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Dallas-Fort Worth’s most exciting new restaurants and bars opening in 2022

Prime rib. Fancy Italian. Ice-cold martinis. Brunch. Tacos. And pizza.

I’m calling it: 2022 is going to be one of the most exciting years we’ve seen in a decade for independent restaurant owners and food lovers in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Restaurant operators tangled with the coronavirus pandemic for nearly two years, which created one of the most challenging economic climates for small business owners in our lifetime. Many restaurants didn’t survive. But operators who made it through — or those brave enough to enter the industry now — are coming in hot, with big ideas.

The most exciting new restaurants opening in D-FW in 2022 are bold. Never mind the buzzword of yesteryear, “approachable.” Operators today are likely to say their restaurants are destination spots where diners can get loud. Gather in groups. Drink. And, in some cases, spend big.

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Rest assured, not all of the 2022 newcomers are pricey. This list also includes a honky-tonk with burgers, a tequila-heavy taco shop and a pop-up patio bar that’ll reinvent itself every six months.

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Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi, who is opening the highly anticipated Japanese restaurant Tatsu...
Chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi, who is opening the highly anticipated Japanese restaurant Tatsu Dallas, makes beautiful, precise food.(Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

One of Dallas’ most creative entrepreneurs, Nick Badovinus, is opening an ultra-exclusive restaurant in an old strip club. Bet you didn’t see that one coming.

“I’m looking at 2022 as an opportunity to take the gloves off,” he says.

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The past two years challenged restaurant workers and sometimes dampened their spirits. “To put a mask on and [get your temperature taken], to go to work every day, knowing there were spooky things out there that could hurt you: Those things were all really, really, really hard,” Badovinus says. But he — and nearly all of the restaurant operators interviewed for this Dallas Morning News story — are feeling more optimistic than ever.

“Restaurants are a rock show, and that’s always what’s attracted me to them,” Badovinus says.

He’s taking that optimism and opening at least four new restaurants in Dallas in 2022. Julian Barsotti, owner of Nonna and Fachini, has plans to open three. Tim Love and Alberto Lombardi, two longtime Fort Worth and Dallas operators, respectively, each have plans for at least two. And so many more creative cooks are bringing new concepts to the table.

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Say it with me: It’s going to be a great 2022.

Each restaurant is listed in order of approximate opening date. Given sustained supply-chain issues related to the coronavirus pandemic, dates could change.

Paloma Suerte

Birria tacos with consommé are on the menu at Paloma Suerte in Fort Worth. "I'm excited...
Birria tacos with consommé are on the menu at Paloma Suerte in Fort Worth. "I'm excited about the energy of the restaurant," says owner Tim Love. (Rebecca Slezak / Staff Photographer)

If you haven’t been to the Fort Worth Stockyards since Mule Alley opened, get in the car now. What was formerly a tourist trap has become a country-chic destination spot with an ever-growing number of restaurants and bars, including coming-soon Tex-Mex joint Paloma Suerte from Fort Worth chef Tim Love. Tableside queso, birria tacos and tequila cocktails are the things to get here. Picture it: A paloma is poured tableside. Then a cart is wheeled over, with a cast-iron skillet warming up goat birria stew and crisp tortillas. Love describes Paloma Suerte as “not fancy. And very fun.”

  • Opening date: January 2022
  • Cuisine: Tex-Mex
  • Address: 122 Exchange Ave., Fort Worth

Lombardi Cucina Italiana

Corporate Chef Ty Thaxton adds finishing touches to a dish of white truffle raviolo with...
Corporate Chef Ty Thaxton adds finishing touches to a dish of white truffle raviolo with ricotta cheese and egg yolk filling from Frisco restaurant Lombardi Cucina Italiana.(Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

In 1977, Alberto Lombardi opened his first Dallas restaurant, Lombardi. Italian food in the U.S. has changed over the last 45 years, the restaurateur says: “Now, it’s much more sophisticated.” He’s putting his name back on a restaurant when the upscale Lombardi Cucina Italiana opens at The Star in Frisco, near the Dallas Cowboys’ headquarters.

