Stories about restaurant openings are our bread and butter at CultureMap. We post them all the time.
But sometimes a restaurant emerges as something more bold-faced than the usual debut. When five emerge simultaneously, that can only mean one thing: roundup.
For a variety of reasons, these restaurants all seem destined to blaze brightly as 2019 comes to a close, and give our local dining scene a little pop.
If you like to keep up with buzzy eateries, then this is your list:
The Biscuit Bar
This is the third location of this local biscuit chain, and in any other circumstance, a third location of anything would not make a vaunted list like this. However, the address makes this Biscuit Bar list-worthy: It's opening in Deep Ellum at 2550 Pacific Ave., part of The Epic, the mixed-use project combining office, residential, and boutique hotel. (Which will also, as of now anyway, serve as regional headquarters for Uber.)
All Biscuit Bars serve breakfast, lunch, dinner, and late night, but the Deep Ellum location will have even later late-night hours. Another good reason this is on the list is timeliness: They're hosting a Grand Opening party on Thursday, November 21 from 8-11 pm. Go for the biscuits and tots, stay for the special-event discounted $3 cocktails.
Commons Club
The date draws near for the opening of this new restaurant at the Virgin Hotels Dallas. It's the hotel's "all-day" eatery, open for breakfast-lunch-and-dinner, with a concept/menu/what-have-you called The Kitchen by Matt McCallister.
It has a French-meets-Texan theme, with large-format dishes cooked via live fire in a charcoal-burning oven or wood-fired rotisserie. Dishes include grouper, rotisserie chicken, scallops, tuna & beet crudo, and A Bar N Ranch black pepper-crusted Wagyu ribeye roast, served family-style with pumpernickel rolls.
The opening date is currently targeted as December 15, and with McCallister on board, it'll only be a matter of weeks after that before the predictably gushing review from the Dallas Morning News comes along.
Desert Racer
Chef Nick Badovinus likes to keep things close to the vest and on the down-low, but it's pretty much any day now for this casual cantina, opening in the former Haymaker space on Lower Greenville.
Badovinus, whose other restaurants include Neighborhood Services, Town Hearth, Montlake Cut, Off Site Kitchen, and Perfect Union Pizza, draws his inspiration for Desert Racer from the Baja 1000, the rogue desert racing event held on Mexico's Baja California peninsula since 1967. Think beer, seafood, margaritas, Southwestern- and Baja-inspired cuisine, featuring a live-fire/smoke method of cooking.
The restaurant has a phone number. Help wanted ads have been up for a few weeks. Tick tick tick.
Georgie By Curtis Stone
New restaurant in the Knox District, in the former Villa-O space, comes with the surprise participation of celebrity chef Curtis Stone, as a kind of spinoff of Gwen, a Hollywood butcher shop and restaurant he opened with his brother Luke in 2016.
The menu features Australian Blackmore wagyu, caviar with red wheat blini and crème fraiche, hot smoked salmon, and black cod. A separate bar menu will serve snacks such as beer-braised chicken and fish & chips.
The restaurant is a collaboration between the two brothers and Stephan Courseau, their Dallas-based partner and owner of nearby restaurants Le Bilboquet and Up on Knox. Their website still says "coming soon" but they've already hosted "friends and family" events before opening on November 18, and they're open for Thanksgiving.
Terry Black's Barbecue
BBQ restaurant newly opened in Deep Ellum comes with sterling Central Texas BBQ cred: Brothers Mark and Michael Black have family ties to Terry Black's Barbecue in Austin, Black's Barbecue in Lockhart, and famed Smitty's Market.
They're doing all of the BBQ basics: brisket, chopped beef, pork ribs, sausage, turkey, and their signature beef ribs. In true Central Texas style, the meat is sold by the pound, although you can also get your meat in a sandwich form.
Sides include potato salad, coleslaw, beans, green beans, Mexican rice, mac & cheese, and creamed corn. And like any barbecue restaurant post-BBQ Snob, they have his favorite dessert, banana pudding. Must have pudding for Daniel.
The restaurant opened on November 21 at 3025 Main St., in the former Comedy House space (who were forced to move) and they're also practically across the street from Pecan Lodge. Brass ones!
