Restaurant Casualty

Days are numbered for this Greenville Avenue chef's restaurant

There's only one place you can find this catfish dip.

Photo courtesy of Clark Food & Wine Co.

Greenville Avenue suffers another restaurant loss with the closure of Clark Food & Wine, the chef-driven bistro from Randall and Courtney Warder. The last day of operation is December 27. That gives you exactly two more days to get a taste of their smoked catfish dip with Saltines.

The couple decided to close after they were approached by a restaurant group who wanted to take over the space. It follows the closure of C'Viche, their restaurant next door, which they shut down on November 29.

"When C'Viche closed, we confronted how difficult this environment is, and I don’t see 2017 being any different," Randall says. "We feel like there are so many questions out there, and when these guys came along, it was kind of a no-brainer."

Warder's resume includes experience at five-star properties with the Rosewood group including the Mansion on Turtle Creek and La Ventanas al Paraiso in Cabo San Lucas. He'd been working as a corporate chef for a few years before he and his wife Courtney decided to tackle the ultimate challenge of opening your own place.

They opened Clark Food & Wine in 2014, and their menu of casual fare, with memorable dishes such as their smoked catfish dip with crackers, earned positive reviews, including the Best New Restaurant title in CultureMap's 2015 Tastemaker Awards.

You don't put your heart and soul into something like this and not have a little bit of sorrow," Warder says. "We were open for two years and two months, but I've been working on this for three years."

And as thronged as Greenville Avenue gets, it can be a dicey location for restaurants, with lots of churn. Qariah, the Lebanese restaurant, closed during the summer, after four years. Cafe Brazil closed its Greenville Avenue location in May. Knuckle Sandwich, barman Eddie Campbell's sandwich shop, closed in October. Remedy will shut down on December 31.

"I think there's a lot of great potential for restaurants in Dallas in the proper location," Warder says. "You see restaurants out in Plano and Frisco that are not serving great food, and yet are packed all the time."

Warder says they'll take stock of their future plans after they close, and he hasn't heard what is being planned for the space after Clark closes. "We're just going to do a farewell blowout today and tomorrow, we'll keep making food until we run out," he says.

closings greenville-avenue

All You Can Eat News

Eki Sushi will bring buzzy sushi experience to southwest Dallas 'burb

A sushi restaurant with a little something extra is coming to Cedar Hill, on the southwest corner of Dallas: Called Eki Sushi, it'll open at 649 Uptown Blvd., where it will bring two buzzy options to a neighborhood eager to have them.

The restaurant is opening in a former Applebee’s, and is from a team that includes Meng Yang and Ben Zhu, who've operated other Asian restaurants in Texas. A spokesperson says they chose Cedar Hill, which is 18 miles southwest of downtown Dallas and just below Duncanville, because it's an up-and-coming area without many sushi restaurants so far.

They'll open in mid- to late-September.

Eki Sushi will offer:

a "revolving sushi" experience, in which pre-plated sushi is placed on a conveyor belt that circulates past tables, allowing diners to pluck them as they pass
"AYCE" all-you-can-eat sushi, in which diners pay a set price and order as much as they want

Both of these options have proven to be highly appealing to diners. The revolving sushi experience, for example, is a novelty with a sense of "fun" that takes it beyond the usual restaurant meal; entire chains are dedicated to the experience such as Kura Revolving Sushi Bar, which has numerous locations in the DFW area.

AYCE sushi places, also plentiful around DFW, are a lure for those seeking variety and instant gratification. And like a buffet, they allow diners unfamiliar with a cuisine to try a variety of dishes at a low-risk low price.

That said, Eki will follow the lead of many AYCE places that monitor your consumption to avoid waste; if you don't finish the food you order, you get charged regular price. There's also a 90-minute limit — no all-day gluttony — and it's priced differently depending on time of day: $20 at lunch, $30 at dinner, and $31 on weekends.

Eki has a massive menu with sashimi, sushi rolls, 25 specialty rolls from the prototypical Rainbow Roll with crab, cucumber, and avocado, draped with tuna and salmon, to the Sweetheart Roll with spicy tuna, cucumber, and avocado, wrapped in soy paper as well as seaweed and artfully fashioned into a heart-shaped roll.

In addition to sushi, the menu also offers Asian appetizers like edamame, spring rolls, egg rolls, tempura, and gyoza, plus wings and French fries, which are surely welcome in any restaurant, regardless of cuisine.

openings