Eat 'em up

Top 10 restaurant and bar stories that Dallas savored in 2018

Editor's note: As the year comes to a close, we look back at the 10 most popular restaurant and bar stories of 2018. These are the openings, closings, and newsy bits that Dallas readers gobbled up, all from CultureMap dining editor Teresa Gubbins.

1. Magical new dessert shop in Deep Ellum fulfills all your unicorn dreams. Do you love unicorns? Is that even a real question? Get ready for a ride to the Magical Dessert Bar, a new shop that opened in December in Deep Ellum, where everything is pastel iridescence and oh-so sweet. Think hot chocolate that's pink, topped with pastel sprinkles and fluffy whipped cream.

2. Kimbal Musk and Wyly heiress celebrate wedding at Dallas restaurant. Diners trying to grab a bite at Dallas restaurant Cedars Social on April 7 were out of luck, as the newly reimagined Mexican restaurant in the Southside neighborhood was shut down all day for a reception celebrating a high-profile wedding. The bride: Christiana Wyly, daughter of Texas billionaire Sam Wyly. The groom was Kimbal Musk, brother of Tesla founder Elon Musk.

3. Favorite Dallas fried chicken restaurant finally opens second location. In September, Frisco was set to get some fried chicken, oh yeah, with the arrival of a Dallas institution: Park Cities staple Bubba's Cooks Country said it would open a location in Frisco at 4585 Preston Rd. When it opens, will be only the second location for Bubba's, which has been doing fried chicken in Snider Plaza in a converted 1929 Texaco gas station since 1981.

4. The 10 best bars in Dallas for 2018 mix up old and new. The 2018 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards, our annual event honoring the best in local food and drink, included awards to top chefs and restaurants and a party in April. But before we partied, we took a closer look at the nominees for Best Bar of the Year in Dallas.

5. Intriguing East Dallas restaurant unveils bike-friendly theme and top chef. A cool new restaurant that had piqued the interest of its East Dallas neighborhood was ready to throw open the doors in June. Called Local Traveler, it's an upscale-casual restaurant serving dinner seven nights a week, that is both bicycle-friendly and chef-driven. The restaurant is located at the high-profile intersection of Gaston and Grand, next door to The Lot — with whom it shares ownership.

6. Central Market unlocks new Dallas store in million-dollar neighborhood. At last, the newest Dallas location of Central Market, opening at the intersection of Midway Road and Northwest Highway, had a start date: Doors opened to the public at 8 am on Wednesday, September 5. This was the third Central Market in Dallas, following the original at Lovers Lane and Greenville Avenue, and a second at Preston Road and Royal Lane that opened in 2012.

7. 6 Dallas restaurants get a shot on Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-ins & Dives. In January, Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives confirmed that three three Dallas restaurants definitely had made the cut for the latest season of the popular Food Network TV show: Tacos Mariachi, One90 Smoked Meats, and Whistle Britches. But wait! Then there were three more — Tutta Pizza, Nora's, and CrushCraft Thai — bringing the total to six DFW eateries.

8. Here's our master list of every Dallas restaurant opening in fall 2018. One of the best things about Dallas is its brisk restaurant scene. Keeping track of the comings and goings is practically a full-time job. (Actually, it IS a full-time job.) In our efforts to keep diners in the know, in October, we compiled our annual master list of all the restaurants coming soon in Dallas and beyond.

9. Mockingbird Station suffers big loss with closure of longtime Dallas restaurant. Cafe Express, the trail-blazing chain founded by Houston chef Robert del Grande and restaurateur (and CultureMap co-founder) Lonnie Schiller, shockingly and abruptly closed two flagship locations in Dallas. Mockingbird Station closed in September, followed by Uptown Dallas in November. Owners M. Terry Enterprises say they are focusing on their top-performing restaurants, and have engaged a firm to help restructure. One Dallas location on Lovers Lane remains, and there are six in Houston.

