Beer news

Festive brewpub chain hits downtown Plano with craft beer and Cajun food

Voodoo Brewing

Voodoo

A brewpub concept from a Pennsylvania college town is on tap for downtown Plano: Called Voodoo Brewing Co., it'll open in early March at 1001 14th St. #500, on the ground floor of the Morada apartment building across from Urban Rio.

It'll be the chain's third location in Texas: The first opened in Grand Prairie in 2023 and a second recently opened in Katy.

Voodoo Brewing Co. was founded in Meadville, a small town north of Pittsburgh and home to Allegheny College. They opened their first taproom in 2012, and now have outlets in Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina, and Texas.

The Plano location is from Jennifer and Jeremy Dartez, and is their first restaurant venture. Jennifer previously worked in accounting for 14 years before raising their children, and Jeremy works as an actuary.

The couple shares a passion for craft beer, and have visited breweries across the country. Joining a franchise gave them a chance to get into the industry with limited food & beverage experience. They also thought Plano needed a local brewery.

“This area between Richardson and McKinney doesn’t have many breweries,” Jennifer says. “We thought it was a fun area, and it gets a lot of traffic.”

Although a franchise, Voodoo stands out by allowing each location’s owner to customize their pub with a unique aesthetic and personalized menu additions.

"That’s one thing we really love about Voodoo — we got to make it our own,” Jennifer says.

They've given the space a cheery friendly atmosphere, with walls painted in hues of deep magenta, blue, and green, and a colorful mural by local artist Andrea Holmes, rife with family touches and references to Plano, Louisiana, and Texas.

The menu will feature the elevated bar food for which Voodoo is known, enhanced by their Cajun-inspired additions including po’boy sandwiches, boudin balls, and hush puppies.

“I really wanted to get some Cajun food on the menu,” Jennifer says. “I want to have it be Fat Tuesday every week instead of just once a year.”

They’ll also serve pizza, wings, burgers, salads, wraps, and beer cheese mac and cheese. Appetizers include pretzels, sliders, nachos, and fried pickles. There are three dessert options: beignets, churros, and bread pudding.

The company brews its beer in Pennsylvania then ships it to the local franchises. At Plano, they'll feature Voodoo's nine flagship beers which include

Good Vibes: West coast IPA with tropical fruit notes
Where Our Secrets Go: Dark ale with caramel and crystal malt flavors
Lacto-Kooler: Green sour ale
Voodoo Love Child: Pale, dry beer with cherry, raspberry, and passionfruit notes

In addition to the flagship options, they’ll offer four or five seasonal beers, as well as local craft beers and a nitro coffee on tap supplied by The Thirsty Growler in The Colony. Plus a full bar with margaritas and other cocktails.

They'll open their doors on March 8 with a celebratory and family-friendly event.

downtown plano openings craft-beer

Wings News

New chicken wing joint sells 'em by the pound in Dallas' Deep Ellum

Wings By the Pound

A no-nonsense wing spot has debuted in Dallas' Deep Ellum: Called Wings By the Pound, it sells exactly that, at a shop at 2707 Main St., in the former home of the Slutty Vegan burger joint, which closed in 2024.

Wings by the Pound states proudly that it "isn't a combo joint" but is instead "a counter built on one idea — call your weight, watch it hit the scale, and take it off the scale." Then presumably you take it home, you eat it, end of story.

It presents itself as an alternative to typical wing spots which sell wings by the number. Numbers are complicated.

"We sell you weight. Pick wings or tenders, call your poundage from a half-pound to four, and we weigh it up in front of you," they say.

From there it's the standard wing-joint set of choices: wings or tenders, level of heat, sauces, and sides. "No combos, no guessing," they brag, although is there a lot of guessing with wings?

Here's some very specific numbers:

One pound of wings, which they approximate at 12 pieces, is $15.05. Two pounds, or 24 pieces, is $27.11.
One pound of tenders, which they approximate at 8 pieces, is $17.02. Two pounds, or 16 pieces, is $25.06.

They also sell french fries — crinkle cut — in choice of plain, cheese sauce, or "pound sauce" for $8 to $15. Pound sauce is their version of the prototypical secret sauce, which generally boils down to Russian-ish dressing, i.e., mayonnaise and ketchup with various add-ins, spicy and otherwise; the version at Wings By the Pound incorporates hot sauce.

There are wet sauces, including Thai, chipotle, hot honey, and garlic Parm; dry rubs, including suya (peanut) and jalapeño-lemon; and five dips: cheese sauce, ranch, bleu cheese, honey mustard, and pound sauce.

Some might recall that there was a Wings By the Pound concept that first debuted in 2020 at Trinity Groves, the restaurant incubator in West Dallas, but that closed in 2022.

This Wings By the Pound is a new concept from ArkDal Hospitality Group, headed by Cary Thompson, Royce Colley, and Mo Wells, which also operates Velour Restaurant in Victory Park.

The location in Deep Ellum has no seating on premise and functions as a take-out spot only. A spokesperson said that the location opened in mid-June.

chicken deep ellum openings