Klyde Warren Park Tasting

Savor shared plates at Klyde Warren Park's elegant new restaurant

Just two weeks into its opening, Savor, the high-profile restaurant at Klyde Warren Park, brought in some food blog folk to sample a few menu items and check out the new digs.

Chef John Coleman walked the group through a few courses, beginning with fried calamari and shrimp and ending with a pretty medley of desserts to be shared. The restaurant is officially pegged as a gastropub, and that does mesh with its casual atmosphere and menu. But the decor feels minimalist and elegant.

Architect Thomas Phifer did the pavilion; Bill Johnson of the Johnson Studios in Atlanta did the interior. The restaurant is a chrome-and-glass stunner with an entire outer shell made of glass, to enable views of Klyde Warren Park.

Clad in white marble and pale wood, the guts of the restaurant — kitchen, wine storage, restrooms — form a core at the center. Dining spaces surround the center, with another circle of seating on the patios that ring the exterior. The bar forms a dramatic oval with a shelf of liquor bottles floating overhead.

One cool thing: There are three wines on tap, including a Chardonnay, Cabernet and rose, which Coleman happily predicted would significantly reduce the amount of waste.

Dishes sampled exemplified Coleman's approach of keeping things simple but good.

A tomato-burrata salad had heirloom tomatoes, cubes of watermelon dusted with chile, soft burrata cheese and a green "mole" verde.
Cornbread crab cakes were made from Jonah and blue crab, served with avocado, mango and pickled red onion slaw. A Thai curry sauce included corn puree that added sweetness and texture.
Roasted salmon had been smoked and cured in bourbon; it came with fennel and apple chutney over a base of celery-root puree.
Braised short rib was accompanied by cheddar mac and cheese, featuring ear-shaped orecchiette pasta.

Other menu items include deviled eggs, pork belly meatballs, flatbreads, salads, gnocchi, scallops, roasted chicken, and shrimp and grits. Prices range from $7 to $17 for shared plates and starters, and $19 to $27 for entrees.

Desserts by pastry chef Julie Vorce, who worked with Coleman at the Ritz-Carlton, are a crazy medley, served in mini form at $3 apiece, to be shared by the table. They include German chocolate cake, ice cream sandwich, pop tart, chocolate-peanut-butter pretzel bite, banana split, yuzu tart, spiced pumpkin trifle and crème brûlée.

For now Savor is open for dinner, with lunch hours coming in a few weeks.

Chocolate-peanut butter pretzel bite.

Photo by Teresa Gubbins

Chocolate-peanut butter pretzel bite.

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Coming attraction

Dallas hospitality pros team up for new restaurant in Inwood Village

Rendering courtesy of

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Dallas restaurateur Bob Sambol, who brought Bob's Steak & Chop House to the city in the 1990s, is partnering with a prolific Dallas hospitality group to open an intimate new eatery called Charlie’s in Inwood Village.

Planned for spring or summer of 2027, Charlie's - a partnership between Sambol and Vandelay Companies - will take over the space at 5450 W. Lovers Ln. #225 formerly occupied by longtime Dallas favorite Adelmo's.

The restaurant will be small, with about 30 tables, and will serve dinner only. It will also take reservations the old-fashioned way: by landline phone in the restaurant.

Specifics about the menu, chef, and exact opening timeline will be announced closer to the restaurant's debut. But a rendering included with the press release shows a white brick exterior with black shutters, and text beneath the restaurant name that suggests the involvement of "steak," "chop," and "seafood."

Sambol describes Charlie's as "low-key" and "quietly sophisticated," with a "warm palette" and calls this a "very personal" project, which will be built in the spirit of small East Coast neighborhood dining rooms of the past, such as a place his father once owned called The Continental in New Jersey.

“After 30 years, I wanted to create something that feels humble and familiar with great hospitality, a beautiful room, people you know and a restaurant you want to return to again and again," Sambol says in the release. "Nothing overly complicated. Just a really special place for the neighborhood.”

Charlie's restaurant owners Vandalay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap flank Bob Sambol.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

Sambol says he's had a longtime friendship with the Vandelay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap, whose restaurants include Hudson House, Anchor Sushi, Drake’s, and a variety of other brands. He says he’s watched the restaurant development investors grow up and make a name for themselves in Dallas hospitality.

“I’ve known Hunter and Rick since they were in grade school, and seeing what they have built is truly remarkable. It’s a surreal moment to partner with them on such a personal project” Sambol says.

Pond calls the partnership with Sambol a "fun and unique project ... that no one in Dallas has done in quite some time."

Charlie’s will be "deliberately different" from many of the big city's large-scale "highly produced" restaurants, the owners say, adding that it "will embrace an understated, old-school elegance."

“Charlie’s isn’t about trying to make the biggest restaurant or the loudest statement. It’s about creating a timeless one," Pond says. "That restraint is what makes the project so exciting to us.”

As for Charlie's predecessor at the coveted Inwood Village address, Adelmo's — known for its Italian food "with accents" of French and Mediterranean — occupied the space for 10 years before closing in December 2025 and reopening this year in the Preston Valley Shopping Center, at the southwest corner of Preston Road.

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