Irish Pub News

Owners of Dallas' Dubliner will open a new Irish pub in Lake Highlands

Group of people drinking beer at a bar cheers

Here's a toast to Irish pubs.

Caiaimage/Paul Bradbury/Getty Images

UPDATE 2-5-2020: Lochland's Food and Spirits will open on February 6.

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Lake Highlands is getting the kind of bar that Dallas loves the most: an Irish pub. And it's from a couple that many would agree are masters of the craft.

Peter and Cheryl Kenny, who own The Dubliner on Greenville Avenue and Capitol Pub on Henderson Avenue, will open a third pub at the intersection of Lake Highlands Drive and Northwest Highway.

Called Lochland's, it will open in January 2020.

"Yes, we are opening a new spot in Lake Highlands in January," Cheryl confirms. "We live in East Dallas and it's such an underserved area — we’re just hoping to make a contribution to this gem of an area in Dallas."

Peter Kenny is a native of Dublin who opened the Dubliner in 1994. It's become a staple of Greenville Avenue and a centerpiece of the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. It also serves as a headquarters of sorts for Dallas' community of Vespa scooter riders.

He and Cheryl opened the Capitol Pub in 2007, just as Henderson Avenue was transitioning into a buzzy area.

For Lochland's, they've snagged a really cool building at 8518 Plano Rd.

"We’ve been looking for years for a property to purchase," Cheryl says. There’s so little available for small business owners like us — but we persisted with calling on this building that had been sitting unoccupied for some time."

Previous tenants were a veterinary clinic.

"It was in horrific shape," Cheryl says. "We had to completely gut the building & remove part of the rear portion of it for parking. It’s been a long, difficult road, but I think it will be a hit in the long run."

While Capitol Pub and the Dubliner have similar pub DNA, they also both have their own particular DNA, with the Dubliner functioning as a classic Irish pub with a focus on beer, and Capitol Pub serving as a neighborhood hangout with good food and a legendary brunch — a tradition they'll recreate in Lake Highlands.

"We're trying to take favorite bits from every place we've had — The Dubliner, The Gin Mill, & Capitol Pub — and bring them together at Lochland's," Cheryl says. (The Gin Mill was a restaurant-pub they opened on Henderson Avenue which was noted for its great food, but it closed in 2015.)

"Again, so little options in this area, so we feel our Irish Pub hospitality might be a welcome addition to East Dallas," she says.

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Pizza News

Famed pizzeria Slice House by Tony Gemignani closes Frisco location

Slice House

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A celebrity-chef-owned pizzeria from California has closed its only location in Texas: Slice House by Tony Gemignani, the fast-casual pizza brand by world-renowned pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani, closed its first and only Texas location in Frisco at 5995 Preston Rd. #102.

A representative from the company's corporate headquarters confirmed that the restaurant closed in mid-October, and that the concept was for now kaput in DFW.

"The franchisee is no longer developing the DFW area," the representative said.

A second location that was penciled in for McKinney at 7851 El Dorado Pkwy. is marked as "coming soon," but a marketing spokesperson said that "at this time, we don’t have an update on the opening timeline of McKinney."

The DFW franchisee was Daniel Hawkins, who also owns Black Hawk Brewery in Prosper, originally planned to open up to 20 locations. Hawkins was unavailable for comment.

Gemignani is the 13-time World Pizza Champion who, inspired by a pizzeria in Naples, Italy, opened the first Slice House — a fast-casual concept — in 2010, then began franchising in 2023. There are now 37 locations open and nine more marked as "coming soon."

The concept was unique in that it featured four styles of crust under one roof: traditional New York, homestyle Grandma, rustic Sicilian, and Detroit-style, all available by the slice or in a whole pizza.

Following a company tradition of creating a pizza specific to each location, they devised a pizza for Frisco called the Texan with brisket, BBQ sauce, bacon, and onion.

While pizza was the menu staple, the menu also comprised pasta, wings, and salads. Plus craft beers, premium wines, non-alcoholic sodas, and juices.

According to the corporate rep, food was not the issue. The chain continues to expand, with recent openings in Idaho, Denver, Ventura, California, and Brentwood, Northern California.

Perhaps it was a bad omen that the Frisco location's debut occurred in the thick of an epically bad ice storm, first opening on January 23, then closing due to inclement weather before reopening on January 28.

"The Frisco location was never able to hit the ground running," the representative said. "Location was a big part of it. The restaurant was on the wrong side of the highway."

He said that the closure presented a good opportunity for someone to come in and purchase "lightly used assets for a fraction of the cost," and that the company was also in conversation with another operator who'd expressed interest in the concept.

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