Delicious Dining News

Pizza and new cocktails fizz up this roundup of Dallas restaurant news

Pizza Leila does square Sicilian-style pies.

Kathy Tran

This roundup of restaurant news around Dallas features new openings, cocktails with tropical twists, a chef announcement, and more.

Here's what's happening in Dallas restaurant news:

Pizza Leila, the downtown pizzeria from NL Group, the hospitality group from Tim McEneny, has opened an outlet at NorthPark Center, on the second level at #2382, in between Chick-Fil-A and Wich! (formerly known as Which Wich!).

Mooyah Burgers, Fries & Shakes, the Texas fast-casual burger chain, is opening a new location in Frisco, at 2215 W. University Dr. #100 on July 18. This will be the 14th location in the DFW area but it's their first drive-thru, which they claim in a release "prioritizes convenience and efficiency."

Raising Cane’s opened a location in Oak Cliff at 4400 S. Hampton Rd. on July 9. It's the second location in Oak Cliff (the other is at 701 W. Illinois Ave.), the 68th location in Dallas, and the 197th in Texas.

McDonald's has opened a location at 3201 E Cartwright Rd. in Mesquite.

MasterChef: Generations, the Fox TV cooking show with judges Gordon Ramsay, Lidia Bastianich, and Aaron Sanchez, features a Dallas contestant: Anna Johnson, a tax director. The series premiered its 14th season on May 29, and airs on Wednesdays at 7 pm.

Monarch, the Italian restaurant in downtown Dallas from Chicago chef Danny Grant, appointed William Salisbury as executive chef. Salisbury was previously at Carbone and Bullion, and was nominated as a Rising Star Chef in the 2024 Tastemaker Awards, which he won.

Dive Coastal Cuisine has new specials for July: coconut ceviche — a veggie twist with cucumber, cilantro, coconut milk, jalapeño, red onion, avocado, and corn; a summer salad with greens from DiveDWN, watermelon, Heirloom tomato, and fennel; and fish tacos with tomatillo citrus slaw.

Shipley Do-Nuts has new egg & cheese kolaches for the summer, in three varieties: egg & cheese for $2.99, egg, cheese, & sausage for 3.49, and egg, cheese, sausage, & jalapeño for $3.49. Available through September 30.

Dairy Queen has brought back the Salted Caramel Truffle DQ Blizzard for the July Blizzard of the Month, featuring vanilla soft serve, caramel truffles, and sea salt.

Rita's Italian Ice & Frozen Custard Italian ice chain has a new offerings in partnership with Nerds candy: a Nerds grape flavored ice, and Baby Nerds dessert topping. Also a Nerds grape-flavored Gelati Blender, a drink featuring Italian ice blended with custard and topped with Baby Nerds.

BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse has new menu items for summer including onion rings, chili crunch pot stickers, and parmesan-crusted shrimp. There are two new cocktails: The Lucky Ducky, served in a cute bathtub vessel, which you can take home for $10, and Triple Patrón Guava Rita.

Mountain Mike’s Pizza has two new pizzas for summer: All-American Cheeseburger Pizza with beef, bacon, onions, cheddar, mozzarella, tomato, and dill pickles on Thousand Island dressing; and Apple of My Pie Dessert Pizza with apple pie filling, brown sugar & cinnamon, mozzarella cheese, and powdered sugar. Available through August at all locations including Lewisville, Fort Worth, and Grand Prairie.

Restaurant Beatrice in Oak Cliff has appointed Colin Younce as new chef de cuisine. Younce has worked at Homewood and Petra and the Beast, and specializes in cured and smoked meats, whole animal butchery, low-waste operations, and farm-to-table menus. Restaurant Beatrice is also expanding wine offerings to include more artisan wines at a wider range of price points and launching Boucherie Beatrice, a retail sausage program in August, selling Cajun/Creole smoked and cured meats.

Truluck’s is offering Spottswoode Estate’s classically styled Sauvignon Blanc at $58 a bottle, dine in only. Crafted with grapes from Spottswoode Estate, as well as those from other family-owned vineyards, this wine is fermented in a combination of French oak, small stainless-steel barrels, a clay amphora, and ceramic, and concrete cuves. This wine is available at the Dallas location at 2401 McKinney Ave.

Mi Dia From Scratch presents the Summer Peach Margarita as the Margarita of the Month for July, featuring Milagro Tequila and St. Germain, peach, hibiscus, and lemon, shaken and poured into a short glass, then topped with a hibiscus foam. At three locations: Plano, Grapevine, and Flower Mound.

Cantina Laredo is introducing a new limited-time-only menu of specialty cocktails through October 7. They're calling them limonada libations but limonada is lemonade, and these seem to be margaritas in three flavors: strawberry, passion fruit limonada, and coconut lemonade, priced at $13. Available at Cantina Laredo locations in Addison and Frisco.

El Chico has two new cocktails which offer a rum-based twist to their traditional margarita: Dreamsicle with Don Q Naranja Rum, Coco Reàl Cream of Coconut, pineapple juice, orange juice; and Tropical Parrot-dise with Parrot Bay Coconut Rum, Coco Reàl Cream of Coconut, pineapple juice, and Myers’s Original Dark Rum. The cocktails are $7.50, available through October 7, at locations in Rockwall, Pantego, and Richland Hills.

Fogo de Chão recently launched Sonhadores Wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon wine in partnership with Cline Family Cellars based in Sonoma, to add to its Tribute Wine Collection. The new offering is available by the glass, bottle, or take-home option at all Fogo locations, including Uptown Dallas, Irving, Addison, and Plano.

wine chefs openings lists

Comings and Goings

It's a big week for restaurant openings and closings in Dallas

Alara

Deconstructed baklava at Alara.

