Mi Cocina, the Tex-Mex restaurant known for its brisket tacos and frozen Mambo Taxi cocktails, won the bid to be the flagship restaurant at Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.
Company executives will pump at least $2 million into a renovation of the glassed-in restaurant that currently sits vacant, says Edgar Guevara, president and CEO of M Crowd restaurant group, which operates Mi Cocina.
Mi Cocina on the Park is expected to open this fall.
“If you look at great urban parks, they all have great restaurants,” says chairman of the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation Jody Grant.
The park’s board of directors had been hunting for a new tenant since Savor closed in August 2020. The restaurant is on park grounds, and the park benefits from the success of the restaurant. About 8% of Mi Cocina’s sales will go into Klyde Warren, which is meaningful money for the privately funded park, says Kit Sawers, the park’s president.
When the restaurant was built by architect Thomas Phifer, the 11,000-square-foot space cost $10 million. It was intended to be the “jewel” of the park, as several stakeholders describe it, not only because of its sleek design but because of its potential to funnel money to the park.
Sawers puts it this way: “Everything in the park is free. And free is expensive.”
Park executives and board members had narrowed the restaurant competition to two contenders in late 2020. The team decided Dallas-bred Tex-Mex company Mi Cocina would entice tourists and locals, and it would offer a more family-friendly dining option than what was previously available on park grounds.
And, anyway: Dallas is known for its Tex-Mex.
“If you go to Mi Cocina, you’ll see people in suits sitting next to families,” says Ray Washburne, co-owner of Mi Cocina. “We’ve been around 30 years and served millions of customers over time. Tex-Mex is a backbone comfort food of this region.”
Grant says friends and colleagues repeatedly suggested that a Tex-Mex restaurant go in that unique space. Thousands of people surveyed also mentioned Tex-Mex, and some mentioned Mi Cocina by name.
Board member Sheila Grant adds, “When I have friends come into town, the first thing they want to do is get Tex-Mex.” She and her husband, Jody Grant, have been champions of Klyde Warren Park since 2004, even when “99% of the people we knew told us not to do this,” she says.
The restaurant might allow the park to reinvent itself, especially among parents looking to have lunch or dinner with their kids. Families are “critically important” to the park, Jody Grant says, and the former restaurant didn’t cater to them.
If the effort succeeds, Sawers thinks it could increase the number of park visitors, which is currently about 1 million people a year.
Park executives also hope that a $10 million fountain — one that can shoot water 95 feet into the air, The Dallas Morning News’ Cheryl Hall reported in December — will increase the number of visitors to the over-the-highway park.
The restaurant will be reconfigured, Guevara says, with the bar moving to the back of the building. A new feature is that customers will be able to order food to go, then walk it out to the park for a picnic.
Sheila Grant hopes to see free salsa-dancing classes added as a park perk. Those who don’t participate could watch from the Mi Cocina patio as they nosh on queso blanco.
A to-go window facing the east lawn — previously called Relish — will be re-named and will sell kid-friendly food like brisket grilled cheeses. Guevara says they may even sell the popular burger from Mi Cocina’s sibling restaurant Taco Diner from the to-go window.
The restaurant will offer lunch, happy hour and dinner, plus brunch on the weekends. On the menu will be most of the typical Mi Cocina menu items: brisket tacos, sunset fajitas, nachos al carbon and, of course, the Mambo Taxi. A few new dishes will be tacked on, too. The company will also use the to-go window “as an incubator” to test new recipes to see what park-goers like, Guevara says.
Mi Cocina will celebrate its 30th anniversary in June. The restaurant will not be open at Klyde Warren Park by that time, but Washburne says it is fitting that his company would open “a Dallas icon” the same year it celebrates three decades in business.
Mi Cocina on the Park will be located at 2000 Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Dallas. It is expected to open in fall 2021.
