Seafood News

Rex's Seafood restaurant goes fishing for new location in North Dallas

Seafood is here.

Courtesy photo

The seafood is rising with the opening of a new location of Rex's Seafood, a Dallas restaurant concept that has been serving up fried oysters, fish and chips, and more in one form or another for more than a decade.

Rex's currently has one location at the Dallas Farmers Market, but owner Beau Bellomy confirms that a second location will open this fall at 6713 W. Northwest Hwy., in a shopping center at the northwest corner of Hillcrest Road.

It's taking over a space that was most recently occupied by the ill-fated Kickshaw's Fast Gastro and, prior to that, a Mooyah's.

"We've always wanted to get back into that neighborhood," Bellomy says. "We still have a loyal following from when we were open on Lovers Lane. They come to see us at the Farmers Market but they'd like to have a closer location."

Rex's was founded in 2006 as a seafood market at 5200 Lovers Ln. by Beau's father, Rex Bellomy. In response to customer demand, Rex eventually expanded the market by opening a restaurant in the location. In 2015, they opened a second location in Lakewood at Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road.

But the chain experienced some ebb and flow. Both the Lakewood location and the original on Lovers Lane closed in 2016. (The Lovers Lane location is now home to Lovers Seafood, the like-minded restaurant from Kent and Tracy Rathbun.)

But Beau had already picked up the torch and opened a Rex's Seafood at the Dallas Farmers Market.

Rex's has always been both casual and affordable, with seafood that's good and fresh — a relatively rare commodity in Dallas.

Their menu has a distinct a Cajun twang. Diners love their fried oysters, crab cakes, hush puppies, and bread pudding. But their fish and chips is persuasively authentic, and entrees such as Atlantic salmon with spinach, red beans, and rice add an upscale piece to the menu.

They do that essential foodie favorite, the New England-style lobster roll, as well as wrap sandwiches, tacos, and seafood pasta dishes such as pasta with shrimp, crab, and shellfish in a spicy diavolo sauce.

The Northwest Highway location is currently under construction with a hoped-for opening by January 2019.

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Ice Cream News

One of Dallas' top gelato shops opens new location in Plano

Botolino Gelato

There's an authentic new gelato shop now open in Plano: Botolino Gelato, the artisan gelateria founded in Dallas in 2017, has opened a location in the Preston Park Shopping Center, at the northwest corner of Preston Road and Park Boulevard, in a former Starbucks where it opened on May 12.

This is the fourth location for the chain, following the original on 2116 Greenville Ave., Preston & Royal in North Dallas, and Bishop Arts. The company also has Botolino Gelato Lab, a facility near Fair Park where many of their offerings are made.

In a release, owner Carlo Gattini says that fans have been asking for a location in Collin County; his wife is also from Plano and has ties to the community.

Gattini, who trained at Carpigiano Gelato University in Bologna, has roots in both Dallas and Italy. He was born in Milan and raised on a farm in Tuscany. His grandmother had her own gelato shop, and she and her sisters famously resurrected the epicurean magazine La Cucina Italiana. Carlo's family moved to Dallas, and his father opened the beloved MoMo Italian Kitchen, where Carlo helped serve the restaurant's classic Italian cuisine for more than 30 years, until the family sold the business in 2016.

Each Botolino shop offers 16 flavors of gelato and sorbetto, with eight classics and eight seasonal flavors in rotation. They use high-end authentic ingredients such as Valrhona chocolate and Tonde Gentile della Langhe hazelnuts from Nocciola d’Elite farm in Piedmont, Italy.

Classic flavors include pistachio (made from Bronte pistachios from Marullo Pistachio in Sicily), white coffee with cold-infused coffee from whole-bean Noble Coyote Coffee Roasters coffee, mascarpone & figs, milk chocolate, coconut straciatella with dark Valrhona chocolate slivers, and vanilla with Sava Bourbon vanilla beans from Madagascar.

Rotating flavors include tiramisu, Alpine almond bar with Sicilian almonds, Turkish coffee, and sorbets such as blueberry and lemon-rose.

They also do espresso drinks and indulgent desserts including cakes, sundaes, decadent brownies, and sticky toffee pudding topped with ice cream.

To mark the opening, customers who visit before May 21 can enter drawings for hands-on classes. The 2,000 square-foot shop, located a few doors north of Whole Foods Market, has a covered patio and ample parking.

“I look forward to welcoming guests to the new Plano Botolino - a great place for family gatherings, a place for first dates, a place to make meaningful memories with friends,” Gattini says.

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