If you're one of those people who wants dearly that which you cannot have, then this is your moment, as there are two restaurants in Dallas right now where you cannot get a reservation.

In a weird and bittersweet cosmic convergence, they're both located inside fashion retailers.

• Cafe Dior by Dominque Crenn is the just-opened restaurant inside the new Dior boutique in Highland Park Village.
• Zodiac Room is the about-to-close restaurant inside the storied downtown location of Neiman Marcus, the luxury department store.

Their lack of availability is for opposite reasons. Cafe Dior is new and buzzy. Zodiac Room is about to close. That means there are limited seats and a scramble to get them.

Cafe Dior by Dominique Crenn
Cafe Dior is the fashionable new restaurant located inside the recently-opened Dior store at 58 Highland Park Village, with a menu overseen by Michelin-starred chef Dominique Crenn.

Dior cafes in general have a buzz of their own — there are a limited number of exclusive cities with Dior cafes that include London, Paris, Miami, and Tokyo.

And each location has a distinction: "Monsieur Dior," the nickname for the cafe in Paris, walking distance from the Champs-Élysées, is a tourist destination unto its own. The Dior Cafe in Tokyo has a tie-in with French pâtissier-chocolatier Pierre Hermé.

Dallas' distinction is having a brand-name chef such as Crenn, whose numerous accolades include coming in at No. 10 on Robb Report's 50 Most Powerful People in American Fine Dining, as well as James Beard Awards and appearances on multiple TV shows including The Next Iron Chef, Chef’s Table, and Top Chef France.

The reservation situation: The official opening date was announced as February 22 — but the cafe actually opened oh-so-quietly on February 19, and Dominque herself was in town to oversee the opening. Reservations can be made on Seven Rooms, beginning on February 23 but reservations are now booked through April. (And this is according to a staffer; that Seven Rooms site is kind of a cluster.)

Zodiac RoomZodiac Room

Zodiac Room
The Zodiac Room is the storied restaurant located inside the Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas, which is sadly closing due to a landlord dispute.

The closure is a loss for downtown as well as the end of a socio-cultural institution — "so central to the legend and history of Dallas that it's hard to imagine the city without it," as one former employee said — "a store that was always more than a beautiful place to shop."

Neiman Marcus got hit hard by the pandemic but reopened in August 2020. The Zodiac Room, however, remained closed for more than a year after that, before reopening in 2021. (Other downtown dining legends like the French Room have yet to fully recover.)

The Zodiac Room was one of the city's most venerable restaurants, with its modern take on old-world glamour: warm, inviting, elegant, in a store with all those same traits and more. The historical significance of Neiman Marcus to Dallas surely played a role in the Zodiac's greatness. But so did its puffy popovers with strawberry butter and its complimentary cup of consomme — its preservation of a genteel, slightly Southern civility that's increasingly hard to find.

When CultureMap Dallas debuted its very first list of the 10 Best Restaurants in Dallas in 2013, shortly after the site launched, the Zodiac Room was of course one of the 10. It was always a frontrunner for ladies who lunch, for where to take your out-of-town guests during the holidays. And it stayed au courant, exploring cuisines such as vegan, while paving the way for an entire category of department-store cafes — including newcomers like Cafe Dior.

The reservation situation: The store will close on March 31, and the Zodiac Room is entirely booked up until that date.