Home Cooking News

Homey restaurant with rock-star cred opens in Dallas' Casa Linda Plaza

Madison King will Be Home Soon in Casa Linda Plaza.

dallas.culturemap.com

There's an exciting restaurant with rock star credentials coming to a venerable East Dallas center: Called Be Home Soon, it's a new concept opening at Casa Linda Plaza, where it will serve a highly personal twist on home cooking.

The restaurant is from Madison King, a onetime Dallas musician-turned-chef who envisions a warm, comfortable restaurant with a full bar and menu she describes as "home cooking, no matter where you're from." It'll open in late 2024.

UPDATE 11-19-2024: Be Home Soon is now open.
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Be Home Soon continues King's culinary journey from former sous chef at Frank Underground to founding her own cottage business Munchbox, a fun snacks board concept that will operate as a ghost kitchen out of the restaurant.

"I originally planned to open a bar and restaurant with Jess Barr, who co-owned Twilite Lounge, but he passed away last December," she says. "My partner Russell Kirk and I decided to move forward without him and do this together. Russell was Jess' best friend and had been doing back of the house at Twilite for 10 years, and we felt like this was what Jess would want."

For the menu, she first went down the gourmet path before circling back to what she loved best.

"It's very much home cooking, meaning how I cook at home," she says. "I was initially thinking shared plates with fancy chef touches before I realized that I just wanted to do home cooking."

They'll be open for lunch and dinner with a menu that includes fun appetizers, soups, salads, and sandwiches for lunch, then roll out blue plate specials for dinner — your basic "meat and three style," which they'll change every week, with a modern, global spin on home cooking.

"We'll incorporate flavors from all over the world, like maybe you're getting curry today or maybe pot roast," she says.

Their location is the former Dugg Burger space at 9540 Garland Rd. #407, which it took them more than a year to nail down.

"It's our dream space," King says. "It's a center beloved by the neighborhood, the parking lot is infinite, and after being in Deep Ellum and downtown my whole career, I'm stoked to have a place that I can ride to on my bicycle."

Decor will be warm, a little retro, minimalist with "cool stuff everywhere."

"I guess it's going to look a little like my house," King says. "We're hoping super comfortable and warm and inviting. It's too small for it to be anything else. The energy will come from us."

Although King — who released an album Onward & Upward on State Fair Records in 2014 — is "officially retired" from music, she still writes songs and it's still a major part of her life. It's a legacy that will benefit Be Home Soon diners.

"As I get older, I focus on music that makes me happy, and am finding that my playlist is 100 percent female, so that's what we'll feature at the restaurant," she says."We're taking every female artist and putting in our favorite two to three songs. It's going to be so much fun. Everywhere you go it's the same dudes, I just decided, why not?"

music openings

Diner News

Home-cooking classic Chubby's closes location in southwest Dallas

Chubby's

Biscuits and gravy at Chubby's

A beloved diner near Duncanville in southwest Dallas has closed: Chubby's, famous for its home-cooking cuisine and splendiferous breakfasts, has closed its location at 7474 S. Cockrell Hill Rd., near I-20 and 67, after 18 years.

In what will be a relief for Chubby's many fans, the original location, at 11331 E. Northwest Hwy., is still open. A manager at the original location confirmed that the Cockrell Hill location had closed, while a spokesperson for the property said the building was up for sale because the owner was "ready to retire."

The location has been on the market since June, but they finally shuttered the restaurant on October 31. It had been at that address since 2008, taking over a space that was formerly Owens Family Restaurant, and originally a Bob Evans Restaurant.

Chubby's was founded by brothers and Greek immigrants John and George Touris, who opened the first location in 1987. Over the years, they opened more locations, winning over fans with their pancakes, omelets, chicken-fried steak, burgers, sandwiches, salads, and more, as well as a few Italian and Greek dishes.

If you know restaurants, you know that Greek restaurateurs usually adhere to a high standard of quality. Stellar signatures, shown in their most tempting light on Instagram, include biscuits & gravy, chicken-fried steak, Greek baked chicken with potato wedges, banana pancakes topped with banana slices and whipped cream, Greek salad, and masterful desserts including multi-layer cakes and baked pies in varieties such as cherry, coconut cream, and the rare chocolate meringue.

As their website explains, John Touris was 16 when he, his brother, and mother left Greece in 1978 and emigrated to Buffalo, New York, where John learned the ropes from his uncle, a restaurant veteran who worked at Towne Restaurant, which helped many Greek immigrants find their way in the U.S.

John moved to Dallas and in 1982 opened his first restaurant, Dough Boys, which eventually evolved into Chubby’s when it moved to its location on Northwest Highway. Together with his brother George, John built Chubby’s into a community cornerstone, expanding to four locations across Plano and Lancaster, which both closed, and this location near Duncanville, which has now closed as well.

Chubby’s is treasured by old-timers as one of a shrinking pool of diner-type places, like Mama's Daughters' Diner, Original Market Diner, Metro Diner, and Norma's Cafe, that offers unpretentious, well-prepared food at a relatively low price.

breakfast closings greek cuisine