New restaurants continued to open in Dallas-Fort Worth in August 2021 amid the coronavirus pandemic. A lot of the new shops are COVID-19 friendly, like the delivery-heavy Zalat Pizza in Irving, the curbside cookie shop Crumbl in McKinney, the drive-through PJ’s coffee in Euless, and the grab ‘n go Sweet Grass Market serving Cajun food in Old East Dallas.
Dallas, Fort Worth and Plano also saw some restaurant closures, including the high-profile Revolver Taco Lounge in Sundance Square, which called it quits two months after opening.
Here’s a list of the latest.
Did we miss any restaurants that came or went in August 2021? Email Sarah Blaskovich at sblaskovich@dallasnews.com.
New restaurants in Dallas, Fort Worth and the suburbs
Pokéworks is expected to open Aug. 28 in Southlake, special contributor Anna Caplan reports. The fast-casual restaurant sells build-your-own bowls of veggies and grains mixed with raw fish like tuna or salmon. Pokéworks is at 2801 E. Southlake Blvd., Southlake.
Jane celebrates its opening weekend in Southlake Aug. 27, 28 and 29. The shop will sell coffee and pastries in the morning, shared plates midday and wine and light bites in the evenings. It’s named after a street in the West Village in New York City, Caplan reports.
Small plates restaurant Rye opens Aug. 25 on Dallas’ Lowest Greenville. It’s the second Rye in North Texas, after the original in McKinney. Menu items draw heavily on ingredients from Texas farms and include interesting options like molasses-glazed cactus; an Icelandic hot dog; and a “Cornucopia” made with goat, green-corn tamale, grits and yellow corn ice cream. Next door to Rye is Apothecary, a hidden cocktail den I called “the most impressive date-night spot” in Dallas. Rye is at 1920 Greenville Ave., Dallas.
Zalat Pizza opened Aug. 23, 2021 in Irving, doing takeout and delivery only. The well-liked “stoner pizza” company will sling pies until midnight Mondays through Saturdays and until 10 p.m. on Sundays. It’s one of 14 Zalats in North Texas. Zalat Pizza is at 4835 N. O’Connor Road, Irving.
TikTok sensation Crumbl Cookies opened Aug. 20 in McKinney. These are cookies people stand in line for: “Every day, it’s busy like this in the evenings,” says store manager Jennifer Russell at a shop in Dallas — where teenagers and parents were lined up down the sidewalk. The company is based in Utah and now has more than 220 stores nationwide. Two more are opening in Dallas-Fort Worth soon, in Addison and Rockwall on Sept. 17, reports Caplan. The new Crumbl Cookies is at 3194 University Drive, McKinney. Other Crumbl shops in D-FW are in Allen, Plano, Garland, Wylie, Dallas, Southlake, Fort Worth, Mansfield and Grand Prairie.
The first Cava in Richardson opened Aug. 20, but note: This Mediterranean walk-the-line restaurant is moving quickly into many neighborhoods in North Texas. New shops include: at 16120 W. Eldorado Parkway in Frisco (opened Aug. 6); at 5917 Convair Drive in Fort Worth (opened Aug. 13); and a coming-soon shop at in Lakewood Dallas at 2009 Abrams Parkway (scheduled for Aug. 27). Many of the new Cava restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth are former Zoës Kitchens. The Cava in Richardson is at 222 W. Campbell Road. Other Cavas are in Addison, Dallas, Las Colinas, Southlake and Flower Mound.
Trompo opened its second Dallas taco shop in mid-August. Owner Luis Olvera picked Old East Dallas as the new neighborhood after it launched five years prior, first in West Dallas and then in Oak Cliff. Trompo sells Monterrey-style tacos that Bon Appetit called in 2016 “some of the best tacos we’ve had all year.” Don’t miss the slider, a perplexing stack of beef, pork, salami, mozzarella and avocado that, somehow, really works. Trompo is at 4201 Gaston Ave., Dallas.
