If you've dined lately at the Front Room, the "Park Cities Diner" shoehorned into the Lumen Hotel that flanks SMU, you may have noticed a significant shift in the menu. Chef Nick Amoriello left the restaurant earlier this summer. He's been replaced by Tim Bevins, who spent time producing the best roast chicken Dallas has ever seen at Craft, before it closed in the W Hotel.
The current menu is a place holder. There's a burger and a shrimp roll and a roasted chicken, alongside simple but carefully prepared appetizers that will get your salivary glands working. In a few weeks the restaurant will close, however, and a renovation that will last at least two weeks (plans are still being finalized) will transform the old Front Room into a brand new fine-dining restaurant.
The move is spurred by a transition of the restaurant from the Kimpton Hotels, which manages the hotel, to Consilient, which owns Hibiscus, Fireside Pies and other popular Dallas area restaurants.
Since hotel guests have to eat, Consilient plans to set up a temporary, pop-up restaurant in the lobby, while the renovations are underway. When they're done, the Park Cities will have a brand new dining space, and if Tim Bevins' temporary menu is any indication of what he plans to stand up permanently, the food will turn some heads.
