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    Video Restaurant

    Frisco, prepare to nerd out over this video game bar and restaurant

    Teresa Gubbins
    Nov 17, 2016 | 11:10 am
    Nerdvana Food/Cafe rib eye
    Nerdvana Food + Spirits has opened in Frisco.
    Photo courtesy of Nerdvana

    If you're really into video games, you may already know about Nerdvana Cafe, a coffeehouse that opened in Frisco in June with both a serious coffee program and board games. Now the cafe has a newly opened sibling restaurant next door called Nerdvana Food + Spirits, which brings together the unique combination of a video game-friendly environment with an upscale menu from a gifted chef.

    The concept comes from chef Mike Junio and his sister Kristy Pitchford, who previously had a catering company together. Pitchford's husband, Randy Pitchford, is CEO of Gearbox, a video game company based in Frisco.

    "Gearbox was relocating to a new building, and we thought we would open a little restaurant on the ground floor," Junio says. "Kristy saw a bar in Brisbane, Australia, where you could play video games while sitting at the bar, and we said, 'Let’s do something like that in Frisco.'"

    They opened the coffeehouse as an interim step. "The building houses about 280 employees, and they were eager for a place to get coffee in the area," Junio says.

    At the coffee bar, they bring in guest roasts from around the country; every month, they sell the beans and serve the coffee in-house. They also host a lending library with 200 board games you can play while you sip your latte and snack on toasts. Yes, they have toasts.

    "We have an aggressive toast menu, it's a unique concept with Texas toast," Junio says. There are toasts topped with avocado, tomato, and red onion; pesto and veggies; strawberries and whipped cream; and Caprese with tomato and mozzarella.

    Nerdvana Food + Spirits is even more ambitious, with seating for 330 — 220 inside and 110 on the patio — and a full menu where everything is from scratch, including butchering their own meats and making their pasta in-house.

    "All of the recipes on the menu have been created specifically for this restaurant," Junio says. "I worked with consultant Mark Brezinski, we explored all of the chef-driven restaurants in the Metroplex and figured out what worked."

    Appetizers range from crab cakes to crostini to "bass bites," beer-battered chunks of striped bass with a curry tartar sauce. Sandwiches are "melts," like fancy grilled cheese, with shaved rib-eye, fried chicken, or one with caramelized onion and Gruyere cheese that's like a sandwich version of French onion soup.

    Entrées include rib-eye, brick chicken, and prawns gratin — a casserole with prawns, peas, and cauliflower in a cream sauce, ladled over griddled rice cakes, and broiled. Entrée prices start at $22 for pappardelle pasta with vegetables and max out at $40 for a rib-eye with garlic mashed potatoes and broccolini.

    The menu uses video game terms for a theme. For example, appetizers are called "multi player," implying they can be shared. Sandwiches are called "hand helds," as in a video game you can play on a mobile device.

    The bar has play stations and TVs, where up to a dozen people can play together. There are also seven booths with old-style video game consoles built-in. Everything is high-end, thanks to the participation of Plan B, the design group led by restaurant industry veteran Royce Ring. Where else can you sit in an upscale bar with a cocktail while playing Final Fantasy?

    According to Junio, the average video gamer is 24- to 40-years-old. "Most games are geared towards adults," he says. "Games are $60 each. Kids don't have that kind of money. And video games provide a lot more entertainment value than going out to a movie; you get hundreds of hours from a game. It's a growing demographic.

    "This is about giving a classy nod to the nerd culture," he says.

    coffeeopeningsvideo
    news/restaurants-bars

    Steakhouse News

    High-profile Palladino's Steak & Seafood heads to Preston-Royal Dallas

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jun 18, 2025 | 10:54 am
    Filet Mignon
    Getty Images
    Filet Mignon will be on the menu.

    A high-profile new steakhouse is coming to North Dallas: Palladino’s Steak & Seafood, an eponymous concept from Dallas restaurateur Joseph Palladino, will open at 5959 Royal Ln., in the former Spec's space.

    Palladino is the larger-than-life ex-NYPD police officer-turned-restaurateur known for concepts such as Nick & Sam's Steakhouse and the Coal Vines pizza chain.

    Palladino's Steak & Seafood is a newly created concept, which will combine steakhouse, Italian dishes, and seafood, particularly sushi. The first location is already penciled in for New York, opening in the former Michael Jordan Steakhouse at Grand Central Terminal, which closed in 2018.

    The New York location is being designed by the international design firm Rockwell Group and according to a spokesperson, is slated to open in early summer. The Dallas spinoff will open in winter 2025.

    Palladino first landed on the Dallas restaurant scene in 1998 to partner up with the equally larger-than-life restaurateur Phil Romano, and went on to have a hand in the creation of Nick & Sam’s, the swanky steakhouse on Maple Avenue (now run by Sam Romano, son of co-founder Phil Romano), Nick & Sam's Grill, Dos Jefes, and more. He created Coal Vines as an homage to the casual neighborhood restaurants reminiscent of his upbringing in New York.

    Joseph Palladino and Troy AikmanJoseph Palladino and one of his many celebrity pals, Troy Aikman.Instagram

    Palladino was approached by Preston Royal's landlords to open a restaurant at the center. Given his local following and celebrity draw, as well as the large local appetite for steakhouses, Dallas made sense as a second location, particularly at the highly desirable intersection of Preston and Royal.

    On the culinary side, Palladino is partnered with veteran chef Sam Hazen, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America as well as an instructor there. His star-studded resume includes La Côte Basque, the Quilted Giraffe, Quatorze, Michelin three-star Le Gavroche, Terrace in the Sky, Cascabel, and Tavern on the Green. He was most recently at Tao, the glitzy Asian concept from Tao Hospitality, where he worked for a decade, giving him sushi expertise.

    Palladino is busy getting the New York location open first, and the menu has yet to be revealed.

    "But it'll have high-quality steaks and seafood, along with some of my trademark specials and Italian dishes," Palladino says.

    However, Hazen previewed a dish on Linked In, consisting of a slice of toast with a cut-out center of pate, with accompaniments that included cornichons and mustard — like a pate version of the classic "egg in a hole."

    The hospitality will match the cuisine and ambience. “I intend to bring a very special steakhouse to the city, one that the locals can embrace," Palladino says. "They’re going to receive a good experience — that’s important to me.”

    Palladino's"Pate in a hole" dish shared by Palladino's chef Sam Hazen.Sam Hazen

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