Urbano Cafe Gets New Owners and Lives On

Update: Since announcing its closing earlier this year, Urbano Cafe has found a new buyer. From the Facebook announcement: "a buyer who wants to carry on the business has come forward and we are delighted to let you know that Urbano will remain open under new ownership!" The new owners, who are experienced East Dallas restaurateurs, will keep all the staff on board, according to the announcement. Original owners, Mitch and Kristen Kauffman, will continue to operate the business through Feb. 17.

Dallas will lose one of its best BYOB restaurants when Urbano Cafe closes at the end of the month. And almost everyone in Dallas who appreciates wine — whether aficionado, professional or just someone who picks up a bottle to drink with dinner — will lose an institution.

Says Bill Rich, a long-time Dallas wine retailer and wholesaler: “It’s the end of an era, that’s for sure.”

Owners Mitch and Kristen Kauffman opened their first concept, Urbano Paninoteca, on McKinney Avenue in 2002, before moving the concept to this East Dallas space in 2008. Urbano Cafe and sibling restaurant, Two Doors Down, are closing after 15 years. From a Facebook post, "(...) it’s just time for us to move on to our next chapter." The last day of service will be Jan. 27.

As a BYOB spot, Urbano filled any number of niches for Dallas wine drinkers. Bringing your own wine can cut the cost of dinner by one-third, given the foolish markups for most restaurant wine, and customers can enjoy what they brought instead of taking potluck with a wine list designed to boost revenue instead of quality. BYOB is more common in many parts of the country, but Texas’ liquor laws prohibit most restaurants from offering the service.

Hence, Urbano’s was a favorite of serious wine drinkers, who would bring their $150 bottles of Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon without a second thought. That’s one reason why reservations were often tough to get; yes, the place was small, but the allure of drinking your own wine was just as powerful.

It also appealed to those of us who drink much less expensive wine; we could buy two $8 bottles of Sicilian Grillo at Jimmy’s next door and enjoy a high-quality restaurant dinner for two for less than $100. When was the last time that happened?

In fact, it was always a kick when the Park Cities-ish couple at the next table was drinking a very pricey Italian Super Tuscan, a red blend, while we were drinking a $10 French version of the same thing. It was wine democracy in action.

But Urbano’s also filled another, less public — but perhaps even more important — role (and especially before the pandemic). Since it was BYOB, winemakers, wine wholesalers, wine marketers, wine sales reps and wine writers would meet, usually at lunch, to share samples, taste each other’s wine and schmooze. They couldn’t do that at other restaurants because of the aforementioned state laws.

A table would have three or four wine glasses at each place setting, people would scribble notes and take pictures with their phones and several sample cases would be on the floor next to one of the chairs.

“Losing Urbano’s is the end of gourmet BYOB options,” says Melanie Ofenloch, who writes the Dallas Wine Chick blog. “It leaves a gaping hole in the DFW wine scene."

Ofenloch attended a variety of high-end tastings at Urbano’s, but one she remembers most fondly was a dinner with her local wine group and Pedroncelli Winery, a less-known family producer in Sonoma whose wines, including a nifty rosé, offer tremendous value.

“We had a spectacular evening, and it’s something I wanted to share with my wine group,” she says. “And the people at Urbano’s went out of their way to make it even more spectacular.”

Which, sadly, won’t ever happen again in the same way.