Bowls and Tacos, Deep Ellum's Taco and Poke Restaurant, Has Closed

In May 2017, Sam Wynne, owner of BrainDead Brewing, unveiled a new concept at the far end of Deep Ellum, not far from Expo Park: Bowls and Tacos, a combination taqueria and poke restaurant. Around the time Bowls and Tacos opened, poke was proliferating rapidly around DFW, with new fast-casual poke franchises opening at a seemingly unsustainable rate. When Bowls and Tacos opened, however, it seemed to fill a niche in Deep Ellum, serving two dishes — poke bowls and street-style tacos — that weren't, at the time, in abundance in the neighborhood, along with offering effortless free parking in an area where parking is in short supply. 

A few months ago, Wynne bolstered the location with a new sub-business: Sugar Fang, a vegan bakery that operated from within Bowls and Tacos. But this weekend, Wynne and his team decided to pull the plug on Bowls and Tacos. The restaurant's last day was Sunday.

"We fought hard, but good food made and served by a good crew with free parking in Deep Ellum can only get you so far," Wynne said in a public post Facebook post this weekend.

Wynne, who recently opened Mike's Gemini Twin, a new dive bar in the Cedars, was crestfallen about the closure.

"My apologies to my investors and partners ... for even dragging them down this bumpy road," Wynne wrote. "They sacrificed a lot while trusting me, and I let them down."

He's currently trying to find jobs for the staff he couldn't reassign to BrainDead, and he also intends to keep Sugar Fang going.

"Sugar Fang Vegan Bakery is going to live on, but most likely through BrainDead," he wrote.