wheat
AF Chicken Salad – thyme- and lemon-roasted chicken breast, tarragon, house mayo, lemon, pickled celery and red onion, on bibb lettuce, tomato, and cucumber
Impossibly Perfect Patty Melt – Impossible patty, secret sauce, muenster, and pickle on sourdough bread
Roasted Chicken French Dip – crispy shredded leg and thigh meat, provolone, caramelized onion, horseradish mayo, arugula on a baguette with a side of chicken jus
Salmon a la Plancha – 6-ounce skin-on Scottish salmon filet, thyme potatoes, tartar sauce

Rise & Thyme will also offer fresh pastries from local favorites La Casita Bakeshop and bread from Village Baking Co.

Located on the corner of Commerce and Akard, Rise & Thyme was designed by The Johnson Studios, with an interior described as both sleek and rustic, plus floor-to-ceiling windows that flood the space with light.

The restaurant will be open for takeout, delivery, limited indoor seating, and a full range of outdoor seating in the Discovery District.

"I can't even begin to say how happy we are to finally be able to open this restaurant with Amanda," says Kevin Lillis, CEO/founder of Hospitality Alliance, with whom Freitag is partnering on the restaurant. "I've been a fan and friend of hers for years, and while this opening may be a little later than we originally planned, we definitely believe it was worth the wait. We're looking forward to bringing something truly special to Downtown Dallas and the Discovery District."

coffee downtown openings

Ice Cream News

Kwality Ice Cream shop to bring creamy exotic desserts to Frisco

Kwality

Kwality Ice Cream

An ice cream chain with an Indian flair is dipping into Dallas-Fort Worth: Called Kwality Ice Cream, it's a concept founded in New Jersey that specializes in traditional Indian ice cream and cold drinks, and it's opening a location in Frisco, at 13089 Main St. #500, in a new shopping center.

According to franchisee Raju Vikey, the shop will open sometime in 2025. It joins two DFW locations already open: Irving at 8600 N. Macarthur Blvd., and Euless, at 1060 N. Main St. at Harwood Crossing shopping center, which opened in April.

Kwality Ice Cream was founded by food scientist Dr. Kanti Parekh and his son Anand, in New Jersey in 2003. It has expanded with 38 locations in 14 states including Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas, where there are three locations in Houston and one in Austin.

“The idea was to create a South Asian-specific ice cream, which is more known for fruits and nuts,” Anand says. “As a Ph.D. in food and nutrition, my father’s background and expertise were in flavor. He used that to create very unique flavors and top notes to give a really good mouth feel and experience.”

They have close to 50 ice cream flavors with classics like cookies & cream, chocolate supreme, and butter pecan; but South Asian and Indian flavors dominate the menu with exotic options like green guava, lychee, and Nuttie Tuttie Fruitee, a berry-flavored ice cream with nuts and candied fruit.

There is also kulfi, a frozen dessert that's like ice cream but with less added air so it has a stiffer, creamier texture. It's served in slices and comes in popular Indian flavors like pistachio, mango, and rose.

Other novel frozen treats include cassata, an ice cream cake with three flavors of ice cream layered over sponge cake.

As with many Asian desserts, they're often less sweet than American-style confections. Wild inventions include the mawa rabdi cup, with ice cream, rice noodles, basil seeds, and rose syrup, topped with nuts and candied fruit; and Thandai ice cream, a staple at Indian festivals, consisting of almonds, fennel seeds, poppy seeds, watermelon seeds, rose petals, pepper, cardamom, saffron, milk, and sugar.

Rabdi is like a pudding, believed to have originated during the 1600s. Kwality makes it following the traditional method of slow-cooking milk until it thickens and reduces, enhancing its sweetness and creaminess, then adding ingredients like cardamom, saffron, and pistachios.

Pints of ice cream and frozen desserts range from $8-$11, and cassata ice cream cake slices are $7.

ice cream openings desserts