Noodle Bullet

Liberty Noodles is dead, shuttered little more than a year after the 7-year-old concept evacuated its Lower Greenville spot for more expansive digs on Lovers Lane. What did it in? Advanced weapons. Creator Jeffrey Yarbrough says business boomed out of the chute. But when General Tommy Franks and the 4th Infantry Division invaded our TV screens last spring, liberation via noodles just didn't have the same punch. Yet the fatal blow was dealt not by an officer, but by a gentlewoman: Mayor Laura Miller. "The smoking ban was just like a bullet between my eyes," and neutralized his happy-hour business, Yarbrough says. But he's retaining his grip on the space and intends to bring a new concept to it. "It's not Asian," he insists. He's mum on what it will be, though, except to say it will be unveiled sometime in February. He's also working on an Asian fast-casual concept with chef Annie Wong. "It's not noodles," he insists.

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Tristan Simon, czar of Henderson Avenue after the sun hides behind Fort Worth, consistently creates labels for his restaurant/bar businesses that sound like they were inspired by an incense overdose in Taos: Consilient, Sense, Candle Room, Hibiscus, Cuba Libre. But his latest venture sounds as though it were hatched from a muffler shop in Waco: Thrown High Stone Pies and Grinders. Roots may have something to do with it. His new pizza parlor will emerge in a 1,200-square-foot space across from Cuba Libre that formerly housed Macho Pizza. Now pizza in Dallas, with precious few exceptions, sucks, thanks in part to the city's water. Which is why Simon plans to install a sophisticated, high-tech water-filtration system to make his premium wood-fired pies and hot grinders taste like they were thrown above Chicago or New York...Stacey Dolezal, founder of Zontis Public Relations, recently got herself hitched to Dallas restaurateur Max Susini. Who? Susini was a silent partner in a small string of restaurants/bars stuck in the same Lovers Lane location: Buddha Bar, precursor to Bali Bar, which was forerunner of Joseph Gutierrez's Rouge. Though the Paris, France, native sold his interest in Rouge earlier this year, Susini, according to Dolezal, is currently in talks with Tony Murray, owner of the original Buddha Bar in Paris, to launch a new restaurant concept in Dallas...Jean-Michel Sakouhi, founder of Le Paris Bistrot on McKinney Avenue, has reworked his 4-year-old restaurant, dubbing it Savory 12, which refers to the number of dishes on the menu that contain the herb savory. His latest venture, just down the street, is Severine's Bar, a wine and martini bistro.