Downtown News
Dallas chef team to close downtown fine-dining restaurant Sauvage
The final day will be March 21.
A downtown Dallas restaurant famous for its multi-course tasting experience is closing: Sauvage, the high-end mom-and-pop restaurant near the Statler Dallas hotel, will close in March.
According to a post from co-owner and chef Casey La Rue, the final day will be March 21.
"We're going to be open weekends until then, on Fridays and Saturdays, and we're going to put out the best food we've done so far," La Rue says.
They're closing due to heart-related health issues that La Rue has experienced, which began to surface in the past five years.
"Over the past few years, I've had some health issues, even going back to Carte Blanche days," La Rue says, referring to the original tasting restaurant that he and his wife Amy La Rue opened on Greenville Avenue in 2020. "I guess running this kind of restaurant, and the all-consuming nature of it, isn't great for you physically."
That's especially true given the couple's DIY ethos: They opened Sauvage six months ago next to the Statler Dallas hotel at 1914 Commerce St., with a renovation that they executed entirely on their own, literally building the place from scratch.
They opened Sauvage as a woodfire concept with 16-18 courses — wild game, seafood, vegetables, and dessert — all cooked via grill and smoker. It was a next-generation concept for the couple following Carte Blanche, where they earned a number of awards including a rare AAA 5-diamond award, before closing in 2024.
But the fine-dining landscape has changed in recent years, with some calling it unsustainable.
At around the same time, the La Rues opened La Rue Doughnuts, a buzzy shop at the Trinity Groves complex in West Dallas, and Casey says that's where they'll place their focus, stating that he's unlikely to do another fine-dining restaurant "in my lifetime." (On a related note, all of the equipment at the restaurant is for sale.)
Doing the math, that means: 10 nights remaining X 2 reservation slots per night X 12 seats at each seating. That comes out to exactly 240 opportunities to get a meal there before they close. Run to the reservation lines!
