Fine Dining

Uptown Dallas can dress up and dine at new high-roller steakhouse

Del Frisco's is serving the steak to Uptown.

Photo courtesy of Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse

The Uptown branch of steak palace Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House is open in the McKinney & Olive tower, serving dinner and lunch.

The 14,000-square-foot, two-story flagship restaurant is the 12th Del Frisco’s Double Eagle and the 52nd restaurant overall for Del Frisco's Restaurant Group, which also owns and operates 21 Del Frisco’s Grille locations and 18 Sullivan's Steakhouse locations.

Chef David Holben, who was at the helm of the previous location on Spring Valley Road for more than 11 years, serves as regional chef; chef Tony Schwappach, a Del Frisco's veteran, is executive chef at the Uptown location. Schwappach is an avid outdoorsman who worked at fine steak houses in Kansas City. Raised in the rural Midwest, he spent time gardening with his grandmother and working on the family’s produce farm.

Del Frisco’s Double Eagle Uptown menu features prime beef and bone-in steaks from Stockyards in Chicago, plus seasonal seafood from Foley’s in Boston. They've also added beef from local vendors including HeartBrand Beef, served in a Wagyu Akaushi rib-eye, and 44 Farms, served in a jalapeño burger with Texas toast.

The menu also features a wine list of more than 1,000 labels and 5,000 bottles, a mix of California and global wines from new and old world producers, priced from $40 to $5,000. One-of-a-kind bottles include Del Frisco's Private Reserve 2014 Napa Valley Cabernet, made exclusively for Del Frisco’s by premier Napa Valley winemaker Robert Foley. They also have a unique, etched Imperial of Far Niente/Salvatore Ferragamo Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2002 Napa Valley Wine Auction.

The program is led by wine directors David O’Day and Jessica Norris, plus three sommeliers: Chantel Daves, Jessica Davis, and Steve Orosco.

The design is by Johnson Studio in Atlanta, the same firm who created Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton Dallas and Del Frisco’s Double Eagle in Boston. There's an iconic staircase that reaches up and over the first-floor bar; it's fabricated of glass, polished bronze, and walnut, and placed at the most visible corner of McKinney & Olive.

A curvaceous bar has a marble bar top, polished bronze edge, and walnut bar die. A two-story polished bronze chandelier cascades from the second floor down to the first floor.

The main dining room features a bronze suspended art installation that sprawls across the ceiling in the dining space. The ceiling throughout both floors is made of perforated walnut panels. A second-floor terrace includes a lounge with two fire features, trees, and a covered dining area that spills along the storefront.

There are 564 seats across two floors that include two bars, two indoor lounges, a wine wall, a wine tower with moveable spiral staircase, and three private dining rooms.

uptown

Pizza News

Donatos Pizza totes its unique crust to new location in Flower Mound

dallas.culturemap.com

Donatos

A pizza chain with a quirky obsession on its crusts is coming to Flower Mound: Donatos Pizza, the franchise famous for spreading its toppings to the very edge of the pizza, will open a location at 1400 Long Prairie Rd. #160.

According to a release, it'll open on December 17.

Donatos Pizza was founded by Jim Grote in Ohio in 1963 from a single stand, and remains family-owned. Their signature is to place the toppings on their pizzas "edge to edge" — for clueless diners who do not like plain crust edges. (Come on, the crust is the best part.)

Their menu features more than a dozen varieties of pizza such as veggie, four cheese, and pepperoni with hot honey. Their signature crust is a thin-crust but they also offer thicker alternatives as well as a cauliflower crust. Pizzas come in a 7-inch individual and go all the way up to a 14-inch large. Prices range from $15 to $25.

Fans appreciate their better-than-average ingredients and describe it as more flavorful compared to other corporate pizza chains, with a crisp thin crust and generous toppings.

In addition to pizza, Donatos' menu includes oven-baked wings, sub sandwiches, including meatball and Italian cold cuts, plus appetizers and salads.

The Flower Mound location will be a family affair, owned by Lynne and Ralph Pence, whose son Travis will oversee day-to-day operations. The Pence family has deep connections to Donatos including the fact that Lynne's sister used to work for the company, while her brother-in-law still does.

"We're from Columbus, Ohio — it is where our kids grew up and where our family is—it also happens to be the hometown and birthplace of Donatos Pizza," Lynne says. "Our daughter in Oklahoma found out Donatos was coming to Edmond, where she lives, and called us. She was so excited that Donatos was finally coming down south and we wanted to be a part of it."

This is the second Donatos in the Dallas area: a location opened in Frisco in November — the first in Texas.

There are currently 470-plus locations in 28 states. That includes 175 stores plus nearly 300 non-traditional locations nationwide, including select Red Robin restaurants, sports, and entertainment venues.

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