School's Out
Restaurant with cute school theme at Dallas' West Village closes after 7 years
They were champions of craft beer just as the craft beer trend was emerging.
School's out at the West Village in Uptown Dallas with the sad closure of PS 214, the catchy school-themed restaurant located in the 3700M building at 3700 McKinney Ave.
Also known as Public School 214, the restaurant, which opened in early 2015 during the then-emerging craft beer trend, closed in late November, after seven years in the space. A spokesperson for Grill Concepts, the parent company, said that they were unable to come to an agreement on the lease, which was up for renewal.
Originating from Southern California, Public School 214 was part of the Grill Concepts family, which owns the Daily Grill and Grill on the Alley chains. It was a big proponent of craft beer with gastropub-style food, plus a scholastic theme manifested in elements such as the black-&-white composition notebook menus, featuring trendy dishes such as bacon cheddar tots with Sriracha ketchup, and shrimp & cheddar grits.
But the company hit a rocky patch during its time in Dallas.
Things started to take a turn when Grill Concepts' dynamic director Bob Spivak, who was still at the helm when Uptown opened, retired a year later, taking some of the driving energy with him.
Grill Concepts also got hit hard by the pandemic and was forced into a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in April 2021.
In 2017, a second DFW Public School was announced for Addison, called PS 972. But costly construction issues delayed its opening by two years, and they finally pulled the plug on that location in 2021. (It's now home to TK's Place, a comedy club.)
In addition to Public School, Grill Concepts also had another presence in Dallas: a location of its high-end Beverly Hills restaurant Grill on the Alley at Galleria Dallas, which closed in the 2021 bankruptcy fallout, after 15 years.
Darin Botelho, president of McLemmon Group, which manages the property at 3700 McKinney Ave. where PS 214 was located, says that its departure is unfortunate, but they are already in talks with a few operators.
"We're hoping to replace it with another American tavern concept," Botelho says. "It's sad because they tried to keep it open, but had so many challenges."
