News You Can Eat

Coffee and chocolate waffles perk up this round of restaurant news tidbits

Things are brewing this week in the Dallas coffee scene with consolidations and departures. The Mansion has a new wine director, and Kitchen LTO opens with a fudge waffle dessert concoction courtesy of Blythe Beck. Read on for more tasty tidbits.

There's consolidation going on at Pearl Cup Coffee, which has merged its two downtown shops into one. According to owner Carlene Saelg, customers at the St. Paul Place location were already going over to the Performing Arts Center location, so they decided to put all their lattes in one basket in the Arts District. The shop in the St. Paul Place lobby was there for five years.

Mini-chain Buzzbrews is opening another branch in what some might find a controversial location: 5815 Live Oak St., at the corner of Skillman. This is the old Tipperary Inn spot in which nothing since has survived. Buzzbrews is unfazed, and renovations are underway.

Austin-based Tex-Mex chain Chuy's will open its eighth location in the Dallas area in Southlake. The restaurant will open at 1221 E. SH 114 in January 2015. "We've received so many requests over the years to open in Southlake, and we've finally found the perfect spot to make that happen," says Travis Hudson, supervisor for the new location.

Chef Teiichi Sakurai's ramen noodle shop Ten, coming to Sylvan Thirty, will now open until January. Its location suffered a fire in March, and reconstruction has taken longer than anticipated.

The Blythe Beck version of Kitchen LTO at Trinity Groves debuts on October 2, starting at dinner. The menu includes deviled eggs, chicken-fried rib-eye, duck pot pie, bacon-cheddar meatloaf, shrimp and grits, and braised chicken thighs. Desserts include pumpkin custard, Maker's Mark banana pudding, and a fudge waffle with peanut butter ice cream and bananas Foster.

Austin's Hopdoddy Burger Bar opened its third Dallas-area location on September 29 at Village on the Parkway in Addison. It's going in at 5100 Belt Line Rd., Ste. 502, in what used to be a restaurant called Ernie's.

The Dee Lincoln's Bubble Bar in Uptown will "transition" from a restaurant/lounge space to a full-time special events venue effective October 15. This is a nice way of saying it is shutting down, although owner Dee Lincoln says in a press release that the demand for private party space has increased exponentially over the past year, so its switch to a special-events venue is totally deliberate and on purpose.

Another day, another Restaurants America failure: Park Tavern in the Shops at Park Lane has closed. According to Eats, its last day was September 12. Park Tavern was owned by Chicago-based Restaurants America, whose previous closures include Boca Chica, Mockingbird Taproom and Townhouse Kitchen + Bar.

Starbucks will pull out its Seattle's Best Coffee drive-through locations around Dallas-Fort Worth. It's closing eight and turning two — in Fort Worth and Rockwall — into Starbucks. The Seattle's Best stores opened in May 2013.

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek has a new wine director: Jennifer Eby, replacing Michael Flynn, who left in July. Eby comes to Dallas from Las Vegas, where she was wine manager at Botero, a fine-dining restaurant at Wynn. Prior to that, she developed the wine program at Wynn's Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare, a restaurant featuring Mediterranean seafood and Italian coastal cuisine by chef Paul Bartolotta.

Chung Jung One introduces Gochujang Korean Chili Sauce to Central Markets in Texas. Gochujang is a fermented red chili paste used in rice dishes such as bibimbap. Louisville chef Edward Lee will showcase the sauce during cooking classes that cost a mere $60. Even better, you get to spend more money and buy bottles of the product when you're done. He'll do a class in Fort Worth on October 7, Dallas on October 8 and Southlake on October 9.

Zodiac potato vodka has launched in Texas with a 40 percent alcohol content and some of the best press release verbiage ever: It's a "farm-to-bottle vodka" (chortle) that's "made in Idaho from regionally grown potatoes and Rocky Mountain water, resulting in a pure, ultra-smooth flavor." It will soon be joined by Zodiac’s wheat-based black cherry flavor.

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek welcomes new wine director Jennifer Eby.

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek Jennifer Eby

Photo courtesy of the Mansion

Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek welcomes new wine director Jennifer Eby.

unspecified

Matcha News

Cool new Dallas shop Roché Coffee brews decadent lattes and matchas

Photo courtesy of Roché Coffee

Matcha drinks at Roche Coffee.

A coffee shop with an authentic, decadent twist is perking up North Dallas: Called Roché Coffee, it's an indie shop that specializes in Vietnamese coffee and matcha drinks, located at 17062 Preston Rd. #130, in the same shopping center as Cris and John's and Deli News.

Roche was founded by Kendall Luu, a native of Vietnam with an entrepreneurial streak who wanted to share the unique tradition of coffee as it's enjoyed in her homeland. In addition to Vietnamese coffee, the shop's other foundation is matcha, the Japanese green tea drink that's become a major trend across the U.S.

Luu began Roche first as a pop-up, before graduating to this brick & mortar location, where it opened with great fanfare in mid-October.

The menu is broken into three main categories: Vietnamese coffee, flavored lattes, and matcha drinks.

Vietnamese coffee
Vietnamese coffee refers both to the coffee beans and style of roasting, as well as Vietnamese coffee drinks.

Beans: As Roche notes on its website, Vietnam is one of the world's largest coffee producers, and most of it is robusta beans, which are bolder and more bitter, with about twice the caffeine of arabica (the beans used by most popular coffee chains). Vietnamese robusta beans are generally roasted dark, for a rich, chocolatey, full-bodied cup.
Drinks: Vietnamese coffee is also a beverage, which combines coffee with sweetened condensed milk. It's made using a small metal filter, called a phin, which results in a concentrated, intense brew.

"At Roché, we source our robusta beans directly from Vietnam and brew them slowly, drop by drop, through a traditional metal phin," Luu says. "We stir in sweetened condensed milk and keep the brew at full strength so the deep, bold flavor of the coffee still comes through the sweetness."

DFW has a few places doing Vietnamese coffee but it's still a somewhat unfilled niche.

"That's the tradition I wanted to bring to Dallas, from the patience it takes to brew a cup to that first sip that tastes like home," Luu says.

They approach matcha with the same fastidiousness, sourcing ceremonial-grade matcha directly from Japan and whisking it by hand for every order.

Menu
They make their coffee-based lattes with either traditional espresso or, for a twist, with Vietnamese coffee. Both lattes and matchas come in decadent flavors such as banana matcha topped with a thick layer of foam and slices of banana; or the Biscoff matcha, layered with Biscoff spread, cookie crumbles, and a Biscoff cookie.

They also offer the Einspänner Latte, a buzzy layered drink that first emerged in Korean cafes, featuring espresso, cold milk, ice, and Viennese whipped cream; the cream cunningly serves as an insulator to separate hot from cold.

Prices average $8, but the shop is as much a dessert experience as a drink stop.

Their flavors embody the hottest trends including tiramisu, Starbucks' seasonal flavor for the fall, which they make with espresso, tiramisu syrup, mascarpone cream, and a ladyfinger cookie garnish. They call it "your favorite dessert for your coffee break."

They also offer pastries such as croissants, muffins, and poptarts from acclaimed Dallas bakery La Casita Bakeshop.

The shop is bright and tastefully appointed, with a sleek white interior and touches of Starbucks-style deep green. Furniture is curvy and modern, evoking Eero Saarinen.

Aesthetics are an important part of the experience, Luu says.

"We measure each ingredient carefully and give just as much attention to how the drink looks, from the first pour to the finishing touches," she says. "I want that care to come through the moment we place the cup in someone's hands, before they even take their first sip."

coffee openings