Farmers Market Eats

Dallas Farmers Market continues to grow with 5 new restaurants

New things are happening at the Dallas Farmers Market.

Courtesy photo

The Dallas Farmers Market, which recently opened The Shed to house its farmers, vendors and artisans, announced a slate of new restaurants for The Market (formally Shed 2) that includes four eateries and one coffee shop.

They include Rex's Seafood and Market; Stocks & Bondy; Palmieri Cafe; Nammi/Coolhaus; and a TBA concept from Firebird Restaurant Group, parent company of El Fenix and Meso Maya. They'll begin to open after the market renovation is complete in spring 2015.

Rex's Seafood and Market, owned by Rex Bellomy, is a popular destination for seafood lovers, who dine in and shop for fresh seafood to take home at its location in North Dallas. The farmers market branch of Rex's will offer the same dine-in/market combination.

Stocks & Bondy comes from Dallas chef Joanne Bondy, who will provide home cooks, local chefs and caterers with classic and modern stocks and sauces, made from quality, all-natural and sustainable ingredients. Stocks & Bondy will have a retail component and will offer a seasonal menu of soups and sandwiches.

Bondy will teach cooking classes at the market this fall, where she'll introduce junior chefs to the use of farm-fresh ingredients and offer adults sessions with wine-, beer- and cocktail-paired menus.

Italian chef Corrado Palmieri will open Palmieri Cafe, an Italian coffee shop offering sweet and savory pastries, gelato, and Italian coffees using coffee beans imported from Italy. Hmmm. You think it's Italian? It seems Italian.

Palmieri has been a popular artisan vendor at the Dallas Farmers Market since February 2014. His mission, according to a release, is "to offer hospitality to anyone who is looking for moments of freedom in a warm and cozy atmosphere and to serve high-quality coffee and other fresh indulgences."

Nammi and Coolhaus, two food-truck concepts from co-owners Teena Nguyen and Gary Torres, come together to offer Vietnamese fusion fare and gourmet ice cream sandwiches. The Nammi menu will have a few familiar favorites but also new items with a Southern twist on traditional Vietnamese classics.

Coolhaus will offer milkshakes, ice cream floats and ice cream bars, along with its "architecturally inspired" gourmet ice cream sandwiches, each named after an architect or architectural style, which first gained praise and recognition in Los Angeles. If LA likes it, it must be good.

As for the concept from Mike Karns' Firebird Restaurant Group, more details are forthcoming. That's all you need to know for now.

The Dallas Farmers Market began in the late 1800s with farmers selling from wagons and evolved into a wholesale business at the intersection of Pearl and Cadiz streets around 1900. In 1939, the site of the Dallas Farmers Market was formalized and the first shed established. It was officially sanctioned as a municipally owned and operated market in December 1941.

DF Market Holdings LLC bought a majority stake in the Dallas Farmers Market from the city in May 2013 and leads the revitalization of the year-round attraction. In addition to the daytime market, which is open daily from 8 am to 6 pm, there is an evening market called Market After Dark on Thursdays with beer and wine offerings until 8 pm.

The Dallas Farmers Market also operates a nighttime wholesale market on Thursday and Sunday evenings from 8 pm to 6 am from May to November. Approximately 78 metric tons of produce moves through the market to fruit stands and restaurants from Oklahoma to Arkansas.

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Steak & Ale News

Local opening of Dallas chain Steak and Ale gets derailed

Steak and Ale

The long-in-the-works return of Steak and Ale in Dallas is being shelved for now: The casual steakhouse chain which in its heyday had nearly 300 locations is no longer opening a location it planned for in Grand Prairie.

According to a May 11 post from company owner Paul Mangiamele, the restaurant is definitely now a no-go.

"After years of very hard and exhausting work for making the Grand Prairie side by side S&A and Bennigan’s happen, the rug has been yanked out from under us," Mangiamele said in his post.

Often referred to as a pioneer in casual dining, Steak and Ale debuted in 1966, offering an affordable steakhouse experience with rustic Tudor design that included wooden beams and stained glass. In addition to steak and a signature salad bar, the menu featured then-fancy items such as steak Oscar, baby back ribs, and Hawaiian chicken with pineapple teriyaki sauce.

The chain remained a buzzy destination throughout the '70s and '80s, but by 2008, the parent company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and the remaining locations closed.

In 2023, businessman Paul Mangiamele, chairman and CEO of Legendary Restaurant Brands (which includes Monte Cristo sandwich purveyor Bennigan’s and Bennigan’s On The Fly, which he has also revived), launched a long-held plan to revive the Steak and Ale concept that included opening a new Steak and Ale in Burnsville, Minnesota, as well as partnering with a franchisee to open a location in Grand Prairie, side-by-side with a Bennigan's.

The Minnesota location opened in August 2024, but Grand Prairie will not be so lucky, and according to Mangiamele, it's due to the shenanigans of the franchisee.

"For years, we were being told by the developer and owner of the land how he was going to be our franchise partner," Mangiamele says. "He shared with me numerous times how he grew up with the brands and wanted to do his part in honoring Norman Brinker and would be a proud franchise owner. Well, after he finally (3 years later) received his money for selling some of his land, instead of being our franchise partner, he changed his tune, and wanted to instead, sell his land to us!!"

According to Mangiamele, not only did the franchisee try to sell back the land, he tried to make a profit.

"Our special deal was a ‘discounted’ price per foot on the land we’d need," Mangiamele says. "After a few due diligence calls, the discounted ’deal’ price was 20% higher than the comparable prices in the same area!! Simply unbelievable!"

Mangiamele says they are still talking to other interested parties in the greater DFW area and should have more news soon.

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