Another PJ’s Coffee of New Orleans has opened in North Texas, this one in Euless. It debuted Aug. 16. This Louisiana-based company is putting a focus on bringing its coffees and beignets to Texas, and as many as 15 franchises are expected to open in D-FW in the next year, says the chief development officer. Euless is the fourth in North Texas so far. PJ’s Coffee is at 900 N. Industrial Blvd., Euless. The others are in McKinney, Northlake (near Argyle and Roanoke) and Farmers Branch (near Galleria Dallas).
A Deep Ellum restaurant with a fun name, CheapSteaks, opened Aug. 14. Here, customers can order inexpensive steaks and listen to live music. The cheap eats are inspired by Char Bar, which closed in Dallas in 2019 after nearly 50 years in business. Of all the steakhouses in Dallas, almost none of them are cheap, making this a rare and unique restaurant idea. CheapSteaks is at 2613 Elm St., Dallas.
Fort Worth’s first Salad and Go opened Aug. 11, but keep an eye on this drive-through shop, because it’s expanding across North Texas. All salads cost $5.74, and drinks of all kinds are $1. It’s a fast, healthy concept we expect to catch on quickly in North Texas. Fort Worth’s Salad and Go is at 3400 Hulen St. (near Interstate 30). Other Salad and Go shops are in Plano, Dallas and Richardson.
Gloria’s Latin Cuisine on Lemmon Avenue in the Oak Lawn area of Dallas isn’t new, but it’s still worth mentioning here: The restaurant closed in February 2021 because of damage created by the snowstorm. It reopened Aug. 10. Co-founder Gloria Fuentes says the repairs “gave us an opportunity to refresh the look and feel of one of our oldest locations.” The restaurant first opened there in 1996. Gloria’s is back open at 4140 Lemmon Ave., Dallas. The company operates 17 restaurants in D-FW.
Italian restaurant Sfereco opened in Lewisville Aug. 9. It’s the second Sfereco in North Texas, after the original in downtown Dallas. The restaurant is named for the “spheres” on the menu — brisket meatballs, pork meatballs, Impossible brand “veganballs” and the like. Customers can also order lasagna, shrimp scampi, calzones and pizzas. Sfereco is one of many restaurants proudly pouring Yuengling, a Pennsylvania beer that just made it into Texas this month, for the first time in its 192 years. Sfereco is at 233 W Church St., Lewisville.
Lò Bánh Mì French Bakery has been serving Vietnamese sandwiches in Arlington since Aug. 7. The menu includes seven bánh mì sandwiches. CultureMap reports that the family that opened Lò Bánh previously operated ABC Bakery — a place The Dallas Morning News said had “flawless small baguettes” priced at five for $1 back in 1999. (What a deal!) Lò Bánh Mì French Bakery is at 6515 New York Ave., Arlington.
Ace’s Sports Hangar debuted in Richardson’s CityLine development on Aug. 6. The sports bar has special nights that focus on trivia or karaoke, reports special contributor Teri Webster. The menu includes wings, chicken and waffles, and trash can nachos. Ace’s Sports Hangar is at 1250 State St., Richardson.
A glammy restaurant with a nightclub vibe, Harper’s, opened in a new development in Deep Ellum on Aug. 5. The menu comes from Jacob Williamson, who worked at Five Sixty inside Reunion Tower until it closed in 2020. Harper’s food is all over the map, on purpose: There’s Southern-style crispy deviled eggs, Italian truffle-ricotta pasta, Japanese-influenced raw fish, Korean fried cauliflower and more. The $24 cheeseburger looks like a stunner. Harper’s is at 2525 Elm St. (at The Epic in Deep Ellum), Dallas.
Cajun restaurant Sweet Grass Market opened in early August. Co-owners Eugene and LaToyah Vessel want to bring their former home of New Orleans to East Dallas. The menu includes Cajun classics like gumbo and étouffée, and our writer Nick Rallo thinks they may have Dallas’ only authentic bowl of yakamein, a noodle soup from New Orleans with beef and hot sauce. (Writes Rallo: “It will haymaker punch a whiskey flu right out of your brain’s saloon doors.”) The shop also has grab ‘n go groceries, salads and smoothies. Sweet Grass Market is at 4825 Ross Ave., Dallas.
