Bread and circus

Despite upscale pretensions, Eatzi's aims for a lowbrow market. Will it fly?

A A A Comments By Mary Brown Malouf Thursday, Feb 15 1996

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However you feel about the food's taste, Eatzi's is food news. Nothing quite like it has been launched before. However dazzled the customers are right now by Eatzi's bread and circus atmosphere, the question is, will they be faithful once the novelty wears off? Rumors and insider info have been flying ever since the finish-out started. It's got heads shaking and people talking. They say Eatzi's has to gross $7 million a month to make it and that it employs 53 people on one shift. Every time I've been there I've seen groups of business-suited men huddled together, not ordering desk lunches, just talking, quizzing employees, double-checking prices as carefully as housewives on Thursdays, to see whether they've been hiked yet, running the numbers on this operation, wondering if it will work.

Ultimately, Eatzi's is, of course, designed to make money, and whatever its upscale role models, Eatzi's is actually aiming at gastronomically lowbrow business of Boston Market and the deli departments of grocery stores.

Location Info

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eatZi's Market & Bakery

3403 Oak Lawn Ave.
Dallas, TX 75219-4215

Category: Restaurant > Cafe

Region: Uptown & Oak Lawn

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This isn't supposed to be a place for a few finicky foodies; Brinker plans to roll out Eatzi's across the country.

Dallas has offered little to the culinary world except the hybrid cuisine called southwest. Because money is our art form, our most notable contribution is the chain restaurant: packaged consistency.

Eatzi's is about volume, but its quality is high. Will it fly?
So far, the corporate guys should be happy. The cash registers are ringing, from early bird breakfasts to last-minute chickens. And the customers are happy. As the lady behind me in the checkout line said with a Texas twang, "Honey, it beats the heck outta Skaggs!"

Eatzi's, Oak Lawn, 526-1515. Open daily, 7 a.m.-10 p.m.

Eatzi's:
Ready-to-Cook Beef Kebabs
$1.99 Each
Mashed Potatoes $2.99 a pound
Caesar Salad $2.99
Lobster Ravioli $3.49
Vegetable Quesadillas
$5.99 a pound
Medium Cheese Pizza $6.95
Turkey Cobb Salad $4.99