There's something funny going on at Lone Wolf, Chuck Norris' and Dennis Overstreet's restaurant and cigar and wine bar that appears to have been shuttered permanently. A rumor was circulating in late November that Lone Wolf was set to shut down by the first of the year. Then in mid-December, The Dallas Morning News reported that the restaurant hired a new chef, Jesse Moreno, formerly of Okeanos and Highland Park Cafe. Not only that; the News trumpeted that through Monday, December 21 (the restaurant wasn't usually open Mondays), Lone Wolf's annual private wine and cigar lounge membership would plunge to $50 from $850.
On Tuesday, December 22, I received an anonymous voice-mail message from a server stating that someone from the office of Gerrit Pronske, Lone Wolf's attorney, had come into the restaurant to retrieve payroll checks (apparently they had already been passed out). "I haven't heard anything that rings a bell on any of that," said Pronske, when asked about the payroll check incident and if the restaurant was set to close. That Tuesday was the last time Lone Wolf was open, according to an inside source. Now, the restaurant is locked up, and Dennis Overstreet's (The Wine Merchant in Beverly Hills) name has been scraped off the plate-glass front door, leaving just Chuck Norris' and Jim Belushi's. Apparently, Overstreet backed out of the deal. Wonder what happened to any of those special $50 private-membership payments that might have been collected, and if members will be permitted to enter the restaurant to retrieve any wine and cigars from their private lockers.
Pair does two
And speaking of Lone Wolf, former Mansion matre d' Wayne Broadwell and former Sipango partner and chef Matthew Antonovich, both of whom had short stints as Lone Wolf partners this fall, are preparing to open a pair of upscale Dallas restaurants. Villa on Maple, featuring classic Northern Italian fare, will open sometime in early fall in the Loyd Paxton antiques gallery on Maple Avenue. Broadwell and Antonovich paid in excess of $2.5 million for the Loyd Paxton site, which includes three buildings. Their second project, Lucille's and the Tack Room, will open in Mockingbird Station at the end of '99. Serving dinner only, Lucille's will be an upscale American grill, while the Tack Room, with a 75-foot bar, will be a daytime bistro and Paris Brasserie at night. The pair also plans to open a speakeasy-style bar, dubbed the Electric Room, in the building's old boiler room.
--Mark Stuertz
E-mail Dish at [email protected].
