• Home
  • popular
  • Events
  • Submit New Event
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • News
  • Restaurants + Bars
  • City Life
  • Entertainment
  • Travel
  • Real Estate
  • Arts
  • Society
  • Home + Design
  • Fashion + Beauty
  • Innovation
  • Sports
  • Charity Guide
  • children
  • education
  • health
  • veterans
  • SOCIAL SERVICES
  • ARTS + CULTURE
  • animals
  • lgbtq
  • New Charity
  • Series
  • Delivery Limited
  • DTX Giveaway 2012
  • DTX Ski Magic
  • dtx woodford reserve manhattans
  • Your Home in the Sky
  • DTX Best of 2013
  • DTX Trailblazers
  • Tastemakers Dallas 2017
  • Healthy Perspectives
  • Neighborhood Eats 2015
  • The Art of Making Whiskey
  • DTX International Film Festival
  • DTX Tatum Brown
  • Tastemaker Awards 2016 Dallas
  • DTX McCurley 2014
  • DTX Cars in Lifestyle
  • DTX Beyond presents Party Perfect
  • DTX Texas Health Resources
  • DART 2018
  • Alexan Central
  • State Fair 2018
  • Formula 1 Giveaway
  • Zatar
  • CityLine
  • Vision Veritas
  • Okay to Say
  • Hearts on the Trinity
  • DFW Auto Show 2015
  • Northpark 50
  • Anteks Curated
  • Red Bull Cliff Diving
  • Maggie Louise Confections Dallas
  • Gaia
  • Red Bull Global Rally Cross
  • NorthPark Holiday 2015
  • Ethan's View Dallas
  • DTX City Centre 2013
  • Galleria Dallas
  • Briggs Freeman Sotheby's International Realty Luxury Homes in Dallas Texas
  • DTX Island Time
  • Simpson Property Group SkyHouse
  • DIFFA
  • Lotus Shop
  • Holiday Pop Up Shop Dallas
  • Clothes Circuit
  • DTX Tastemakers 2014
  • Elite Dental
  • Elan City Lights
  • Dallas Charity Guide
  • DTX Music Scene 2013
  • One Arts Party at the Plaza
  • J.R. Ewing
  • AMLI Design District Vibrant Living
  • Crest at Oak Park
  • Braun Enterprises Dallas
  • NorthPark
  • Victory Park
  • DTX Common Desk
  • DTX Osborne Advisors
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2012
  • DFW Showcase Tour of Homes
  • DTX Neighborhood Eats
  • DTX Comforts of Home 2013
  • DTX Auto Awards
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2017
  • Nasher Store
  • Guardian of The Glenlivet
  • Zyn22
  • Dallas Rx
  • Yellow Rose Gala
  • Opendoor
  • DTX Sun and Ski
  • Crow Collection
  • DTX Tastes of the Season
  • Skye of Turtle Creek Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival
  • DTX Charity Challenge
  • DTX Culture Motive
  • DTX Good Eats 2012
  • DTX_15Winks
  • St. Bernard Sports
  • Jose
  • DTX SMU 2014
  • DTX Up to Speed
  • st bernard
  • Ardan West Village
  • DTX New York Fashion Week spring 2016
  • Taste the Difference
  • Parktoberfest 2016
  • Bob's Steak and Chop House
  • DTX Smart Luxury
  • DTX Earth Day
  • DTX_Gaylord_Promoted_Series
  • IIDA Lavish
  • Huffhines Art Trails 2017
  • Red Bull Flying Bach Dallas
  • Y+A Real Estate
  • Beauty Basics
  • DTX Pet of the Week
  • Long Cove
  • Charity Challenge 2014
  • Legacy West
  • Wildflower
