Del Frisco’s Grille on McKinney Avenue in Uptown Dallas is closing, and Mi Cocina is moving in.
The Tex-Mex restaurant is currently still open a few blocks north, in West Village, but the company had already announced that it is leaving that development after nearly 20 years.
CEO Edgar Guevara expects Mi Cocina to take Del Frisco’s Grille’s place in early 2022.
Guevara says he likes “a lot of things” about the McKinney Avenue restaurant space. It’s larger than the West Village restaurant and it has two levels, which will allow them to open an upscale bar upstairs, modeled after the Monkey Bar above the Mi Cocina in Highland Park Village.
The bar at the Uptown Dallas Mi Cocina will be called Seis Segundos. It’ll have a special cocktail menu that focuses on drinks made with cold-pressed juices. One option is the Chihuahua: sotol, cold-pressed cucumber juice and a splash of prosecco (“for some sparkle,” Guevara says). Another cocktail is the Smoky Bee: mezcal, Grand Marnier, lemon and honey.
The two-story Mi Cocina will serve the traditional menu — the same one found at more than 20 Mi Cocinas in Dallas-Fort Worth. Popular items include brisket enchiladas, nachos and a frozen margarita-sangria swirl called the Mambo Taxi. You’re not really a Dallasite until you’ve sipped at least one Mambo Taxi.
The new restaurant has patios upstairs and downstairs and has visibility from the bustling McKinney Avenue.
Mi Cocina recently opened a restaurant in Klyde Warren Park, in the former Savor restaurant space. That restaurant also has an upscale bar — which Guevara hopes becomes a signature at the restaurants in affluent neighborhoods.
“Maybe it’s more social than it is a dining experience,” Guevara says of the bars. “We’ve had success in Highland Park, and I think it’ll work in Uptown and also in Klyde Warren Park.”
The new Mi Cocina will be at 3232 McKinney Ave., Dallas. It’s expected to open in February 2022.
Original story written Aug. 20, 2021 and updated Jan. 5, 2022 with news that Mi Cocina remains open in West Village for several more weeks.
