Dessert News

Sweetest restaurant Sugar Factory opens in Dallas with red-carpet hoo-ha

Smoking drinks are just the tip of the iceberg.

Photo courtesy of Sugar Factory

The sweetness has arrived: Sugar Factory American Brasserie, the restaurant known for over-the-top sweets, is opening its first location in Texas in Dallas, at 1900 Cedar Springs Rd., in a former Ruth's Chris.

According to a release, it's opening on November 5 with a celebrity appearance and some red-carpet pizzazz.

Sugar Factory was originally founded as a candy store in 2009 before owner Charissa Davidovici, a former schoolteacher, expanded it into a candy store-restaurant combo. Dining there means larger-than-life smoking goblets, insane milkshakes, and interactive experiences designed partially for eating and drinking but also very much for Instagramming.

Atmosphere
The Dallas location features a main dining area with 200 seats, plus colored flower walls perfect for posing, and an elaborate 3D floral ceiling.

A private dining room is available for parties of up to 66 people. The bar has 20 seats and 40 high-top tables, with full menu service available. An indoor-outdoor lounge has fire pits and retractable storefront windows.

The retail store is off the dining room, reachable through a display of candy hearts, which contains more than 50 types of sweets on a floor-to-ceiling candy wall.

Food
Sugar Factory covers brunch, lunch, and dinner, with burgers, pastas, entrees, salads, desserts, and colorful rainbow dishes. Popular menu items include:

Flaming Hot Cheetos Burger, an 8-ounce Angus burger topped with Flaming Hot Cheetos, pepper jack cheese, pickles, lettuce, tomato, crispy onions, chipotle mayo, and served on a brioche bun coated with Flaming Hot Cheetos dust
Black Angus Filet Mignon, served with mashed potatoes, green beans almondine and garlic herb butter
Chicken or Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo with garlic, butter, cream, parmesan, and Romano cheese
Salmon with a Yukon gold mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, and bacon herb sauce
Black Angus Filet & Lobster Surf and Turf
Big Cheesy Angus Burger topped with melted white cheddar, creamy mac & cheese, bacon, and BBQ sauce on a toasted potato bun.

A seasonal item for November will be the Gobble Gobble Insane Milkshake topped with a slice of pumpkin pie.

Sweets
Guests can inject a pop of color into their dessert order with Sugar Factory's Insane Milkshakes, which are lavishly decorated and served in chocolate-covered mugs. Favorites include Giggles Snickers Milkshake, Princess Make A Wish Milkshake, and the Campfire Spiked S’Mores Milkshake.

A fondue with warm milk chocolate is served with toasted marshmallows, strawberries, bananas, cheesecake bites, red velvet cake, gummy bears, and brownie bites.

But their most legendary dessert is the King Kong Sundae, which serves up to 12 people and features 24 scoops of ice cream covered with sprinkles, gummy bears, caramel sauce, fudge sauce, giant whirly pops, and sparklers.

The bar
The restaurant's elevated white marble bar seats provide full-menu service, with signature smoking cocktail goblets like the Lollipop Passion, garnished with lollipops and candy necklaces; and the Watermelon Patch featuring Pitbull’s Voli 305 Vodka and sour watermelon gummies.

Other celebrity-stamped goblets include:

The Rock’s Soul Man with his Teremana Tequila
50 Cent’s Candy Shop with Branson Cognac
Mamitas Hurricane made with Mario Lopez’s Casa Mexico Silver Tequila and Brody Jenner’s Mamitas Seltzer
Travis Scott’s Strawberry Hustle with Cacti Spiked Seltzer
Bruno Mars’ Watermelon Piña Colada and Mai Tai made with SelvaRey Rum
Nick Cannon’s Big Clouds Goblet
Snoop Dogg’s Tropical Fruit Punch made with his Indoggo Gin
Nick Jonas and John Varvatos’ Strawberry Cadillac Reposado Margarita made with Villa One Tequila

Events
To celebrate the grand opening, Sugar Factory Dallas is bringing in the big names with two celebrity events, open to the public.

November 5 at 9 pm will be a D set from comedian, rapper, actor, and TV personality Nick Cannon, currently oh-so buzzy as the host of The Masked Singer. The red-carpet action starts at 8 pm.

November 13 at 9 pm will be a DJ set from Sugar Factory’s official DJ, Pauly D, American television personality and one of the stars of MTV show Jersey Shore.

Sugar Factory Dallas will be open Monday-Thursday 11 am-12 am; Friday 11 am-1 am; Saturday 10 am-1 am; Sunday 10 am-12 am. For reservations, call 469-382-5737.

More Sugar Factory locations are opening in Houston and San Antonio in December 2021.

openings

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun