There's a new chapter in the Buzzbrews Dallas restaurant chain saga: The location in Deep Ellum has changed hands and is charting a new course in a totally unexpected direction.

Founder Ernest Belmore has franchised the location to Chris Andrews, a Chicago chef and hospitality consultant, who is giving it a major makeover that includes an entire menu of Chicago food favorites.

Andrews and his wife Paula took over the space in June and have slowly-but-surely enacted updates to the space and the menu. It'll now operate as Buzzbrews Chicago and will feature Chicago signatures such as deep-dish pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs, and Italian beef sandwiches.

The Andrews relocated from Chicago to Texas in 2021, after they came down to do restoration work and help companies recover from the February '21 freeze. Once here, they decided to stay.

"My wife said, 'I'm never going to shovel another ounce of snow again,'" Chris says.

Since moving to Texas, they founded a coffee roaster, Hebrews 13 Coffee, which will also figure prominently in the Deep Ellum location's offerings.

"We've been adding our own flair and that definitely includes Chicago-style food," Chris says. "I come from a family of pizza - my family was in pizza in Chicago in the 70s and 80s and I worked there when I was young. Our pizza is all done from scratch, from the crust to the sauce. We do Italian beef sandwiches from scratch. We're doing gyros, too - all kinds of Chicago food."

But they're not forgetting what has been a core audience for Buzzbrews since it was founded in 2005: breakfast foods.

"We're definitely doing breakfast - French toast bananas Foster, pumpkin pancakes - we want to build on what's there," he says.

The coffee program will be an extension of the roasting company they founded in 2018. They sell beans to a variety of shops, but this will give them a chance to feature the coffee front and center.

There'll be a serious brunch and they still have a full bar, so that means brunch cocktails.

Buzzbrews founder Belmore says that the new concept fulfills his goal to expand the Buzzbrews concept by partnering with those with different ideas and culinary backgrounds. In August, he closed the Lakewood location, and in September, he launched an unusualweekend brunch concept in partnership up with the Original Seafood Bar on the patio at 1424 Greenville Ave. where he's hosting brunch on weekends only, debuting October 7-8.