News You Can Eat

Downtown Dallas hotel unveils new eateries and more restaurant news

Biscuits make the world go 'round..

Photo courtesy of Overeasy

Two new eateries have opened at an iconic downtown Dallas hotel, while a new restaurant dedicated to the grilled cheese sandwich debuts nearby. There's poke on the way, plus wraps, quesadillas, and lattes.

Lots of Dallas restaurant news here to catch up on. Let us not delay:

Two of the five concepts at The Statler, the downtown Dallas hotel, are open. Overeasy is an upscale diner serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner from 7 am-10 pm. It has a coffee bar, counter seating, and a patio overlooking Main Street Gardens. Menu highlights include deviled eggs, steak and eggs, and banana cream pie. Cocktails, too. Bourbon & Banter is an underground cocktail lounge reminiscent of a speakeasy that's open from 4 pm-2 am. It has a big collection of bourbon and whiskey, and cocktails such as the French Twist, with bourbon, Amaro Nonino, tea-infused aperol, and lemon. A small plates and snacks menu includes a cheese board, steak tartar, and smoked trout dip.

Malibu Poke, the poke concept from Jon Alexis (TJ's Seafood Market & Grill) and partners Ben and Eric Kusin, will open in Turtle Creek Village on November 28. A menu by chef Matt McCallister will differentiate them from other poke places, with bolder flavors such as smoked bonito aioli, yellow curry, Japanese sancho pepper, Asian pear, daikon, and marinated shiitake mushrooms. Guests can also build their own bowls. The new concept will also offer gluten-free and vegan options, and a beverage program with rose (still, sparkling, and frozen "frose"); craft beer; wine on tap; sake, kombucha; teas; and juice. A high-tech ordering system includes self-serve kiosks boasting a facial recognition feature that remembers customer orders.

Melted, a new grilled cheese sandwich shop, has opened in The Cedars neighborhood, at 1715 S. Lamar St. The menu includes grilled cheese sandwiches enhanced with ingredients such as grilled chicken, ham, and pulled pork. There is a chicken salad with kale, and a cauliflower bisque; there is also mac and cheese with bacon and jalapeno onion jam. A bar serves cocktails and craft beer, and there's a sandwich-centric brunch.

Pinstack, the bowling and dining concept, has opened its third DFW location in Allen, at 635 Central Expwy. North. The location features 26 state-of-the-art bowling lanes with lane-side food and beverage service. Like its Plano and Las Colinas siblings, the Allen location also offers two-level laser tag arena, rock climbing wall, high-ropes course, and 18-person foosball table. A full-service restaurant features seasonal, chef-inspired, scratch-made food, plus cocktails, 24 beers, and 12 wines on tap. Weekly specials and programming include happy hour, Bowl + Bite Night, and Wine Down Wednesdays. Other features include an enclosed climate-controlled patio, a private VIP bowling area with eight lanes, A/V capabilities, private meeting rooms, and more.

Pinstack, meanwhile, has new menu items including smoked turkey and white bean chili with cornbread crostini; French onion panini with gruyere and crispy fried onions; and a wrap with brisket, mac and cheese, bacon, and colby Jack cheese. They've also introduced rotating monthly specials. November's include curried butternut squash bisque, turkey and dressing bites with sage gravy, and pork chops with garlic mashed potatoes and blueberry peach salsa.

Unleavened Fresh Kitchen will open its second location at Southlake Town Square on November 16. Owners Tom Dynan and Scott Piland worked closely with Mitchell Garman Architects to create a space where guests are encouraged to visit and stay. The new store features elements like oak wood tables, shiplap siding, and natural stone counters along with contrasting industrial metal light fixtures. The lunch and dinner menu features wraps, salads, dips, sides, and sweets. The breakfast menu focuses on wraps and hash. They also serve local beer and wine on tap.

Starbucks will open a new location in southern Dallas at the redeveloped Southwest Center Mall, aka RedBird. Scheduled to open in spring 2018, the new Starbucks is one of 15 stores the company is opening across the country as part of its commitment to expanding into underserved areas with untapped economic potential and a move towards revitalization.

Dillas Quesadillas, a popular fast-casual restaurant specializing in gourmet quesadillas, will open a third location in McKinney, at Highway 380 and Hardin. "We chose McKinney because we love the small-town feel, great schools, and strong sense of family and community the people have here," says founder Kyle Gordon in a release. Dillas’ menu includes twists on the quesadilla such as brisket, bacon cheeseburger with fries, and a veggie Dilla with zucchini and portobello mushrooms. The McKinney location will open in early 2018.

Ocean Prime Dallas, the Uptown seafood restaurant, has added three lunch entrees: a patty melt on rye with onion, Swiss, pepper Jack, jalapeno, and 1000 island dressing for $19; turkey salad with carrots, broccoli, dates, cranberries, pumpkin seed, goat cheese, and pumpkin spice vinaigrette for $17; and a chef's daily selection of poke for $22.

