News You Can Eat

Toast this chapter of Dallas restaurant news with craft beer and cake

Dallas gets another craft brewer, plus some new restaurants in the 'burbs. Look for more doughnuts on the docket, and who doesn't love cake?

Those are some of the highlights of this tasty collection of restaurant news. Keep reading.

Keller finally gets its own brewery. Shannon Brewing Company, which celebrates its arrival with a grand opening on September 20. The brewery will open with five beers: pale ale, Irish red, All American Blonde, chocolate stout and IPA. All will be poured at the event, which runs from noon-4 pm. For $10, you get three pints and a souvenir glass.

A second branch of Black Walnut Cafe has opened, this one on North Denton Tap Road in Coppell. The Houston-based chain prefers the suburbs; it opened its first Dallas-area branch in Allen in July.

Lewisville gets a Rockfish Seafood & Grill, at 4740 State Hwy. 121, where it will debut a menu with not only seafood, but also rib-eye steak and baby-back ribs. Rockfish has been under new leadership since 2010; according to president and CEO Tommy Lee, this is the first new location since 2009. The concept, which started in 1998, will undergo a transformation in the next few years. The Lewisville store represents the new direction.

In One Arts Plaza, Proof + Pantry is open, but Fedorahas closed.

After five years, Afghan Grill in North Dallas has closed, allowing chef-owner Matt Pikar to focus his time and energy on Nora Restaurant & Bar. According to a spokeswoman, the lease was going to be up anyway, and there's greater opportunity on Greenville Avenue. Nora is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday-Sunday.

Pizza chain Fireside Pieshas a new owner: the Chalak Metra Group, owner of Genghis Grill, which took over four branches — Henderson Avenue, Inwood Road, Grapevine and Plano — from Consilient in July. The Fort Worth location, now called Thirteen Pies, was not part of the deal.

In Trinity Groves, Cake Bar will open on September 18. The menu boasts a variety of cakes, available by the slice, such as Key lime, Neapolitan and coconut. Owner Tracy German, who grew up in Georgia and attended culinary school in Seattle, has been selling cakes out of her house for nearly 14 years.

A new Dunkin' Donuts is open in Rockwall, at 3035 Ridge Rd; another branch will open in Lewisville in late September. Both will serve the chain's seasonal pumpkin goods, including pumpkin doughnuts and pumpkin latte drinks.

At Grain, the restaurant inside the Hilton Dallas Park Cities Hotel, chef James Music and his team have developed a farm-to-table menu, with items sourced from the Dallas Farmers Market. Options include heirloom tomato salad; crab, avocado and mango tower; tenderloin tips with tobacco fried 1015 onions; and Windy Farm rib-eye.

Big chain Del Taco has a line of "fresca bowls" in three varieties: Southwest chicken and veggie, pollo asado chicken, and roasted veggie with green chile sauce. They're served on a bed of fresca lime rice and seasoned black beans.

Design District restaurant Oak has a new weekday lunch menu. Dishes include chilled almond soup; Canary melon salad; eggplant trio with masala, peanut, okra and yogurt; and a $15 Wagyu beef burger with bacon and Manchego cheese.

At Urban Rio in Plano, this month's featured tamale is called the Hatchmale. Isn't that adorable? Hatch chile + tamale, see? It has Hatch chile in the masa dough, and it's filled with Hatch chiles and Chihuahua cheese, topped with Hatch chile verde sauce, and served with rice and beans. There's also a Hatch cocktail made with Jose Cuervo silver tequila, Cointreau, Hatch chile peppers and fresh lime juice.

Noted for its grilled cheese sandwiches, Ruthie's Rolling Cafe has added mac and cheese to its menu. It can be customized with toppings such as brisket, grilled chicken, bacon, tomatoes, caramelized onions, jalapeños and blue cheese.

Deep Ellum's Monkey King Noodle Co. is extending its dinner hours to Thursdays from 6-10 pm; it is currently open for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays.

Rabbit Hole Brewing has a new beer: Off With Your Red, a red IPA that the brewery describes as having a substantial malt backbone and dark ruby/garnet color, with a 7.9 percent ABV. It launches September 23 at Jack Mac's Swill & Grill in Plano and at Oak Street Drafthouse in Denton.

