No, your yacht can’t tie up outside of Suburban Yacht Club in Plano. But almost everything else about it will make you feel like you’re in Southern California, with the wind in your hair, frozen cocktail in hand. There’s even a tiny, manmade body of water outside, at Granite Park. Sip enough rum and this Plano boardwalk might start to resemble Santa Monica Pier. Well, maybe.
Suburban Yacht Club opened Sept. 7, 2021 and offers a playful new place to soak up SoCal vibes without the plane ride.
This new “Best Coast”-themed restaurant has a menu to match the decor. Chef Brian Luscher, who owned and operated The Grape in Dallas for years, joined the 33 Restaurant Group team after The Grape shut down for good in 2019.
Suburban Yacht Club is Luscher’s first new restaurant menu since The Grape, and here, he seems to be having a lot of fun. Luscher’s team includes Dallas chef Daniel Pittman, who made great food at LUCK (Local Urban Craft Kitchen) in Trinity Groves before he left in 2019.
Dinner probably starts with a cocktail, and the four frozen beverages like a Frojito or a Mangonada Margarita might hit the spot in the heat. Two shareable cocktails, priced at $35 and $40, come with fanfare: sparklers or flaming fruit. You probably need one.
33 Restaurant Group founder Preston Lancaster, who operates six other restaurants in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, grew up in North Texas but now lives in San Diego. Many potential restaurant customers around here are doing the opposite: Toyota’s headquarters, just on the other side of the Dallas North Tollway, brought thousands of Californians to Texas in 2017.
Lancaster and his team also operate Union Bear Brewing Co., which is a few doors down in Plano’s Granite Park. Their other restaurants are Cadillac Pizza Pub and The Yard, both in McKinney; Taverna Rossa in Plano and Southlake; and Heritage Pizza and Taproom in The Colony.
At Suburban Yacht Club, Luscher says he was inspired by the food in Southern California, which tends to be simple, sometimes healthy, and often seafood-focused.
“I’ve always loved going to the West Coast because there’s a high level focus on ingredients — but also still cheeseburgers and tacos,” Luscher says.
“If you take yourself too seriously, it doesn’t work.”
Appetizers include flash-fried calamari, chile butter grilled shrimp with chimichurri, and Flamin’ Hot Cheetos elote. The citrus-cured ceviche is one of Luscher’s favorite dishes. The spicy tuna tostada has some zing from a drizzle of spicy chile mayo.
Most customers might be drawn to the “streetside” section of the menu for tacos, like a shrimp option with slaw and mangos, or the beer-battered fish. The mushroom and poblano rajas taco, a vegetarian dish, is a delight even for carnivores.
Those ditching the calorie counting might love the short rib quesabirria taco. Like the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos elote, SYC’s birria tacos are indulgent and on-trend.
The last time you had a burger from Luscher might’ve been The Grape’s cheeseburger, which Texas Monthly named the best burger in the entire state in 2009. So Luscher added a cheeseburger to his menu at SYC, and even though it isn’t an essential menu item like shrimp tacos and ceviche, it’s inevitable that burger lovers will show up just to try it.
The Boardwalk Beach Burger was designed to taste like a backyard burger, the chef says: American cheese, a ketchup-mustard-mayo sauce blend, and lettuce, tomato and pickle on the side.
He says of the whole menu: “It’s refreshing for me, to not have to chef it all up.”
Lancaster says the name, Suburban Yacht Club, “started as a little bit of a joke,” he says. “It made us laugh.”
But the menu and the decor aren’t over-themed: Nobody’s wearing captain’s hats or telling pirate jokes.
Those in-the-know have been waiting on this new restaurant since May 2020, when it should have opened if not for the coronavirus pandemic. It’s 16 months late, but this laidback seafood spot, landlocked among a bunch of California transplants, feels right on time.
Suburban Yacht Club is at 5872 TX-121, Plano (at the Dallas North Tollway and Highway 121). Dinner only, at first, starting Sept. 7, 2021. Lunch comes later.