He wants the new Lombardi to transport diners to Italy (by way of a suburban mega-development), where they can watch a chef make pasta or hand-pick their cut of fish from a display case. Expected menu items include truffle raviolo with ricotta and porcini mushrooms; bistecca alla Fiorentina; and lobster with linguine and Calabrian chiles.

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  • Opening date: Feb. 18, 2022
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Address: 6655 Winning Drive, Frisco

Brunchaholics

Jessie Washington, Brunchaholics owner and chef, is the creator of a truly monstrous soul...
Jessie Washington, Brunchaholics owner and chef, is the creator of a truly monstrous soul food burrito. Food Network took notice.(Daniel Carde / Staff Photographer)
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Jessie Washington opened his first restaurant in February 2022, after selling Brunchaholics’ shrimp and grits and burritos stuffed with catfish, mac and cheese and collard greens at pop-ups in Dallas for the last few years. If the name Brunchaholics sounds familiar, that’s because the Food Network said Washington sold one of the “most over-the-top burritos in the country” early in his food career — and he’s hosted long lines of fans ever since.

  • Opening date: Early 2022
  • Cuisine: Brunch
  • Address: 5014 Ross Ave., Dallas

Sfuzzi

Did you have this one on your 2022 restaurant bingo card? Sfuzzi is being reinvented — again. The pizza joint and bar opened in 1987, then was reincarnated in 2009 and again in 2015. In 2022, some of the previous operators are bringing it back in the legendary site of the former Capitol Pub on Henderson Avenue. Sfuzzi (pronounced FOO-zi) will have a lot of the same likable qualities from before: a rockin’ bar crowd, a big pizza menu and, of course, its famous frozen Bellinis.

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Don Artemio

Adrian Burciaga, general manager of Don Artemio, is an effortless host.
Adrian Burciaga, general manager of Don Artemio, is an effortless host.(Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)

“Sometimes, parents’ dreams are passed on,” says Mexican chef Juan Ramón Cárdenas. Cárdenas’ dad had always wanted to open a restaurant in Texas and specialize in cabrito, or goat. The elder Cárdenas died in 2016, and his son will honor his legacy by opening contemporary Mexican restaurant Don Artemio in Fort Worth. It’s an expansion of Cárdenas’ original restaurant by the same name in Saltillo, Mexico, one made internationally famous on the Netflix show Taco Chronicles.

In Texas, Cárdenas is partnering with Adrian Burciaga, a Saltillo native who moved to Fort Worth in 2013 to be the general manager of Cafe Modern inside the Modern Art Museum. Don Artemio’s menu will include Cárdenas’ beloved cabrito confit; nopales (cactus) prepared several ways; chorizo dishes inspired by Cárdenas’ mother; and mole served in a chicken poblano dish and on Chilean sea bass. Diners will hardly recognize the space, a former Mr. Gatti’s Pizza that Burciaga and Cárdenas plan to fill with furniture, art and textiles from Mexico. “We see this as a showcase of our culture,” Cárdenas says. “We are proud of what we are and what we make.”

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Carbone

Dinner at Carbone in Dallas will mean a lively, theatrical evening set in a dining room...
Dinner at Carbone in Dallas will mean a lively, theatrical evening set in a dining room meant to preserve the Italian-American traditions from the late '50s. (Noah Fecks)
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We’ve been waiting (impatiently) for Carbone, the flashy New York City Italian restaurant opening in the Dallas Design District. “It’s not just a restaurant, it’s a night out,” Jeff Zalaznick, co-owner of parent company Major Food Group, said in 2021. Here, diners will feast on Caesar salad and spicy rigatoni vodka in a restaurant with a “very glamorous entrance,” Zalaznick says. New Yorkers will know Carbone from the Michelin star the restaurant earned for five consecutive years.

