Dead Star

Star Canyon goes out with a whimper, not a bang

Comments (0) By Mark Stuertz Thursday, May 22 2003

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Though Star Canyon manager Silvio Carbone insists the restaurant was done in by a drop in Dallas convention business coupled with the recession and the economic ripples sparked by September 11 terrorist attacks (the Las Vegas Star Canyon will shut down and reopen as a new concept), others insist it was the lingering uncertainty of the restaurant's fate that bled it to death once Carlson put it up for sale. "You're terminal," Ring says. "Once word got out that it is being sold...you didn't have any end to the story. That uncertainty may have led to its undoing."

"The hardest thing is when you see something fade so much that it's painful to go back in there," says founder Michael Cox. "That's really something that you never want to really be a part of."

Mark Graham

Star Canyon co-founder Stephan Pyles says the restaurant's closing is like the death of a loved one.

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Though co-founder Stephan Pyles concedes that it's time to move on, the closure of the restaurant rattled him, especially in light of the impact it had on Dallas culinary culture. No more bone-in cowboy rib eye. No more cowboy Cobb or barbecue duck tacos. "What was really sad was to go in recently and see it half empty on a weekend night," he says. "I guess I'll always think of Star Canyon as a departed loved one. It will remain forever in my heart, like Routh Street Café."