Eureka Dallas, the Uptown burger bar, has debuted eight new menu items, including spiced caramel popcorn peanuts; cauliflower bites; smoked salmon dip crostini; shaved Brussels sprouts salad with chicken, dates, and pecans; a short rib kimchi burger with an Angus patty; pimento grilled cheese sandwich and tomato dill soup; skirt steak with broccolini; and chocolate pudding with peanut butter whip and peanuts.

Taco Cabana has several new holiday dishes including, gasp, a horchata margarita. The new items include a ranchero and verde beef enchilada plate, served with rice, beans, guacamole, and flour tortillas, for $6. There are chicken tacos with "avo-verde" salsa, three for $6 or $2.29 each. There's a dulce de leche cheesecake for $2.29, and last but not least, a horchata margarita blending horchata, Lunazul tequila, and Triple Sec, rimmed with cinnamon sugar for $5.75. Taco Cabana, why couldn't you announce this in time for our horchata roundup? These items will be available November 20-January 1.

Mi Cocina has brought back its annual red chile chicken pozole, but a little earlier than in prior years; it usually shows up in January. It's a traditional Mexican soup with chicken, chiles, tomatoes, hominy, garlic, fresh cabbage, radish, and cilantro, and it is now available at lunch and dinner.

Whataburger has collaborated with Yeti to release a line of branded tumblers. This follows Whataburger's launch last October of stainless steel mugs that looked like Whataburger drink cups. Fans' feedback was the tumblers would be better if they were Yeti-branded. The stainless-steel, double-walled, vacuum-insulated 30-ounce Yeti Ramblers will keep cold drinks cold and hot drinks hot. Find them at Shop.Whataburger.com.

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Closure News

The original Dick's Last Resort in Dallas closes after 40 years

Dick's Last Resort

A venerable destination in the downtown Dallas area has closed: Dick's Last Resort, the notoriously saucy restaurant and bar at 2211 Lamar St., has closed permanently, after 40 years.

According to a representative from the Nashville-based chain, the final day for the Dallas location was November 30.

"Business at that location had been declining, and they were facing an increase in rent, so they made a decision to close," the representative said.

Dick's Last Resort was founded right here in Dallas in 1985 as a winking, impudent good-time spot with good bar food and cold beer, at a time when leg warmers and mullets were the rage.

The concept was hatched by bon vivant "Buffalo George" Toomer and Richard "Dick" Chase, centered on a saga about a bad boy named Dick whose big-league plans had failed and who pivoted to open a laid-back bar full of attitude and dick jokes. The restaurant featured gruff staffers and a Southern-style menu in a rowdy roadhouse environment.

It became a huge success, with customers coming eagerly to be insulted, get pelted with napkins and straws, and wear paper hats with crude comments and insults written in a sharpie such as "I've nailed more wood than HGTV." That atmosphere made it a popular destination for bachelorette parties and other group events, and it was a big tourist draw at its then-location in the West End. (It relocated to its current location close to American Airlines Center in 2005.)

Although the food took a backseat to the atmosphere, the menu — written on the wall — featured ribs, chicken, wings, and burgers, served casually in paper and buckets. In its heyday and for many years, it remained lodged on the TABC Top 10 list for beer sales in Dallas.

Chase was ousted for embezzling by the financial backers, who went on to grow the concept into a national chain, with locations in Boston, Chicago, and London. Those are now closed, but there are currently a dozen Dick's across the southeast in Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, as well as Las Vegas and a longtime location in San Antonio on the Riverwalk.

Dallas restaurateur Mike McRae, who currently owns restaurants such as Dodie's Cajun Diner in Rockwall, Stan's Blue Note, and McRae's Bistro in East Dallas, worked for Dick's for 23 years and owned the Dallas location for 12 years.

"I was hired as their general manager 18 months after it opened," McRae says. "Richard Chase was kind of a hothead. He would fire people on the drop of a pin. We had a pink plastic flamingo with a light inside behind the bar, and he was adamant that the light be on all the time. He once fired a GM because the light was off."

Dick's was owned by Steven Schiff, a Dallas entrepreneur who was in real estate and oil, but had no experience in the restaurant industry.

"Steve talked to Norman Brinker and said, 'I've got this place but I don't want to be in the restaurant business — how do I sell this?'" McRae says. "Norman said, 'You need to open two more locations in different cities.' So we opened the location in San Antonio and a third in downtown Chicago. Both were wildly successful — way more than Dallas. These places were netting over $1 million in yearly profits, which was a lot of money back then. We opened one in London, Boston, San Diego, Myrtle Beach, they were in major cities all over the U.S."

McRae eventually became director of operations and they kept it running until 2009 when they sold the company to its current ownership group based in Nashville. McRae bought the Dallas location in 2010, later joined by his partner Gabe Nicolella; they owned it for 12 years before selling it back to the corporate owners in 2021.

"We did some crazy things in those days, like creating a fake restroom with a pair of tennis shoes visible and a tape recording of farting sounds," McRae says. "We only hired people who had been class clowns, who couldn't get jobs anywhere else. We served food in buckets and the placemats were torn-off butcher paper — things you couldn't get away with now."

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