Odelay

Co-owner Jessica Barnett commissioned 50 Catrina sculptures from Mexican artisans.
Co-owner Jessica Barnett commissioned 50 Catrina sculptures from Mexican artisans.(Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer)
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Remember the Cafe Express that used to be on Lovers Lane? Soon you won’t, because it’ll feel “like you’re in your own little world” at Odelay, Barsotti’s new hacienda in the same space. It’s his first shot at Tex-Mex, though he’s been eating it in Dallas for his whole life. The name Odelay is a play on the Spanish slang word ¡Órale!, which Barsotti likens to “what’s up?” It’s Barsotti’s biggest restaurant to date, and more than 300 people can sit inside and outside, in areas decked out in stucco, Saltillo tile and stained glass.

The menu is “my favorite versions of Dallas Tex-Mex,” Barsotti says. He’s working with general manager Sergio Pinto, whose family owns Ojeda’s. The menu includes pan-fried tacos, gorditas, Wagyu brisket tacos and Gulf shrimp tinga, plus a few just-because additions like chicken-fried steak and a cheeseburger with chipotle sauce. And there’ll be margaritas — lots of margaritas. In an amusing twist, Odelay will only play ‘90s music: grunge, hip-hop, punk and pop.

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Clifton Club

Clifton Club was still under construction when this story first published, but owner Greg...
Clifton Club was still under construction when this story first published, but owner Greg Katz met us inside for a tour through what is expected to be a buzzy new cocktail spot in Dallas.(Elias Valverde II / Staff Photographer)

A mere 300 feet from Dallas restaurant Beverley’s, owner Greg Katz is opening a lounge with hotel lobby vibes. The former Zippers gay bar has been taken down to the studs. The new Clifton Club is an upscale yet cozy room where Dallasites can sip an ice-cold martini and eat oysters, crudo and chicken liver mousse. ”We’re just obsessed with our neighborhood,” Katz says of Fitzhugh Avenue — a central road in Dallas that hadn’t been significantly redeveloped until the past five years. “We feel like we’re the center of gravity here,” he says.

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Douglas

Douglas is named after three generations of men named Doug Pickering.
Douglas is named after three generations of men named Doug Pickering.

Finally, there’s going to be barbecue in Snider Plaza again. Beloved spot Peggy Sue BBQ closed after several decades in University Park, and longtime Park Cities resident Doug Pickering is smokin’ a new brand. Customers will find brisket flights (how fun!), house-made sausage and other traditional Central Texas style ‘cue alongside date-friendly dinner items like honey-glazed smoked salmon.

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  • Opening date: May 24, 2022
  • Cuisine: Barbecue
  • Address: 6818 Snider Plaza, Dallas

Tatsu Dallas

Master sushi chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi prepares a toro hand roll during a private tasting for...
Master sushi chef Tatsuya Sekiguchi prepares a toro hand roll during a private tasting for his coming-soon restaurant Tatsu Dallas.(Ben Torres / Special Contributor)

When Tatsu Dallas opens in Deep Ellum, we expect it to deliver one of the most special restaurant experiences of the year. Tatsuya Sekiguchi, whose childhood home is inside a sushi place in Japan, is the master chef. Dinner will include 18 courses of raw fish like buttery toro and smoky mackerel. The tiny place will have a single main dining room with eight seats and a private room for up to six. Its owner, who ordinarily doesn’t eat fish or meat, met the chef at Sushi Yasuda, a Michelin-starred restaurant in New York City. It was “incredibly serendipitous” — for us and for them — that Sekiguchi moved to Dallas during the pandemic and was open to the idea of heading up a new restaurant. The team has hosted more than 50 private events in Dallas in 2021, quietly becoming famous among foodies.

