Vegan News

Award-winning Mexican restaurant hits the jackpot at new location in Denton

Divine Mexican food at El Rincon del Maiz in Denton.

El Rincón del Maiz

A DFW restaurant that's earned national acclaim has opened in Denton: El Rincón del Maiz, previously of Garland, is now located at 1431 E. McKinney St. in Denton where it's winning over locals with its Tex-Mex classics and vegan dishes.

Now in a small center east of Denton Square, the family-owned restaurant from husband-and-wife Carlos Guillez and Michell Torres, and their son Gerardo Guillen, first opened in a former Sonic Drive-In November 2021.

They quickly drew praise including making a 2022 list by Bon Appétit of the Best New Restaurants in America (which strangely identified them as "the Saporito family"), as well as winning the 2023 CultureMap Tastemaker Award for Best Neighborhood Restaurant.

"We were so encouraged," Carlos says. "We'd decided to open because my wife was such a good chef that everybody would tell her, 'You need to open a restaurant.'"

But they discovered that the majority of their clientele were coming from outside Garland.

"Pretty much all of our customers were from areas north of Dallas, and some were driving 30 to 45 minutes," Gerardo says. "People kept saying, 'You need to move north.'"

They almost ended up in McKinney but negotiations were taking too long, and then the Denton spot opened. It's only a half mile from the Square, and has enviable proximity to TWU, UNT, the Denton County courthouse, and the Denton sheriff's office, all representing a built-in audience for their award-winning food.

Their recipes come from south Mexico including dishes like panucho — refried tortillas topped with black beans, choice of protein, coleslaw, and red onion; and enomoladas — corn tortillas with chicken, mole, red onion, and sesame seed.

A longtime home cook, Torres is also vegan. When she crafted the standard Mexican menu, she created an entire vegan menu, as well, using plant-based items like jackfruit and cauliflower to substitute for meat items, served on eye-catching tinted tortillas in flavors such as cilantro, beet, chipotle, and chocolate.

Since moving to Denton, they've added new dishes such as vegan pozole; vegan menudo made with mushroom; and vegan huevos con chorizo, featuring scrambled tofu, a vegan version of chorizo, and black beans, with choice of fried plantains or spicy potatoes.

These days, they're reveling in packed crowds on weekends, and they still haven't even gotten their liquor license yet (it's pending).

And here's one sweet irony: "We've seen customers from Garland coming to Denton," Gerardo says.

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Pub News

New pub The Irish Goodbye to open on Greenville Avenue in Dallas

dallas.culturemap.com

It's a good thing Dallas likes pubs, as a new one is coming to Lower Greenville. Called The Irish Goodbye, it'll open at 1928 Greenville Ave. in the space previously occupied by Hide, which closed in March.

Named for the custom of departing from an event quietly, The Irish Goodbye is from One Esca Group, the hospitality company by restaurateur Michael Kim, who also owns Blackfriar Pub.

He and his operating partner Kevin Bartley plan to begin hosting soft opening events within the week.

Their vision is an elevated Irish pub with a sports bar element, Kim says.

"Our inspiration comes from some of the higher-end pubs we've visited in New York," he says. "These are places that are classy, not a hole-in-the-wall, a place that might appeal to professionals, sports and pub fans."

Kim, who also owns the restaurant Sugarbacon Proper Kitchen, got into the hospitality industry almost by accident.

"My background was in private equity, working for a company that specialized in restaurant acquisitions," he says. "It gave me a unique perspective on the restaurant world from behind the scenes."

His company was involved in the dissolution of Spaghetti Warehouse, and at one point Kim served as president of the chain. (It now has three remaining locations, two of which he owns.) Having caught the restaurant operations bug, he acquired Blackfriar Pub in Uptown, originally founded by Feargal McKinney, in 2019, then opened a second location in Lakewood in 2022.

"When I started, I was foolish enough to think operating a bar would be comparable to restaurants but learned quickly that the experience is dramatically different," he says. "I was lucky that a couple key employees taught me how bars worked."

The Irish Goodbye will be the first concept that he and Bartley create from scratch. The venue will have three zones including a 3700-square-foot interior; a 2,000- to 2,500-square-foot rooftop patio; and a new front patio. It'll be outfitted with 40 TVs, plus a complex AV system that'll allow them to dial in different programming for each space.

The food menu is still being finalized, but will cull from their other concepts such as Sugarbacon, including weekend brunch.

"Our goal, it's probably ambitious, is to be one of the names that pops into everybody's head when you ask about pubs in Dallas," Kim says.

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