The Hilton Anatole has appointed Matthew Leonard as executive sous chef, reporting to executive chef David Scalise. Leonard has worked in hotels and resorts across the nation, including time as the executive chef of the Montage Deer Valley in Park City, Utah. The Anatole is home to five restaurants and bars, including SĒR Steak + Spirits, Media Grill + Bar and Gossip Bar.

Design District restaurant FT33 has a new chef de cuisine in Jason Ferraro, formerly of Hibiscus and The Porch. New faces behind the bar include Tristan Price and Robert McLemore.

Cake Bar is about to open at Trinity Groves.

Cake Bar at Trinity Groves Facebook

Cake Bar is about to open at Trinity Groves.

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Coffee News

East Dallas coffee shop Killer Joe crackles with sharp New York style

Killer Joe

Killer Joe Coffee

A hip new coffee shop is energizing a busy corner in East Dallas: Called Killer Joe, it's a new shop at 108 N. Fitzhugh Ave. right on the northeast corner of Columbia Avenue, next to (and in the same building as) Pupusas To Go.

Killer Joe is from Christine Sweet and Christian Napolitano, who moved from New York to Dallas in 2022 in search of entrepreneurial opportunity.

"We had been wanting to open up a business in New York for a long time," Christine says. “After the pandemic, it was really hard doing business there. We were looking for a good place to move that offered an opportunity to open our business."

Christine previously worked in travel/destination marketing, living in different places around the world. Christian was in hospitality, having worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan, most recently at Bond Street Sushi in Soho.

Their goal: to bring a little New York culture to Dallas.

“We are more than a coffee shop — we're a place for foodies and musicophiles, we are really into music and rock & roll. Our shop is not a sleepy, quiet coffee shop," Christine says.

They serve notice of their intentions on the exterior with a quirky, personal mural by Anthony Z. Padilla, rendered in taxicab yellow, with elegant line drawings of the Statue of Liberty and highway-style signs that say "Now leaving New York" and "Welcome to Texas."

The interior is casual-chic, with pale wood furniture and an original cement floor that still sports intentional patches of old paint. The walls have a mix of B&W vintage photos and the occasional cowboy hat. The space was for many years a closed-in bar called Los Dos Reales; but now, the building boasts expansive windows that look out on Fitzhugh and create a bright and sunny space.

For their coffee program, they use organic espresso beans and make their drinks in an Italian Sanremo machine. They serve all the classics plus signature drinks such as French Toast Latte, Sea Salt Caramel de Leche, and Caliente Mocha with a hint of cayenne pepper.

Seasonal drinks include a pistachio caramel matcha latte — featuring toasted pistachios like a baklava, but balanced by the earthiness of the matcha. Other specialty drinks include rose water matcha, orange blossom matcha spritz, and cucumber lemonade.

Panini at Killer JoeKiller Joe

They also serve food, including breakfast all day: steak & eggs, avocado toast, and bagels with plain, scallion or vegan cream cheese. The "Spaghetti Western" is a twist on the traditional ham & cheese sandwich with spicy capicola, roasted tomato, Calabrian pepper sauce, and chimichurri on toasted ciabatta.

Bread is from Empire Baking Company and the bagels are from Shug's.

At lunch, they serve an umami tuna melt; a "K-Pop Cuban" with ham and cheese, plus kimchi pickles and wasabi mayo; and The Texican, with soyrizo spicy sausage, cheddar roasted poblano peppers, tomato, and avocado.

Reeves Family Farm in Princeton provides fruits and vegetables, and 4DWN brings their microgreens. Pastries are baked in house and sauces such as black olive pesto and Killer chipotle sauce are made from scratch.

“We are trying to blend our edgy New York style with a Southern Texas flair," Christine says.

They're open daily from 7am-3 pm, with a late-hour program every second Saturday featuring live DJs; people gather inside and outside the shop for music, food, and drinks.

"This community is just so great, very eclectic, and has really embraced our style," Christine says. In fact, a few customers had a tattoo made at neighbor Franklins Tattoo and Supply with the coffee shop's skull logo.

"I had to follow and get one done too," she says.

coffee openings