Other changes were mere transplants. Ruggeri's shut down after roughly 15 years and moved across the street to the Quadrangle in the space that was Mediterraneo before it was PoPoLos. Arthur's, the restaurant that has been hovering around Dallas since 1948, finally found a home this year in the Addison space that was Mel Hollen's Bar and Fine Dining. After a retrofit and with doors open for just a week, the restaurant caught fire, destroying the roof of the structure. Owner Mohsen Heidari says he hopes to have the restaurant reopened sometime next year.
MigrationsChefs in Dallas change kitchens faster than Dallas changes school superintendents. It's almost impossible to keep tabs on chefs without a flow chart. Super-Tuscan chef Gilbert Garza transmogrified from chef to chef-owner and purchased the little Northwest Dallas neighborhood restaurant Suze from Suzie Priore. Former Grape and then AquaKnox chef Jason Gorman bumped from The Mercury over to City Café. And then there was Jim Anile. After he was deep-sixed from the Melrose Hotel following an ownership change, Anile struck a deal with the operators of the Green Room to help develop Jeroboam as executive chef. But just before the restaurant opened, he was off to Santa Barbara, California, to charge up a resort called Vacara, leaving Jeroboam's reins in the hands of former Green Room sous chef Garreth Dickey.
Judy Walgren
Matthew Mabel sees nothing but blue skies ahead for Dallas' restaurant industry.
Location Info
Related Content
More About
Former Zodiac Room chef Sharon Hage severed herself from Salve! after a short and high-profile stint and surfaced at the Hotel St. Germain. Tom Fleming skipped out of the executive chef post at the Riviera to do that duty at Lombardi Mare, and Tim Penn left as executive chef of Brian and Sonya Black's Il Sole, surrendering the slot to chef Jeffery Hobbs. But perhaps the most significant Dallas chef rift was the departure of super chef Danielle Custer, who ended her accolade-stuffed tenure at Laurel's to rejuvenate her career in Seattle, from whence she came.
Another significant rupture struck Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, the huge TGI Friday's parent that picked up the Stephan Pyles/Michael Cox restaurants Star Canyon, AquaKnox, and Taqueria Canonita in 1998. Just after the company opened Taqueria Canonita in Plano, Michael Cox severed his ties. Shortly after that, Pyles' sister Alena, who was appointed executive chef of the Plano restaurant with plans of overseeing development of the taqueria in other cities, left suddenly. Her exit was followed by Stephan's, who left Carlson to "pursue other interests," and curiously retained an equity position in Fishbowl and AquaKnox.
While Cox says he's not fixated with a hunger to draft another restaurant hit--though it could end up that way--he adds he's noticed a few trends that will pick up momentum next year. Namely, the outlying stretches of Dallas are slowly filling with distinctive restaurants and food choices. Witness Thai Tango in Flower Mound and Carlson's Mignon French steak house within a spitball shot of Frisco.
"The public in Dallas is just too used to going out to eat," Cox says. "And it's just become an acceptable affordability."
