Fairview Gets Wild
Downtown Dallas restaurant Wild Salsa spins off in the suburbs
It's margaritas in the north, as a third location has been resolved for Wild Salsa, the Mexico City concept from Dallas restaurant group DRG Concepts. The restaurant will open in 2015 at 241 Stacy Rd., at the northeast corner of US Highway 75, in the Village at Fairview.
It's the former location of Cyclone Anaya, which closed nearly two years ago.
DRG vice president Nafees Alam says they're headed to Collin County in response to demand. "We've been getting requests for a Collin County restaurant since we opened Wild Salsa," Alam says.
The original Wild Salsa opened in downtown Dallas in 2011, at the corner of St. Paul and Main streets across from another DRG concept, Dallas Chop House. Wild Salsa has always been extremely practical, because its menu runs from $28 fine-dining entrées such as lamb shank barbacoa all the way down to $2.50 tacos.
Other specialties include pork carnitas, the signature salsa sampler, and an extensive tequila and margarita program.
In addition to Wild Salsa and Dallas Chop House, DRG owns Dallas Fish Market and Chop House Burger, with original locations on Main Street in downtown Dallas. The company is also opening an Italian concept called Oven and Cellar on Main Street in Dallas, and previously announced a branch of Wild Salsa would open in Fort Worth.
DRG CEO Mike Hoque feels confident, calling the Village at Fairview "an excellent fit for Wild Salsa," but Fairview has been somewhat of a mixed bag for restaurants. Some have floundered while others such as La Duni and Cane Rosso, which recently opened its fourth branch in Fairview, have flourished.
"A lot of businesses have gone in the Fairview area, but maybe a little too early," Alam says. "Places that opened in 2009 or 2010, it was still in the height of the recession. They got in there in a different time when you couldn't get critical mass for the first years. I think that's what happened to Cyclone Anaya and to the steakhouse, Bailey's. It happened to us in Frisco, when we opened Fish Express. Now Frisco is booming. I think it's timing and a little bit of luck."
It's not unlike what they've done in downtown Dallas, where they settled ahead of the curve. "Downtown wasn't easy, and it's still not to the same point as Uptown or Henderson or Shops at Legacy," he says.
The menu at the new branch will be mostly the same but with a few new dishes. "I would say that 80 percent of menu will be the same," he says. "We're working on some new brunch items and some affordable dinner items."