  • Stillwater Capital
  • Tulum
  • DTX Texas Traveler
  • Dallas DART
  • Soldiers' Angels
  • Alexan Riveredge
  • Ebby Halliday Realtors
  • Zephyr Gin
  • Sixty Five Hundred Scene
  • Christy Berry
  • Entertainment Destination
  • Dallas Art Fair 2015
  • St. Bernard Sports Duck Head
  • Jameson DTX
  • Alara Uptown Dallas
  • Cottonwood Art Festival fall 2017
  • DTX Tastemakers 2015
  • Cottonwood Arts Festival
  • The Taylor
  • Decks in the Park
  • Alexan Henderson
  • Gallery at Turtle Creek
  • Omni Hotel DTX
  • Red on the Runway
  • Whole Foods Dallas 2018
  • Artizone Essential Eats
  • Galleria Dallas Runway Revue
  • State Fair 2016 Promoted
  • Trigger's Toys Ultimate Cocktail Experience
  • Dean's Texas Cuisine
  • Real Weddings Dallas
  • Real Housewives of Dallas
  • Jan Barboglio
  • Wildflower Arts and Music Festival
  • Hearts for Hounds
  • Okay to Say Dallas
  • Indochino Dallas
  • Old Forester Dallas
  • Dallas Apartment Locators
  • Dallas Summer Musicals
  • PSW Real Estate Dallas
  • Paintzen
  • DTX Dave Perry-Miller
  • DTX Reliant
  • Get in the Spirit
  • Bachendorf's
  • Holiday Wonder
  • Village on the Parkway
  • City Lifestyle
  • opportunity knox villa-o restaurant
  • Nasher Summer Sale
  • Simpson Property Group
  • Holiday Gift Guide 2017 Dallas
  • Carlisle & Vine
  • DTX New Beginnings
  • Get in the Game
  • Red Bull Air Race
  • Dallas DanceFest
  • 2015 Dallas Stylemaker
  • Youth With Faces
  • Energy Ogre
  • DTX Renewable You
  • Galleria Dallas Decadence
  • Bella MD
  • Tractorbeam
  • Young Texans Against Cancer
  • Fresh Start Dallas
  • Dallas Farmers Market
  • Soldier's Angels Dallas
  • Shipt
  • Elite Dental
  • Texas Restaurant Association 2017
  • State Fair 2017
  • Scottish Rite
  • Brooklyn Brewery
  • DTX_Stylemakers
  • Alexan Crossings
  • Ascent Victory Park
  • Top Texans Under 30 Dallas
  • Discover Downtown Dallas
  • San Luis Resort Dallas
  • Greystar The Collection
  • FIG Finale
  • Greystar M Line Tower
  • Lincoln Motor Company
  • The Shelby
  • Jonathan Goldwater Events
  • Windrose Tower
  • Gift Guide 2016
  • State Fair of Texas 2016
  • Choctaw Dallas
  • TodayTix Dallas promoted
  • Whole Foods
  • Unbranded 2014
  • Frisco Square
  • Unbranded 2016
  • Circuit of the Americas 2018
  • The Katy
  • Snap Kitchen
  • Partners Card
  • Omni Hotels Dallas
  • Landmark on Lovers
  • Harwood Herd
  • Galveston.com Dallas
  • Holiday Happenings Dallas 2018
  • TenantBase
  • Cottonwood Art Festival 2018
  • Hawkins-Welwood Homes
  • The Inner Circle Dallas
  • Eating in Season Dallas
  • ATTPAC Behind the Curtain
  • TodayTix Dallas
  • The Alexan
  • Toyota Music Factory
  • Nosh Box Eatery
  • Wildflower 2018
  • Society Style Dallas 2018
  • Texas Scottish Rite Hospital 2018
  • 5 Mockingbird
  • 4110 Fairmount
  • Visit Taos
  • Allegro Addison
  • Dallas Tastemakers 2018
  • The Village apartments
  • City of Burleson Dallas

