Feelgood Food

Pay-what-you-can Taste Project restaurant opens in Arlington

Taste Project

A restaurant with a charitable mission and good food is now open in Arlington: Taste Project, which takes an innovative approach to restaurants, is opening a "Taste Community Restaurant" at 200 N. Cooper St., where it makes its debut on March 5.

At Taste Community Restaurant, the idea is that you pay-what-you-can. The concept was founded by executive director and chef Jeff Williams, who wanted to create a space to feed the hungry or those going through a tough time. He opened the first in Fort Worth in 2017, but in February 2024, it got a big boost when viral TikToker-food critic Keith Lee paid a visit and donated $4,000 to their cause.

The menu has no prices, giving customers the opportunity to pay what they can or pay for another diner in need. It will offer a selection of items that change frequently, similar to the Fort Worth location, including a Korean beef bowl, short rib bao, bacon burger, jollof rice, and red lentil soup.

“Our menu changes as often as the seasons,” says Williams in a statement. “Our menu will change for spring shortly after we open. Our spring menu will be filled with fresh peas, pea shoots, and asparagus.”

Located in a former city water department and library building near the University of Texas at Arlington, it has seating for 82 inside, 46 outside, and a private dining space for up to 30 — more spacious than the Fort Worth original, and more color-saturated to attract a younger crowd of college students.

“The Arlington location has a modern design with a mix of natural wood tones and contemporary elements," Williams says. "Most importantly, it feels like home.”

Other community-centric projects they do include a community garden and a a tuition-free culinary training program certified by the American Culinary Federation, which places graduates at jobs paying an average of $15 an hour. According to Williams, Arlington will have twice the capacity as Fort Worth, which will triple the total size of the program.— all designed to end hunger one community at a time.

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Coming attraction

Dallas hospitality pros team up for new restaurant in Inwood Village

Rendering courtesy of

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Dallas restaurateur Bob Sambol, who brought Bob's Steak & Chop House to the city in the 1990s, is partnering with a prolific Dallas hospitality group to open an intimate new eatery called Charlie’s in Inwood Village.

Planned for spring or summer of 2027, Charlie's - a partnership between Sambol and Vandelay Companies - will take over the space at 5450 W. Lovers Ln. #225 formerly occupied by longtime Dallas favorite Adelmo's.

The restaurant will be small, with about 30 tables, and will serve dinner only. It will also take reservations the old-fashioned way: by landline phone in the restaurant.

Specifics about the menu, chef, and exact opening timeline will be announced closer to the restaurant's debut. But a rendering included with the press release shows a white brick exterior with black shutters, and text beneath the restaurant name that suggests the involvement of "steak," "chop," and "seafood."

Sambol describes Charlie's as "low-key" and "quietly sophisticated," with a "warm palette" and calls this a "very personal" project, which will be built in the spirit of small East Coast neighborhood dining rooms of the past, such as a place his father once owned called The Continental in New Jersey.

“After 30 years, I wanted to create something that feels humble and familiar with great hospitality, a beautiful room, people you know and a restaurant you want to return to again and again," Sambol says in the release. "Nothing overly complicated. Just a really special place for the neighborhood.”

Charlie's restaurant owners Vandalay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap flank Bob Sambol.Photo by Samantha Marie Photography

Sambol says he's had a longtime friendship with the Vandelay Companies' Hunter Pond and Rick Dunlap, whose restaurants include Hudson House, Anchor Sushi, Drake’s, and a variety of other brands. He says he’s watched the restaurant development investors grow up and make a name for themselves in Dallas hospitality.

“I’ve known Hunter and Rick since they were in grade school, and seeing what they have built is truly remarkable. It’s a surreal moment to partner with them on such a personal project” Sambol says.

Pond calls the partnership with Sambol a "fun and unique project ... that no one in Dallas has done in quite some time."

Charlie’s will be "deliberately different" from many of the big city's large-scale "highly produced" restaurants, the owners say, adding that it "will embrace an understated, old-school elegance."

“Charlie’s isn’t about trying to make the biggest restaurant or the loudest statement. It’s about creating a timeless one," Pond says. "That restraint is what makes the project so exciting to us.”

As for Charlie's predecessor at the coveted Inwood Village address, Adelmo's — known for its Italian food "with accents" of French and Mediterranean — occupied the space for 10 years before closing in December 2025 and reopening this year in the Preston Valley Shopping Center, at the southwest corner of Preston Road.

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