A hallowed dining address in North Dallas that was home to Lawry’s The Prime Rib for 40 years has a new restaurant tenant: La Stella Cucina Verace, the highly regarded Italian restaurant in Dallas' Arts District, will open a spinoff in the former Lawry's space at 14655 Dallas Pkwy.

According to co-founder Giuseppe "JP" Piccinini, the restaurant will open this summer, with the same authentic Italian menu, but expanded: combining Italian seafood and a chophouse, plus an accompanying space for live entertainment, called La Luna Music Champagne Lounge.

"We'd been looking to open another location north of downtown, and the Lawry's space is ideal for what we need," he says.

Piccinini was part of the team that opened the original La Stella in March 2022 with a goal to bring a classic, simple approach to Italian cuisine, with an emphasis on fresh high-quality ingredients in regional Italian dishes, and with pastas made in-house.

Dishes include pappardelle with Wagyu beef bolognese; agnolotti filled with ossobuco with butter and sage; and rigatoni with Jimmy's Italian sausage and spicy Calabrian 'nduja. Their wine list is heavy on Italian labels from Tuscany, Franciacorta, Piedmont, Abruzzo and more; and their cocktails boast an Italian flair with Negronis, Stellinis, and Spritzes.

Beefing up the steakhouse side won't be too much of a stretch since La Stella already offers a dry-aged meat program, with cuts such as a 36-ounce Fiorentina aged for 28 days, a 14-ounce rib eye, and Westholme Australian Wagyu.

La Stella initially opened with a team that also included managing partner Riccardo Ravaglia, who'd worked at the Rainbow Room and Harry Cipriani on 5th Avenue in New York. Ravaglia is still a partner and consultant, but no longer involved in the day-to-day, leaving Piccinini to take a more central role in maintaining the restaurant's glitz but also incorporating a family-run vibe that has been essential to the restaurant's success, including prevailing in the Arts District, a neighborhood that has seen many restaurants come and go.

"It's a family operation — my wife oversees our corporate and private events, and my parents are both intimately involved," Piccinini says. "We had our best year yet in 2024. I'm thrilled to say that you can't get into our restaurant on the weekend. We're here for people attending concerts and events, or to celebrate their anniversary — but also just as much a place for corporate events and parties."

"Our only 'downfall' has been having just the one dining room — this is why the Lawry's space is ideal," he says. "We'll have at least three private dining spaces. Addison is also convenient to many businesses and the entire north-of-Dallas area."

When they first started looking, the Lawry's space was not available.

"We'd expressed interest but they had another concept that was supposed to go into the space," he says. "We looked at Plano and Frisco but we were hoping to find a location that was ready to go. When the initial tenant at Lawry's fell through, the landlord called and we grabbed it."

The kitchen is mostly ready to roll, but they're updating the interior and also adding landscaping to turn the yard into a little venue for weddings. "We're taking advantage of the 11,000 square feet that the building has," he says.