If you're one of those people who wants dearly that which you cannot have, then this is your moment, as there are two restaurants in Dallas right now where you cannot get a reservation.
In a weird and bittersweet cosmic convergence, they're both located inside fashion retailers.
- Cafe Dior by Dominque Crenn is the just-opened restaurant inside the new Dior boutique in Highland Park Village.
- Zodiac Room is the about-to-close restaurant inside the storied downtown location of Neiman Marcus, the luxury department store.
Their lack of availability is for opposite reasons. Cafe Dior is new and buzzy. Zodiac Room is about to close. That means there are limited seats and a scramble to get them.
Cafe Dior by Dominique Crenn
Cafe Dior is the fashionable new restaurant located inside the recently-opened Dior store at 58 Highland Park Village, with a menu overseen by Michelin star recipient chef Dominique Crenn.
Dior cafes in general have a buzz of their own — there are a limited number of exclusive cities with Dior cafes that include London, Paris, Miami, and Tokyo.
And each location has a distinction: "Monsieur Dior," the nickname for the cafe in Paris, walking distance from the Champs-Élysées, is a tourist destination unto its own. The Dior Cafe in Tokyo has a tie-in with French pâtissier-chocolatier Pierre Hermé.
The distinction at the Dallas cafe is having Crenn, a brand-name chef whose accolades include coming in at No. 10 on Robb Report's 50 Most Powerful People in American Fine Dining, as well as James Beard Awards and appearances on TV shows including The Next Iron Chef, Chef’s Table, and Top Chef France.
She's devised a menu said to be inspired by Dior dress designs. Regardless of inspiration, you'll find department store cafe classics such as a chicken salad sandwich and the obligatory consomme. The cafe also hosts an afternoon tea with its own menu of sandwiches and desserts.
The reservation situation: The cafe's official opening date was announced as February 22 — but they actually opened oh-so-quietly on February 19, and Dominque herself was in town to oversee the opening. Reservations can be made on Seven Rooms, beginning February 23 — but there are no open tables through April. (This info comes from a staffer; the Seven Rooms site is kind of a cluster.)
Zodiac RoomZodiac Room
Zodiac Room
The Zodiac Room is the storied restaurant located inside the Neiman Marcus store in downtown Dallas, which is sadly closing due to a landlord dispute.
The closure is a loss for downtown as well as the end of a socio-cultural institution — "so central to the legend and history of Dallas that it's hard to imagine the city without it," as one former employee said — "a store that was always more than a beautiful place to shop."
Neiman Marcus got hit hard by the pandemic but reopened in August 2020. The Zodiac Room, however, remained closed for more than a year after that, before reopening in 2021. (Other downtown dining legends like the French Room have yet to fully recover.)
The Zodiac Room was one of the city's most venerable restaurants, with its modern take on old-world glamour: warm, inviting, elegant, in a store with all those same traits and more. The historical significance of Neiman Marcus to Dallas surely played a role in the Zodiac's perennial appeal. But so did its delicate menu featuring puffy popovers with strawberry butter, cool mandarin orange souffle with chicken salad, and its complimentary cup of consomme — its preservation of a genteel, slightly Southern civility that's increasingly hard to find.
When CultureMap Dallas introduced its very first list of the 10 Best Restaurants in Dallas in 2013, shortly after the site launched, the Zodiac Room was of course one of the 10. The Zodiac was always a frontrunner for ladies who lunch, for where to take your out-of-town guests during the holidays. And it stayed au courant, exploring cuisines such as vegan, while paving the way for an entire category of department-store cafes — including newcomers like Cafe Dior.
The reservation situation: The store will close on March 31, and the Zodiac Room is entirely booked up until that date. (Half Price Books has a copy of the 2014 Neiman Marcus Cooks cookbook, if you want to try making those popovers yourself.)
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