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Jack Ruby’s Saloon and Grill

It’s about time somebody opened a honky-tonk named after the nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Joe Groves’ country music venue and saloon Jack Ruby’s will be a convenient one-tenth of a mile away from The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas, a tourist destination that has lured droves of history buffs to Groves’ neighboring West End restaurant Ellen’s. Jack Ruby’s moves into the old Tutta’s, and pizzas will remain, alongside burgers and hot dogs. “But really, it’s a saloon,” Groves says. It should feel like the Nashville honky-tonk Tootsie’s. There — and, hopefully, in Dallas — “you never know who’s going to show up,” Groves says.

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  • Opening date: fall 2022
  • Cuisine: American saloon
  • Address: 1710 N. Record St., Dallas

Brass Ram

Serial Dallas restaurateur Nick Badovinus has big plans for the triangle-shaped building where he opened American restaurant National Anthem on the first floor in October 2021. The second floor will be a totally different restaurant, a prime rib den called Brass Ram. He calls it a “red meat emporium” with crabcakes, a few fish selections and plenty of meat-and-potatoes throwback dishes. There’s an actual brass ram that’ll hang on the wall, and if you can picture the name up in neon, you’ve got the right idea.

  • Opening date: TBD
  • Cuisine: Prime rib and other meaty cuts
  • Address: 2130 Commerce St., Dallas — second floor
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Goodbye Horses

Barsotti, known for his Italian restaurants in Dallas, is getting into the bar business when he opens Goodbye Horses on SMU Boulevard in Dallas. He wants it to feel like a dive but with “straight-up excellent versions of classic bar food,” including a cheeseburger, po’boys and fried tacos. Expect heavy pours of liquor, big schooners of beer and lots of TVs — “exactly like my favorite bars in college,” Barsotti says.

  • Opening date: mid-2022
  • Cuisine: American bar food
  • Address: 5629 SMU Blvd., Dallas

Quince

Brian Sneed will open Quince in Fort Worth on the side of the Trinity River in 2022, after...
Brian Sneed will open Quince in Fort Worth on the side of the Trinity River in 2022, after he opened the original in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The restaurant is famous for its rooftop patio, beautiful views, and food and drink. (Courtesy of Quince)
Here's the patio at sunset at the original Quince in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Not bad,...
Here's the patio at sunset at the original Quince in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Not bad, huh?

Texas Christian University grad and former hedge fund manager Brian Sneed moved to Mexico in 2008, then opened a breezy restaurant, Quince. It’s since been called the No. 1 rooftop in the world, and he’s bringing those outdoor vibes and views home to Fort Worth’s Trinity River. “I’ve been looking for 10 years for where to do this in Fort Worth,” Sneed says — even before his buzzy Mexican cocktail den became the talk of Texas tourists. Interestingly, it’s the second Fort Worth restaurant on this list that originated in Mexico.

The Texas restaurant will be “hip and fun,” Sneed says, and mostly open air. The menu will be all over the map, on purpose: ceviche, sashimi, yakimeshi, burgers and more.

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  • Opening date: mid-2022
  • Cuisine: Eclectic
  • Address: 1701 River Run, Fort Worth

Caterina’s

Chef Tim Love will open Paloma Suerte first in Fort Worth in 2022. Then he'll focus on...
Chef Tim Love will open Paloma Suerte first in Fort Worth in 2022. Then he'll focus on Caterina's, an Italian restaurant across the street.(Rebecca Slezak / Staff Photographer)

Caterina’s is a “red sauce Mafia-style Italian restaurant,” as chef Love describes it, in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards’ new Mule Alley. It’ll be dark in there, with white tablecloths and only 38 seats. Customers will have to call ahead to nab a seat at the neighborhood’s most upscale eatery — one oozing plenty of charm, too. “It’s as if you walked in the Upper East Side in New York back in the 1950s,” Love says. He named it after his late sister Kathleen.

