The Londoner is Headed Back to Dallas and a Rebooted Mockingbird Station

Last summer, Trinity Hall at Mockingbird Station pulled a classic Irish goodbye after 20 years in the space, sneaking out the backdoor without a word of warning. Now a longtime local British pub is taking over the space, as the Lakewood Advocate recently reported.

The Londoner Pub is scheduled to move in this fall. This longtime local favorite has had various locations around North Texas since the early '90s and there are two other Londoner Pubs, in Colleyville and Addison. With this spot, they're officially back in Dallas proper.

Charlotte Tate's father founded The Londoner in 1990. She says they have been looking to expand the concept but hadn't had the infrastructure or team in place in the past to do so. The pandemic gave them some down time to build their team. Now they're ready to expand.

"My family moved to the M Streets when we first moved to Texas and have frequented Mockingbird Station many times over the years," Tate said. "We are excited for the opportunity for such a great location and feel lucky to be a part of the complex's renaissance."

The Londoner has long been a gathering place for soccer fans and British Isle fare. They serve both a haddock and chips ($18) and fish and chips ($16) made with beer-battered cod. You'll also find other pub staples like bangers and mash, Scotch eggs, cottage pie and chicken tikka masala. Try the British Dog, a banger with caramelized onions and beer mustard on a hoagie roll.

Mockingbird Station is going through a reboot of sorts, as a number of restaurants are finding a new home there, plus a variety of interesting amenities like Sandbox VR, an interactive experiential VR game inspired by Star Trek's holodeck. There's an IV bar in case hydrating by drinking water is just too icky for you. And then there's the new Stretch Lab, where, yeah, they'll stretch you out.

Aside from those, Sushi Mocki is now open near Urban Taco. This pan-Asian sushi bar concept is from Armando Ramirez, who previously worked at Deep Sushi in Deep Ellum. They're just in a soft-opening phase now with a limited menu but will roll out the full slate of offerings in the next week.

The Finch is another new restaurant going into the space formerly occupied by Cafe Express for two decades. The Finch was originally set to open late this year. The Finch is from the hospitality group Milkshake Concepts, which also has STIRR, Vidorra, Citizen, Serious Pizza and Harper's.

Brunch House 360 is another newcomer serving upscale brunch. They have a location in Mansfield, but there's no opening date yet for Mockingbird Station.

Perrault House is another restaurant listed under "coming soon" on Mockingbird Station's online directory.