Barbecue restaurant Oak’d opened Nov. 6 on Greenville Avenue in Dallas.
Although the restaurant’s first mission is to smoke Central Texas barbecue like brisket, beef ribs and Wagyu jalapeño cheddar sausage, there’s a lot else happening in the kitchen here.
The shop employs a full-time pastry chef, Cessie Mendoza, who is making eight to 12 desserts per day, like pies, shortbread and ice cream. Mendoza will also make bacon-cheddar biscuits and rolls.
Oak’d will also offer customers who order brisket the option of Wagyu or prime, a fun choice for serious meat heads.
As customers make their way down the line, Oak’d’s food doesn’t mirror other barbecue joints in Dallas-Fort Worth. Every day, Oak’d will sell two soups, one vegan and one not, with options like smoky tomato or chicken tortilla. Customers can order a salad — ever done that at a barbecue restaurant? — with add-ons like radish, grapefruit, heirloom tomatoes, candied pecans and more. The four salad dressings are made in house, including an alluring red jalapeño vinaigrette.
Some days, the pitmaster might make tamales or tacos stuffed with smoked meat.
“Everything we’ve tried to do, we want to do in the best possible way,” says co-owner Clint Norton. He’s a real estate developer, but he’s had an affinity for barbecue for most of his life. His brother co-owns The County Line, a 45-year-old barbecue company in Texas.
Norton hopes the bar, patio and expansive menu will make Oak’d a regular destination for Dallasites.
Besides traditional barbecue sides like pinto beans and three-cheese mac, the restaurant also sells healthier options like Brussels sprouts and roasted cauliflower. The tri-colored quinoa is an interesting addition for a meat shop: It’s mixed with golden raisins, serrano peppers, cucumbers, almonds and lime.
The barbecue is smoked with post oak wood on one of three large J&R Oyler pits. They’re named El Presidente, The Pit Killer and Ironman.
Among the seven sandwiches on the menu, A Sandwich & Some Lovin' is likely to draw attention because it was made specifically for Kellie Rasberry, the longtime radio host of The Kidd Kraddick Morning Show on 106.1 KISS-FM. She’s and investor in Oak’d alongside her husband Allen Evans. The sandwich is named for their joint podcast.
The sandwich is pork, a favorite of Rasberry’s because of her upbringing in South Carolina. It gets a “Texas twist,” she says, with the addition of sliced jalapeño cheddar sausage and bacon. It comes topped with coleslaw.
“I think it’s an absolutely delicious sandwich,” she says.
Fans of the morning radio show and the podcast can also order two signature cocktails. The Kellie is a slightly dirty martini with a blue cheese stuffed olive — her favorite. Allen’s Old Fashioned is a bourbon drink with agave, orange bitters and a Luxardo cherry.
The restaurant will be open for lunch starting Nov. 6 and for lunch and dinner starting Nov. 13. The owners expect to sell out of barbecue most days. They’ll serve a bar menu of chicken wings, fries, sliders and cocktails if the meat’s gone.
Oak’d is at 5500 Greenville Ave., Dallas. Opened Nov. 6, 2020.
