Executive chefs Michelle Carpenter and Terance Jenkins, along with their teams, are creating some magical contemporary Cajun cuisine in North Oak Cliff. Carpenter, who was born to a Cajun father and a Japanese mother, named the restaurant after her “Mammaw” (grandmother) Beatrice. She has spent 35 years making and serving sushi, with more than 15 years as owner and executive chef at Zen Sushi in the heart of the Bishop Arts District. She always dreamed of opening a second restaurant as a way to honor the other side of her heritage, and in May 2022 that dream became a reality when she opened Restaurant Beatrice.
Terance Jenkins, a native of New Orleans, started his career making gumbo at the Commander’s Palace. Before settling in Oak Cliff, he was chef-owner of Bon Temps Events in Houston. In the Dallas area, he has led the kitchen at Amberjax, Screen Door and Cedars Social, and spent time at The Mansion on Turtle Creek, Rex’s Seafood and Wolfgang Puck Catering.
Restaurant Beatrice is in an old converted house, offering a more upscale dining experience indoors with a full-service bar and a more casual outdoor dining experience on the large patio, site of authentic Cajun seafood boils on the weekends. The boil menu varies seasonally, but expect to see options including shrimp, crawfish, snow crab and lobster.
Inside, there are about a dozen tables and eight more seats at the bar. The décor has nice accents of navy and gold with fleur-de-lis wallpaper and gold chandeliers throughout. Outdoors are wooden tables with holes in the center for discarded seafood shells.
The indoor menu changes frequently, but there's a sample menu online. We visited twice during the day and both times selected from the brunch menu. On our first visit, we started with the Gumbo YaYa ($13/$16), which has chicken, shrimp, crawfish, blue crab and house andouille sausage. The magical roux is dark, and the dish had generous portions of chicken, seafood and sausage. Be sure to go with the bowl here.
The hot sauce in the bloody mary is made with smoked tomatoes, which brings a whole new level to the standard brunch drink.
Angie Quebedeaux
The Breakfast Beatrice ($18) is served with eggs your way, grilled andouille sausage, a house-made biscuit and house-made jam with potato cracklins. The savory andouille sausage has nice snap and a kick of spice that brings you back to the bayou. The biscuits are buttery and flaky. The potato cracklins are whole smashed double-fried potatoes with a crunchy veneer and soft, pillowy clouds of flavor inside. And you get your fair share of what Cajuns call “gris gris,” which are the morsels of crunchy leftover bits along with spices that create the magic of the dish.
On our second visit, we started with the bloody mary ($15), which is made with Tito's, house pickles and a house hot sauce. We learned the hot sauce is made with smoked tomatoes, which really elevates this age-old drink. Just as you sniff a glass of wine before taking a sip, do the same with this particular bloody mary to open your senses.
For an appetizer, we had Oysters Beatrice, which are grilled and topped with creamed greens, Pernod, house bacon and Parmesan cheese. These are served in the shell — two for $11, six for $30 or a dozen for $55. The oysters are plump and flavorful with all the toppings added.
We had the Mammaw’s Chicken and Waffles again because it’s just that good. We were going to order the shrimp and grits ($22) but instead tried the off-the-menu shrimp po' boy ($17). Beatrice uses Gambino’s bread from New Orleans with house-made remoulade sauce and serves it with those addictive potato cracklins. The shrimp has a cornmeal batter instead of flour, and there was a generous amount of shrimp piled on the po' boy.
On our next visit (yes, there will be a next visit), we look forward to trying the shrimp and grits as well as the vegan gumbo, which is an ode to Leah Chase’s Gumbo Z’Herbes. We also look forward to trying the dinner menu, which has dishes like pastalaya ($32) (sausage, crawfish, gulf shrimp, smoked tomatoes, Parmesan and fresh black pepper over bucatini pasta) and duck confit ($27) (Crescent Farms leg quarter, duck fat potato cracklins and cherry gastrique). And we’re always game for a good seafood boil.
Reservations are recommended if you’re dining inside. Dining outside is a first-come, first-served situation.
Restaurant Beatrice, 1111 N. Beckley Ave. Tuesday – Thursday, 5–10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. –2:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.; Saturday and Saturday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and 5–10 p.m.; closed Monday.