  • Opening date: TBD
  • Cuisine: Throwback Italian
  • Address: 128 Exchange Ave., Fort Worth
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Pop Top

Badovinus’ plan for the triangle-shaped building in downtown Dallas has three floors, each with wildly different identities. There’s the American restaurant on the first floor, the coming-soon prime rib “emporium” Brass Ram on the second. On the third floor, Pop Top will be a casual bar that changes every six months. “I’d like to think of it as a permanent, revolving art installation,” he says.

Crazy idea? It’s in line with Badovinus’ penchant for over-the-top spots with personality. First up in the space is Bucket Hat, a springtime patio spot with Cali-inspired tacos, poke bowls and light cocktails.

  • Opening date: TBD
  • Cuisine: By-the-season patio bar
  • Address: 2130 Commerce St., Dallas — third floor
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Pizzana

Pizzana's classic pie is the margherita, made with tomatoes and cheese from Italy.
Pizzana's classic pie is the margherita, made with tomatoes and cheese from Italy.

We’re impressed with the celebrity on this one: Sprinkles cupcakes co-founder Candace Nelson is partnering with friend and actor Chris O’Donnell (he was in Batman Forever) to open Pizzana on Dallas’ buzzy Knox Street. It’ll be their first Pizzana outside of California, following the expansion path that Sprinkles took, jumping from Beverly Hills to Dallas. The restaurant serves neo-Neapolitan pizza, which Nelson describes as bubbly and crisp but not extra floppy. The Los Angeles Times’ restaurant critic says he “willingly waits in line for hours” for these pies — wow.

  • Opening date: TBD
  • Cuisine: Pizza
  • Address: 3219 Knox St., Dallas
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Jackuval

Bishop Arts District mainstays Amy Wallace Cowan and Jason Roberts, who own and operate Oddfellows, Revelers Hall, AJ Vagabonds and Rabble Rousers Coffee, have signed another lease in Oak Cliff, this time to brew beer, roast coffee and bake bread. Jackuval will be a small market that’ll bring many of their businesses under one roof. In addition to brioche, sourdough and bagels, Wallace Cowan expects to sell fish and chips, pub sandwiches, and house-made pickles and jams. “We will even have a TV!” she says, a first among their Oak Cliff eateries.

  • Opening date: TBD
  • Cuisine: Sandwiches, coffee and beer
  • Address: 312 W. Seventh St., Dallas

Jon’s Grille

The Bonnell brothers both wear white coats: Ric Bonnell is a doctor. Jon Bonnell is a chef. They’re teaming up to open a burger and barbecue joint using beef from their family’s ranch in Tolar, Texas, near Granbury. Jon Bonnell — known for his restaurants Bonnell’s Fine Texas Cuisine, Waters and Buffalo Bros. — hopes his burgers are safer than most. “We know exactly where these animals come from,” he says. The restaurant moves into a beloved address near Texas Christian University.

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  • Opening date: June 2022
  • Cuisine: Burgers and barbecue
  • Address: 2905 W. Berry St., Fort Worth

The Silos

Don’t let the address on North Oklahoma Drive fool you; the Silos are in the great state of Texas. The long-dormant buildings will be worth the drive to Celina once they are transformed into a whiskey and wine bar with a restaurant. The menu will include pizzas, burgers and tacos, owner Michael Arani tells our special contributor Jeremy Hallock. The owners believe Celina is the next boom town in North Texas — and we think they’re right.

  • Opening date: Summer 2022
  • Cuisine: American
  • Address: 300 N. Oklahoma Drive, Celina
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Montes Modern Charhouse

Goodbye Abacus, hello Montes. The classic steakhouse will be the most upscale restaurant so far from Refined Hospitality Concepts, which also operates a redone version of Dallas Tex-Mex restaurant Primo’s. It’s a return home for operator Robert Hall, who was service manager and beverage manager at Abacus when it was a semifinalist for a James Beard outstanding service award in 2014. “This is how I fell in love with the business where I spent most of my career — in fine dining,” Hall says.