    Beans wonderful beans

    Ascension aims for beverage balance with coffee shop by day, wine bar by night

    Teresa Gubbins
    Nov 8, 2012 | 12:17 pm
    • “I’ve been in this country 22 years, and coffee here has always been adisappointment for me," says Australian native Russell Hayward.
      Courtesy photo
    • Ascension will be the first combination coffeehouse-wine bar in the DallasDesign District.
      Photo by Federico Villamayor

    If drinking and lingering is your thing, then Ascension Coffee has you covered from sunrise to sunset. The indie coffee joint, which opens the first week in December, will become a wine bar at night. It's setting up shop next to Meddlesome Moth, and it's the brainchild of the colorful, Australian-accented Russell Hayward, a veteran Dallas restaurateur.

    Hayward, who ran a number of places in West Village, including Lazare and Tom Tom Noodles, is reaching back to his early exposure to fine coffee in his native Australia.

    “It’s a cute little space, and the visibility is amazing,” says owner Russell Hayward. “There’s nothing in the Design District like this.”

    “I just wanted a coffee place, and that’s where it started,” he says. “I’ve been in this country 22 years, and coffee here has always been a disappointment for me. You probably don’t think of Australia as a place for coffee, but the country had a massive influx of Italian and Greeks and with them came espresso bars. I grew up with good coffee.”

    A year ago, he started thinking seriously about how he would do his own coffee place.

    "If you look at any Starbucks, it serves as an incredible center of the community. But, for me, it was missing a few things," he says. "After 2 pm, the experience didn’t support what people were looking for. So this coffee shop will turn into a wine bar at 5 pm."

    As for location, he initially thought he’d open in Uptown — “because I’m an Uptown guy,” he says — but he couldn't find a space he liked.

    "Uptown is so jammed now, so many buildings, it's hard to stand out and hard to park," he says. So he decided on the Design District instead.

    “It’s a cute little space, and the visibility is amazing,” he says. “There’s nothing down there like this. We share the floor with Meddlesome Moth, and there are whole sections with different types of tile. We're keeping all that, and we're keeping a whole wall of terra cotta tile. We’re not trying too hard — just using things where we can use them."

    Lunch will consist of sandwiches, salads and soups. At night, there will be cheese plates and steak sandwiches on crostini — nothing that requires a fork.

    All of the food will be made in-house. Chef Eric Justice consulted on the menu, which Hayward describes as “muffin-free.”

    “I'm doing that on purpose. I think muffins are indicative of the old-world, old-school coffee deal," he says. “You see muffins, you think the wrong thing.

    "It'll be chef-driven food but all inexpensive — what I call ‘conversational’ food, what you’d expect from a coffee house during the daytime and then what you’d expect from a wine bar at night."

    Lunch will consist of sandwiches, panini, salads and soups. At night, there will be cheese plates and steak sandwiches served on crostini — nothing that requires a knife or fork.

    For beans, he's partnered with Coffee Eiland, a local roaster. Coffee machines are a big deal these days, with all the La Marzoccos in town. Hayward went with one made in Seattle, called a Synesso Hydra.

    “It’s made in Seattle by one of the ex-partners of La Marzocco America,” he says. "I did research on who had the machines and found that there were 30 of these machines in — of all places — Melbourne, Australia."

    coffee
    news/restaurants-bars
    CULTUREMAP EMAILS ARE AWESOME
    Get Dallas intel delivered daily.

    Chef News

    Dallas chef nominated for James Beard award parts ways with restaurant

    Teresa Gubbins
    Jun 16, 2025 | 6:45 pm
    RJ Yoakum
    Instagram
    RJ Yoakum

    Dallas chef RJ Yoakum, who has earned scads of acclaim in Dallas in his role as executive chef at Georgie, the high-profile restaurant in the Knox Street district, is no longer executive chef at Georgie.

    According to a spokesperson for Georgie, Yoakum left at the request of Stephan Courseau, Founder of Travis Street Hospitality and owner of Georgie, who said in a statement, "Travis Street Hospitality has parted ways with Chef RJ Yoakum. We recently became aware of multiple violations of company policy that do not align with our company's values. Georgie’s success is rooted in the strength of our team, and we are confident in our continued ability to deliver an exceptional dining experience."

    Yoakum started working at Georgie in 2023, following tenures at high-profile restaurants such as The French Laundry in Napa and Angler in San Francisco. He quickly become a favorite of foodies — from Chefs For Farmers founder Iris Midler to influencers such as Drew the Food Guy — and helped erase Georgie's original incarnation under the direction of celebrity chef Curtis Stone into its own identity, making Georgie a hot reservation and earning acclaim and awards.

    That acclaim and awards included Georgie nabbing a spot on the Michelin Guide's list of "Recommended" restaurants — one of 57 in Texas and 19 in the DFW area.

    In addition, Yoakum himself earned a nomination in the 2025 James Beard Awards for "Emerging Chef - a chef who displays exceptional talent, character, and leadership ability" — one of six Dallas chefs & restaurants who made finalist status.

    The 2025 James Beard Awards are being presented on June 16, the same day that the news of Yoakum's departure emerged. He remained a finalist, still on the website as competing against four other chefs, but did not win.

    closingschefs
    news/restaurants-bars
    Loading...