The headline says it best: It's a big week for restaurant openings and closings in Dallas. Sometimes forces come together to make a week like this busy, whether it's the alignment of the stars or just a Dallas code compliance inspector who finally decides to give a thumbs up.

But along with the good news of openings comes the not-so-good news of closings. Let's do good news first with openings, followed by closings.

OPENINGS

Alara, a Mediterranean restaurant from Turkish-born chef Onur Akan, has opened in Dallas' Design District at 1628 Oak Lawn Ave. #120, in the former Pakpao Thai space. Akan, who previously worked as a chef at Nonna and had his own catering company, is calling it "modern Mediterranean," with twists such as deconstructed baklava and the so-called Caesar salad, whose gem lettuce, fried anchovies, and green goddess dressing make it seem like not a Caesar at all. During lunch, Alara will feature a casual European cafe-style menu with mezze, doner kebab, sandwiches, and salads. Dinner service expands into a larger menu with nightly specials.

Bojangles, the Carolina chicken chain, opened a location in Plano at 3840 SH-121, in a newly-constructed building west of Kroger Marketplace at the corner of Coit Road. Bojangles specializes in fried chicken, biscuits, and Southern sides such as dirty rice, mac & cheese, and Cajun pinto beans. They made their Dallas-area debut in 2023 with the usual fanfare that first surrounds a chain, followed by the usual fading fanfare that surrounds a chain after it has opened multiple locations. In this case, Plano marks the company’s ninth location in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Maman, the New York café chain making a big expansion in Dallas, opens its new location at Hillside Village, the centrally situated center at Mockingbird Lane and Abrams Road, on April 23 in the former Palmer's Hot Chicken space, with pastries, sandwiches, coffee, and exclusive Texas menu items. Opening day will feature an 8 am ribbon cutting with complimentary cookies for the first 100 customers who make a purchase. They made their Texas debut in November 2025 when they opened a location in the Plaza at Preston Center. There are also plans for locations in Frisco, Casa Linda, and the Design District.

PopUp Bagels, a buzzy bagel concept from the Northeast, will make its Texas debut on April 24, opening its first location in Dallas at Inwood Village, in the former I Heart Yogurt shop next to the Inwood Theatre at 5450 W Lovers Ln. #143. PopUp started as a backyard project during the pandemic. Their menu is limited — no sandwiches— and their bagels are sold whole only, not sliced, leading to their nickname "rip and dip," in which customers rip the bagels in half and dip them into spreads. (Their texture is softer and lighter than the traditional New York dense bagel, making them easier to "rip.") On opening day only, they'll serve a Lemon Pepper Schmear that's a collaboration with Wingstop.

Portillo's, the Chicago-based street food chain, opened a location in Frisco at 16499 FM Rd. #423 on April 21, with Chicago-style hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, crinkle-cut fries, salads, shakes, and chocolate cake. Hot dogs come in regular, chili cheese, Polish sausage, and Maxwell Street Polish sausage with mustard and grilled onions. The location features Portillo's "restaurant of the future" design, comprising a smaller, more efficient footprint. It is the 11th location of Portillo's in Dallas-Fort Worth and first in Frisco; the first opened at the Grandscape development in The Colony in January 2023.

CLOSINGS

Super Duper Cookie Co., a social enterprise that employs people with disabilities, is closing its storefront in May. The shop, which opened in 2024 in the former Baldo's Ice Cream space across from SMU at 6401 Hillcrest Rd., will be closing on May 1, according to a post on Instagram. Company founder Benjamin Crosland told the DMN that they're closing because they couldn't afford to stay in business. "We are sad to go but we know that we have made an impact in our community," their post said. "We will be here until May 1, so come and say goodbye and get a cookie and dance under the disco ball one last time."

Bon bons by Kate Weiser Chocolate. Photo courtesy of Kate Weiser Chocolate

Dozo Omakase. Omakase sushi restaurant at Trinity Groves closed on April 14, after a little more than a year. The sushi spot opened in early 2025 with an embrace of the then-trendy multi-course omakase style of dining, in small or large versions with basically four options: 7 or 15 courses, plus hand rolls and a nigiri-handroll combination, with prices ranging from $28 to $120. They had a cool happy hour with a new menu nearly every month, but it wasn't enough. In their closure announcement, they said it was a difficult decision but invited fans to visit their sister restaurant Dozo Sushi in Richardson.

Kate Weiser Chocolate, Dallas' renowned chocolatier famous for its colorful and artistic chocolates, is closing down. That includes all four locations: its flagship at Trinity Groves as well as NorthPark Center, Fort Worth, and Southlake, as well as online sales. Founder Kate Weiser, a pastry chef who founded her chocolate company in 2014 as part of the "incubator" program at Trinity Groves, told the DMN that Trinity Groves' investors owned 60 percent of the company, and that they hadn't been profitable in four years. She's arranged for her signature "Carl the Snowman" hot chocolate kit to have one final Christmas season with Central Market for the 2026 holiday.

Stirr, the brunchy restaurant from Dallas-based Milkshake Concepts, has closed its final location in Addison. According to a post from the owners, they decided not to renew their lease; April 19 was their last day of service. Stirr made its debut in Deep Ellum in 2016, serving chef-driven dishes and cocktails. A second location opened in Fort Worth in 2019, then closed in 2021. Milkshake seems to be in a time of transition. In 2025, they closed Citizen, their lounge on Swiss Avenue and recently replaced it with a dance-music venue called Ctrl Room. They also own the small Mexican chain Vidorra, Serious Pizza, and The Finch, an American grill with locations in Dallas, Grand Prairie, and Nashville.
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Stephanie Allmon Merry contributed to this story.

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