French Restaurant News
Casual Frenchie restaurant nabs spot at Dallas' Plaza at Preston Center
Trademark sculpture at The Plaza at Preston Center.
A Dallas hospitality team best known for its restaurants in the Knox Street area is expanding to Preston Center: Travis Street Hospitality, owner of restaurants such as Georgie, Le Bilboquet, and Knox Street Bistro, is opening a new concept at the chic Plaza at Preston Center, at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Northwest Highway.
The restaurant is called Frenchie, and it will take the space at 8420 Preston Center Plaza that was Corner Bakery, which closed in 2022 after 23 years.
Frenchie will be an "all day eatery and bar" featuring French cuisine, and is targeted to open in January 2025. UPDATE 6-23/2025: Frenchie is now open.
Travis Street Hospitality is the group founded by restaurateur Stephan Courseau, a native of France who has garnered a dedicated following in the Park Cities starting in 2013 when he opened Le Bilboquet, a neighborhood restaurant in Travis Walk and popular destination for lunch.
The Knox Street area has undergone dramatic change and Courseau has grown with it, opening Knox Bistro in 2017, and Georgie in 2019. Georgie has become one of Dallas' most sought-after restaurants, escalated by the arrival of chef R.J. Yoakum, who joined the team in January 2023 with a packed resume that included The French Laundry in Napa, Angler in San Francisco, and the Culinary Institute of America at Hyde Park.
In 2023, Courseau formed a partnership with acclaimed chef Bruno Davaillon, a fellow native of France, who oversees the menu and operations at Knox Bistro, as well as Le PasSage, an Asian concept the duo will open soon at The Terminal at Katy Trail, a development at Buena Vista Street and Fitzhugh.
Courseau confirmed that Frenchie was coming but said it was too soon to share details on menu or decor.
Attracting a local tenant to the former Corner Bakery address was a priority, says Mike Geisler, managing director of Venture Commercial Real Estate, the Dallas-based brokerage that manages The Plaza at Preston Center.
"The Corner Bakery location attracted a tremendous amount of attention, including many chains who were dying to get in," Geisler says. "But The Plaza is special, and we wanted a high-quality operator who understands the customer base and could provide the level of service and experience you need. Many of our best tenants have been local tenants, and we're excited to bring Stephan into the fold."
Other restaurants at The Plaza include Amorino Gelato; Muchacho, the Tex-Mex restaurant from chef Omar Flores; Trova Wine + Market; plus juggernauts like True Food Kitchen — one of only two locations in the DFW area (along with Plano) for the popular healthy-restaurant chain; plus the hugely influential Hillstone and its hip sibling R + D Kitchen, as well as Il Bracco, the Italian restaurant from two Hillstone veterans, which opened in 2019.
