Is There a Bon Appetit Hex on Dallas Restaurants?

In the sports world, the cover of Sports Illustrated is feared by some athletes. There’s a noted pattern of flopping after gracing the cover. There’s an entire Wikipedia page dedicated to it.

Could Bon Appetit have a similar effect on the Dallas restaurant world?

Our first example comes from 2016, when the small taqueria Trompo on Singleton Boulevard was added to the magazine’s list of the 50 best new restaurants in the U.S. The West Dallas spot has since closed – four times to be exact. Currently, owner Luis Olvera is giving a fifth location a run on Jefferson Avenue. Perhaps he’s a glutton for punishment.

Then in 2019, East Dallas’ Khao Noodle Shop was listed not just as a top 50 best new restaurant, but second overall in the nation. Petra and the Beast also made the top 50 that year. So fantastic were these two spots – among many others – that Bon Appetit named Dallas the restaurant city of the year of 2019, writing, “From the rich bowls of boat noodles to the crazy charcuterie boards to the spicy strawberry sotol, one thing is clear: Texas’ oft-skipped food destination is no longer skippable.”

Six months later, every restaurant in the city was shuttered as we sheltered in place. Granted, that happened to every city, but we were cresting atop an insatiable culinary wave that quickly crashed.

Alas, during the pandemic when packaging those much-lauded noodles didn’t work so well, Khao transitioned to more takeout-friendly fare. In early 2022, Khao closed and reopened later as Darkoo’s Chicken Shack, which then closed later that year.

This year, two North Texas spots were named to Bon Appetit’s top 50 new restaurants: El Rincon del Maiz in Garland and La Onda in Fort Worth.

El Rincon was Gerardo Gullien and his wife Michelle Torres’ first restaurant. She grew up cooking in her family kitchen in Tabasco, Mexico, with no formal culinary training. She started creating vegan recipes to help her husband lose weight and became intrigued with finding plant-based substitutes for proteins. Cauflilower and hibiscus tacos on colorful house-made tortillas were a delight. And prior to a reporter calling them about being named as one of Bon Appetit’s top 50 new restaurants, they’d never even heard of the magazine.

La Onda was a 32-seat seafood restaurant also run by a husband and wife team; Victor Villareal was the chef and Misty took care of the bar and the front of house. He’d spent time at The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, but La Onda was offering a more approachable space for fine dining. The rotating menu relied on boats in the Pacific Ocean; he’d get a call on Monday about what had been caught and place his order, which was shipped overnight.

La Onda told us back in September that after making Bon Appetit’s list, business went from “decent to on fire in 48 hours.”

The owners of El Rincon posted to Facebook in January that they were leaving their Garland restaurant for downtown McKinney, but there’s no sign of them there, and a message to the owners went unanswered. Another restaurant has moved into the old Sonic they once occupied.

Then this week La Onda posted about closing its doors permanently. The message said this is “not goodbye though, just a short commercial break … stay tuned.” We reached out to the owners as well, and they said they would have more information about their plans soon.

So, that makes four out of five spots listed on Bon Appetit’s best new restaurants in recent history that have, in some way or another, closed. Petra and the Beast, blessedly, endures.

I asked Luis Olvera of Trompo what might be behind this hex. He didn’t hesitate in answering.

“I think with all of us [Bon Appetit list-makers] there’s very big passion and urgency to put our product out to the world that we don’t necessarily check all the boxes,” he says. “Someone who is a little more meticulous or has more experience in the industry would have probably crossed some t’s and dotted some i’s.”

His passion, in fact, may have put him on the map, but he also says he was lost at times.

“When I opened I had no protections, I didn’t have my name trademarked, I didn’t have it registered like it should have been, I didn’t have a website. I didn’t have a fucking thing, not a leg to stand on,” Olvera says.

He was caught off guard when he got his first call from Bon Appetit. He actually wasn’t clear on who the caller was; he thought it was some small online publication asking for permission to use photos. He told them, “Sure.”

Three days later, Bon Appetit dropped.

“We were doing about $35,000 a month in sales, then my sales quadrupled, but it was very momentary because I didn’t know how to capitalize on that,” he says.

“I’ve closed four times in six years,” Olvera says, laughing at himself. “My dad has asked me several times to close down.”

But therein lies his passion and perhaps the very reason he and others land on big lists.

“People take notice when your passion shines through your food and your personality. And I think that’s a reason we were nominated because it’s not just a place to make another buck,” he says. “I should have honestly closed and been done. I’m just very very good at losing money, so that’s why I’m still here.”

As for handling things early on, he wishes he had had a veteran industry person to lean on. For others who find themselves in the spotlight, he suggests seeking out that advice.

“Find a padrino, someone you can confide in that is a veteran in the food world,” Olvera says. “Again, after Aug. 4 [when the 2016 Bon Appetit list came out], if I would have had a godfather to say ‘I don’t even know what my next move is,’ that person may have been like ‘Here’s how you strategize.’

“Seek advice from someone in the industry you can trust,” he advises.

Olvera is in a new space now, the former Kookie Haven spot at 337 Jefferson Blvd., and says he’s never felt more at home. We hope he stays for a long time.