Montes’ executive chef is Jason Tilmann, who has worked for chefs Daniel Boulud and Masaharu Morimoto. The restaurant is called a charhouse because steaks and veggies will be seared on a Montague charbroiler, old-school. Also on the menu: tableside pressed duck, served with the same flavors that are in an Old-Fashioned cocktail.

  • Opening date: Summer 2022
  • Cuisine: Steak
  • Address: 4511 McKinney Ave., Dallas
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Bacari Tabu

Next to Barsotti’s Italian restaurant Nonna in Highland Park, he’s opening a tiny, 36-seat bar and restaurant named Bacari Tabu. The name pays homage to Strictly Tabu, a long-gone jazz bar that sold pizza at that address for some 40 years. Barsotti will bring back the jazz and the pizza and add grilled meat cooked over a Japanese yakitori. Why? “I feel like yakitori fits into the idiom of how I understand Italian food: It’s the cleanest, hottest way to cook food,” Barsotti says. An example of a dish might be spicy lamb meatballs with a salad of shaved turnips, radishes, sweet peppers, yogurt and herbs.

  • Opening date: Summer 2022
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Address: 4113 Lomo Alto Drive, Dallas

Royal Bastard

Badovinus is taking great delight in reinventing the old King’s Cabaret strip club as a restaurant he describes as “rebellious, robust and ribald.” There are stories inside these walls, to be sure, and you can bet that Badovinus will keep some of that nefarious spirit alive at Royal Bastard. The restaurant will be “unapologetically premium,” with just 12 tables and likely high price tags. The rest will be a delicious surprise, he says.

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  • Opening date: Summer 2022
  • Cuisine: Continental
  • Address: 1602 Market Center Blvd., Dallas

Glass Cellar Wine Merchants

Restaurateur Randy DeWitt, left, stands with his daughter Amanda DeWitt, center, and...
Restaurateur Randy DeWitt, left, stands with his daughter Amanda DeWitt, center, and co-founder Jena Barker. Glass Cellar is expected to open in the Preston Center space in fall 2022.(Jeffrey McWhorter / Special Contributor)

Picture a wine tasting room at a California vineyard: That’s the feel at Glass Cellar in Preston Center. But this place gets a Texified spin, because it’s a whopping 10,000 square feet, with two stories of wine and restaurant space. It comes from the North Texas company that created Whiskey Cake, Sixty Vines and Haywire.

  • Opening date: September 2022
  • Cuisine: California chic
  • Address: 8411 Preston Road, Dallas
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Etta

Etta is a restaurant opening in downtown Dallas' East Quarter in 2022, in the same...
Etta is a restaurant opening in downtown Dallas' East Quarter in 2022, in the same development where Nick Badovinus' newish restaurant National Anthem opened in 2021. The menu includes spicy meatballs with Sunday sauce, pecorino cheese and hearth bread.

The team that opened Monarch, one of Dallas’ highest-profile restaurants of 2021, is opening Etta in Dallas’ East Quarter in 2022. The menu in Dallas will be similar to the original in Chicago, with wood-fired pizzas, Sunday sauce meatballs, ricotta pillows and a shareable spread called the Pig Picnic. The playful restaurant experience includes the option to order a Polaroid camera for the table, with wine. The company has made a huge investment in Dallas, not only with sibling restaurant Monarch and its upstairs sushi spot, Kessaku, but also with a steakhouse named Maple & Ash opening in 2023. Remember chef Danny Grant’s name.

  • Opening date: Third quarter 2022
  • Cuisine: Continental
  • Address: 1602 Market Center Blvd., Dallas
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Read The Dallas Morning News’ past stories about exciting new restaurants:

The list for 2021

The list for 2020

The list for 2019

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Story updated May 24, 2022 and April 6, 2022 with news of several restaurant openings.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.