Bushi Bushi is a new dumpling shop that opened at the end of July in Addison, CultureMap reports. The idea is to serve made-to-order small bites like soups, seafood shumai and crab rangoon. The menu includes a large selection of shrimp, beef and crab dumplings as well as Americanized Chinese entrees like orange chicken and General Tao chicken.
5 recently closed restaurants in Dallas and Fort Worth
Owner and pastry chef Uma Iyer says her Saturday-morning bread delivery service BreadEx was “a product of the pandemic — one of those pivots that worked.” But the bread delivery was temporarily paused in July, and her Plano bakery Tartalicious is also temporarily closed. Iyer has ambitions of opening a new storefront this fall; details to come.
Tea shop Teasom closed Aug. 1 in Dallas’ West Village, according to Instagram. It was a COVID-19 casualty. The owners Minju and Jahee Son will sell their teas online, PaperCity says.
Cannon Chinese Kitchen closed Aug. 7 in Fort Worth, PaperCity reported. The restaurant served scallion pancakes, sweet and sour pork ribs and kung pao chicken out of a restored 1920s era home. In a sweet note posted for customers on Facebook, the operators wrote, “It was never about being the best in Fort Worth. It simply boiled down to being there for the city.”
Revolver Taco Lounge closed in Fort Worth on Aug. 14, about two months after it opened. Owner Regino Rojas says he won’t return to Fort Worth to open another restaurant and that he’s now focused on his two Dallas restaurants.
Hub Streat in downtown Plano announced Aug. 25 that it is closed after four years in business. Hub Streat was an indoor/outdoor place with food trucks and live entertainment. Food included tacos, burgers, brunch and more. It was known for its daily specials like $10 bottomless mimosas on weekends and Wing Wednesdays, where each chicken wing cost $1.20.
6 coming-soon restaurant closures in North Texas
It’s not common for restaurants to announce closures long before their last day in business. Here are some outliers.
Jonathon’s Oak Cliff is expected to close Aug. 29. Our special contributor Nick Rallo reports that it’ll move all the way up to North Dallas, to Forest Lane and Inwood Road, in place of the old Kel’s Restaurant. When Jonathon’s reopens, it’ll still be a brunch spot with waffles, Benedicts and biscuits and gravy. Their sibling restaurant Jonathon’s Diner will remain open in Oak Cliff.
Legends Diner in Denton has plans to close Aug. 29. The restaurant went viral for a cheeky sign it posted in March 2021, which threatened to charge “$50 if I have to explain why masks are mandatory” and “$75 if I have to hear why you disagree.” Legends was losing money, having trouble hiring staff and suffering under higher food costs. Owners Wayne and Kat LaCombe plan to retire.
Sweet Daze in Richardson is closing Sept. 17 when its lease is up. The innovative dessert shop was excessively Instagrammy, selling pastel-colored unicorn cakes, glittery mermaid doughnuts and rainbow-colored ice cream since nearly the beginning of that trend. Owner Holly Nguyen opened the shop, with no investors or partners, when she was 24 years old. “I didn’t think anyone would even show up when we first opened, but there were lines down the street for weeks!” she wrote in a goodbye letter on Instagram. “We had no idea what we were doing at first, but somehow ended up disrupting the dessert world with our wild little creations.”
The owner of Great American Hero says his 47-year-old sandwich shop is “too successful to stay open.” Owner Dominick Oliverie, age 74, says he’s tired and that Great American Hero won’t live on much longer. But when will it close? And will that really happen? We’ll have to wait and see.
Mi Cocina is expected to close in West Village in Dallas by the end of the year. It’s relocating to a new address a few blocks south on McKinney Avenue.
Also closing is Del Frisco’s Grille on McKinney Avenue — the space Mi Cocina is moving into. Del Frisco’s Grille has not yet announced its closing date.