10. New shop crazy about pickles joins Jimmy's in East Dallas foodie zone. In a world that seems overrun with hamburger joints and poke places, bow down to entrepreneur Lee Theilen, who announced in May he was opening a concept that is completely original to Dallas: a pickle place. Called Pickletopia, it opened at 4812 Bryan St., at the southwest corner of Fitzhugh Avenue, where it sells pickles of all kinds.

Hot chocolate that's pink, now being served in Deep Ellum.

Photo courtesy of Magical Dessert Bar

Hot chocolate that's pink, now being served in Deep Ellum.

hot-headlines closings openings lists

Spring Arrival

West Dallas gets new Spanish-Peruvian restaurant with big-name chef

Photo courtesy of Ulloa's

Paella will be on the menu.

A new restaurant with a high-profile culinary director will bring Spanish and Peruvian flavors to West Dallas: Called Ulloa’s, it is coming to 727 Fort Worth Ave., with a projected opening in March 2027.

The concept is from philanthropists Susan and Woodrow Gandy, who were previously investors in the historic Belmont Hotel just around the corner. They've teamed up with Dallas celebrity chef Kent Rathbun as culinary director, along with Christopher Tunnell as general manager to lead the front of the house.

Rathbun is a name Dallas diners know well, with a resume that includes The Mansion on Turtle Creek, the Landmark Restaurant at the historic Melrose Hotel, Seventeen Seventeen at the Dallas Museum of Art, Abacus, Jasper's, Rathbun’s Blue Plate Kitchen, and more. He's won numerous awards and made multiple appearances on Food Network. He was most recently behind the launch of On The Rocks, an Italian bistro in Burleson.

Chef Kent Rathbun will be the culinary director of Ulloa's. Photo courtesy of Kent Rathbun

Tunnell’s background spans both culinary direction and front-of-house operations. He worked at Los Angeles hot spots Ketchup, Geisha House, and Les Deux, as well as the Mandalay Bay and The Mirage in Las Vegas, before moving to Dallas to open The Mexican, the upscale restaurant in the Design District.

“I am truly excited to partner with Chef Kent Rathbun, whose reputation is amazing — not only in the DFW Metroplex, but in the culinary world,” Tunnell says. “He has been with this project since the beginning, helping develop it; this will be a very chef-driven, culinary-forward restaurant.”

The team's vision for Ulloa’s is both culinary and urban, with hopes of anchoring the corridor and attracting other businesses to Fort Worth Avenue — a stretch connecting downtown Dallas with Oak Cliff that remains somewhat underdeveloped despite its panoramic skyline views.

The restaurant is named for Spanish explorer, astronomer, and scientist Antonio de Ulloa, who spent extensive time in the Mexican peninsula before becoming Louisiana’s first governor. During his travels, Ulloa documented a fogbow — a circular rainbow formed when sunlight meets mist that causes silhouettes standing between the sun and fog to appear ringed in light, a phenomenon known today as “Ulloa’s Rings.”

That vibrant phenomenon inspired both the restaurant's identity and logo. The concept promises "bold, worldly flavors in a welcoming neighborhood setting inspired by exploration and discovery,” the owners say.

Ulloa's Rendering of Ulloa's.Rendering courtesy of Ulloa's

While the menu remains in development, Tunnell describes the culinary direction as “Spanish soul with a Peruvian heart.” The kitchen will merge the coastal flavors of both traditions — ranging from paellas and ceviches to crafted cocktails and signature adaptations by Rathbun.

The 200-seat, two-story space will feature a downstairs dining room, a large bar, and an outdoor patio. Upstairs, plans call for a secondary bar, a private dining room, a patio, and an expansive balcony patio, offering views of the city's skyline and of the Margaret Hunt Hill and Margaret McDermott bridges.

While the upstairs space will be available for private events, the owners intend for it to operate primarily as an organic extension of the main restaurant. The buildout will include a guest elevator along with ample parking, including both self-parking and valet options.

The team says the restaurant will have have an aesthetic that's “warm, theatrical, generous, elegant but alive, with the energy of a great Spanish tapas bar and the soul of Peruvian hospitality.”

Ulloa’s plans to launch with dinner service first, followed by lunch and weekend brunch.

restaurants bars peruvian flavors west dallas oak cliff kent rathbun