Restaurant Victory at W Hotel

Sunny new Cook Hall chef shows imagination with revamped menu

Cook Hall pappardelle with tomatoes and mushrooms.
Photo by Teresa Gubbins
Fried okra.
Photo courtesy of Houndstooth
Fried chicken with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts.
Photo by Teresa Gubbins
Beef tenderloin with roasted potatoes and chard.
Photo by Teresa Gubbins
Orange Bundt cake.
Photo courtesy of Cook Hall

The restaurant Cook Hall is up at bat again with new chef Douglas Wagenhauser, recently appointed to take over the space that was once Craft, on the lobby level of the W Dallas Victory hotel.

There needs to be a restaurant in this space; an eatery is necessary to serve as the in-house canteen for hotel guests and the residential building next door. Armed with this imperative, management hosted a dinner for a dozen bloggers to display Wagenhauser's expertise.

A Dallas native, Wagenhauser has hotel experience, including a stint as sous chef at the Landmark Restaurant in the Melrose Hotel. Prior to becoming a chef, he was a photographer at Fossil.

His atypical culinary approach felt both traditional and modern, with a prominent yet matter-of-fact attention given to vegetables as well as meat.

Perhaps that unique background explained his sunny, amenable personality, rare in the chef world. (A spokesperson for the restaurant called him "a breath of fresh air.") His atypical culinary approach felt both traditional and modern, with a prominent yet matter-of-fact attention given to vegetables as well as meat.

The dinner, a parade of courses, began with a bruschetta-like toast and ended with two desserts. In between came soup, four entrees and three sides, all served family-style to be shared.

The toast was topped with cubes of butternut squash, farmer's cheese and fried sage leaves. There was also okra, whole pods fried in a crisp cornmeal crust, served with celery sticks and colorful heirloom carrots.

Entrees included seared scallops with parsnip puree, and filet of beef with roasted potatoes and buttery Swiss chard.

Fried chicken with mashed potatoes had a novel crust, made of three cereals, including corn flakes and frosted flakes. Accompanying Brussels sprouts were cooked until just soft and glazed with maple; Wagenhauser said he applied it to offset the sprouts' inherent bitterness.

The fourth entree was a vegetarian pasta with paper-thin pappardelle, mushrooms and bite-size tomatoes. Vegetable sides such as collard greens and mac and cheese were dosed up with loads of cheese and meat. But he served a cool concoction of cornbread topped with black-eyed peas, goat cheese and a strip of crispy chicken skin.

Here's the entire menu:

Snacks
Mussels mariniere
Cornbread with vanilla honey butter
Fried okra
Butternut squash toast with fried sage and pumpkin seeds
Green bean flatbread with cauliflower puree, caramelized onions, Maytag blue cheese and cilantro
Country pâté
Artisanal cheese and charcuterie board

Soup and salad
Butternut and barley soup with water chestnuts
Mixed green salad
Seared tuna salad
BBQ pork sliders

Plates
Short rib rigatoni
Pappardelle pasta, fennel, tomatoes and maitake mushrooms
Shrimp and grits with étouffée
Beef filet with Yukon gold potatoes and Swiss chard
Trout with potato and corn succotash
Scallop with apple-bacon jam, endive and parsnip puree
Fried chicken with mashed potatoes
Rib-eye

Sides
Maple-bacon collard greens
Artichokes, potatoes, Asiago cheese, sun chokes, salami
Mac and cheese with piquillo pepper
French fries with garlic aioli and spicy ketchup
Cornbread croutons with black-eyed peas, goat cheese and crispy chicken skin
Cook Hall chips

Sweets
Devil's food chocolate cake, brittle pumpkin seed, mascarpone
Orange Bundt cake with sugar frosting and blackberry jam
Pumpkin ice cream sundae with pumpkin ice cream, rehydrated cranberries and spiced whipped cream
Pear sorbet with homemade gin shot

unspecified

Hugs all around

Nonprofit Hugs Café expands with $10M McKinney headquarters and eatery

Photo courtesy of Hugs Cafe

Hugs Cafe has debuted a new cafe in its new McKinney headquarters.

A culinary-centric charity that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities build careers in hospitality has a snazzy new home in downtown McKinney: Hugs Café Inc. has opened a new $10 million headquarters, eatery, and training center at 221 Andrews St., McKinney.

The 13,500-square-foot facility brings together the organization's administrative offices and Hugs Training Academy under one roof, a release says, creating what it calls a centralized hub to expand workforce training and employment opportunities.

“This new space allows us to grow our programs and serve more individuals than ever before,” says Lauren Smith, CEO at Hugs Café Inc, in the release. “It represents a major step forward in our mission to create meaningful training and employment opportunities. We are deeply grateful for the community support and partnerships that have helped bring this vision to life and continue to make our work possible every day.”

The new HQ is called Home for Hugs.Photo courtesy of Hugs Cafe

Called the Home for Hugs, the building includes a commercial training kitchen, four classrooms, administrative offices, flexible workspaces, a rooftop deck, and an outdoor patio. The facility is designed to increase the organization's training capacity while supporting future expansion of its programs, leadership says.

Hugs Café Inc. is a McKinney-based nonprofit social enterprise that provides hospitality training and competitively paid employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Its flagship venture is Hugs Café, which offers on-the-job experience in an inclusive restaurant environment.

Dining at Hugs Cafe
Founded in 2015 by Ruth Thompson, the organization has grown from a single McKinney café into a network that now includes two café locations (the other's at 2918 Live Oak St. in Dallas), along with two Hugs Training Academies, the new headquarters, and affiliate partners across the country.

The McKinney cafe is open to customers for dine-in and delivery at breakfast and lunch, 8 am-3 pm Monday-Saturday (closed Sunday), with catering available. The menu includes breakfast items such as biscuit sandwiches and breakfast burritos; salads, sandwiches, soups, and desserts.

Sweet treats from Hugs Cafe. Photo courtesy of Hugs Cafe

Sandwiches include grilled cheese, a Monte Cristo, a BLTA with avocado, and a "chickie hug" sandwich with cranberry pecan chicken salad and mixed greens.

Salads include a Greek salad, spinach salad, and a chef's salad with turkey and bacon. Desserts include cookies, carrot cake, and chocolate bourbon pecan pie.

Catering choices vary from sandwich boxed lunches to whole cakes and jumbo quantities of pimento cheese or chicken salad. White Rhino coffee in large quantities is offered, as well.

Building a lasting impact
Construction on the headquarters began in May 2025. Dallas developer KDC led the project, with Corgan serving as architect, Brasfield & Gorrie as general contractor, and Valliance Bank providing financing, according to the release.

“Bringing this vision to life alongside Hugs Café Inc. is a meaningful opportunity for KDC to support individuals seeking personalized training and a pathway into the workforce,” says Eric Hage, KDC president. “We’re grateful to the Hugs Café team and our fellow donors for allowing us to play a role in creating lasting impact for these individuals and their families.”

openings mckinney nonprofits