Italian Restaurant Americano Will Open In The Space Charlie Palmer Vacated At The Joule

Downtown Dallas is notorious when it comes to quality restaurants, or at least it used to be. The introduction of CBD Provisions, San Salvaje and other excellent establishments indicate that the neighborhood is changing, but there are still many gaps to be filled in the area’s dining scene. Soon, though, a new concept called Americano will hopefully (finally) give the area some much-needed dining diversity.

The Dallas Morning News reported yesterday that Americano, a concept created by the minds at Tim Headington’s restaurant/movie production/building smashing company, would go into the space that The Joule had originally intended for Grasslands. In spring 2014, Grasslands was one of the city’s most buzzed-about restaurants — largely due to some big promises about “never offering commodity beef,” and working with local farms to have exclusively grown produce. The restaurant was originally scheduled to open in fall 2014, but it looks as if plans for Grasslands may have been shelved indefinitely.

Interestingly, Headington will continue with plans to install Greg Bussey, formerly of Victor Tangos and Matt Ford, formerly of Fort Worth’s AF+B as the restaurant’s co-executive chefs. According to the Morning News, the menu will be a “stylish” interpretation of Italian food with twists from American cuisine. Americano sounds much more budget-friendly than the painfully local food planned for Grasslands, with dinner prices topping out in the “mid-20s.” We’re guessing those locally sourced radishes and “non-commodity” beef were going to be a bit pricier.

This opening, slated for this fall, is the first announced by Headington since he purchased restaurant whiz Tristan Simon’s stake in the business. The loss of Simon was considered by many to be a blow, especially after his blockbuster success in Dallas. As such, it will be interesting to see if Headington will be able to maintain the standards that have made the relationships spawned during his relationship with Tristan Simon, so great.