Britton McKintyre, former chef at Sipango, will head-up the kitchen at Popolos, according to David Holben, executive vice president and executive chef of Foodstar Restaurant Group Inc., the company that purchased the restaurant in December. McKintyre takes over for Chef Los Akins, who is in the process of launching The Palace, a bar/music venue a la New Orleans' House of Blues tucked in an old church on Sears Street off lower Greenville Avenue. The Palace is set to open sometime in July. Holben and McKintyre plan to unveil a new Popolos menu before the end of the month.
Foodstar also tapped Joerg Mast, the son of two German hoteliers, as Popolos' general manager. Mast's family owns and operates two of the top resort hotels in Germany, one of which includes a Guide Michelin two-star restaurant.
Cowtown Pan-Asian
Pangaea, from the Greek word meaning "one world," just opened off Sundance Square in Fort Worth with a Chinese-Japanese hybrid menu infused with other Asian touches and French undertones. Owned by Shannon and Hui Chuan Logan, the restaurant is located on the south side of Sundance Square on Fifth Street. Hui Chuan, who had culinary training in Nice, France, is Pangaea's chef. An official grand opening is planned within the next two weeks following the installation of the restaurant's sushi bar.
Hash seasonings
De Tapas, a new Spanish restaurant in North Dallas, celebrated its official grand opening last week. The restaurant is a partnership between three Cafe Madrid alumni: original Cafe Madrid Chef Carmen Alonso-Jimenez, Joe Marino, and Carlos Lukic. The three left Cafe Madrid in the wake of the divorce between Jimenez's son Ildefonso and Donica Jimenez, the husband and wife team who owned Cafe Madrid. Ildefonso went on to open the flamenco tapas bar Ketama in Deep Ellum. In the wake of family turmoil comes a rash of tapas...Lisa Kelly joins Parigi as day chef. Kelly was the chef at the Dallas Museum of Art's Atrium Cafe and sous chef at the Crescent Club...In a long overdue service move, Aquaknox will now offer the full dinner menu at its 20-seat lounge counter near the kitchen and sushi preparation area. Previously, the restaurant served only appetizers and small-portion dishes in the bar from the lounge menu, a policy that annoyed some customers, as the open kitchen is just a few steps away. The rest of the lounge is still prohibited from ordering dinner-menu selections, though the lounge menu has been enhanced and expanded.
--Mark Stuertz
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