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One of Dallas’ most romantic restaurants, St. Martin’s, will close on Greenville Avenue

The owners plan to relocate the more than 40-year-old wine bar and restaurant.

St. Martin’s Wine Bistro, one of the only restaurants in Dallas still offering live piano during dinner, will close May 20, 2023, on Greenville Avenue. The intimate, romantic restaurant has been open for more than 40 years.

The lease is up, and owner Mohsen Heidari and his family members plan to relocate their date-night restaurant to a new address in East Dallas within a few months.

White tablecloths, live piano, candlelight ... a few decades ago, these were signals that a...
White tablecloths, live piano, candlelight ... a few decades ago, these were signals that a restaurant served fine-dining food. But the rules for Dallas restaurants have changed drastically in 40 years.(Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

In the decades that St. Martin’s served Champagne brie soup, beef tenderloin and crème brûlée, the Lower Greenville area changed dramatically. In 1986, St. Martin’s was described as a buzzy bistro by Dallas Morning News critic Waltrina Stovall. As St. Martin’s aged, it improved “like a fine wine,” another critic said 20 years ago. The food was “very good” and the ambience “wonderfully reassuring” 13 years ago, The News reported.

Today, it’s still one of Dallas’ quietest and most romantic restaurants. It’s a great place for an anniversary or milestone birthday.

Scott Fickling and Phil Patterson opened St. Martin’s in 1980. They were teachers and Vietnam veterans who, in the 1970s, “knew nothing about the restaurant business when they bought a plot of land on Greenville Avenue,” The News reported. This part of Dallas was then a “bohemian” neighborhood. (Quite a change: Million-dollar homes are now within walking distance of the quaint wine bistro.) Fickling and Patterson opened a neighborhood bar called the San Francisco Rose first, then St. Martin’s Wine Bistro next to it.

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Perhaps they had an inkling they’d be in good company, because Dallas restaurant The Grape had been open since 1972 a few blocks south on Greenville Avenue.

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But, look: The San Francisco Rose closed in 2017 after 40 years. The Grape closed in 2019 after 47 years.

Nearby, Blue Goose Cantina closed on Greenville Avenue in March after 39 years.

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The St. Martin’s space has been run by several well-known restaurant families. In the late 1980s, Patterson sold his share to Phil Cobb, a Dallas restaurateur who co-founded comfort food chain Black-Eyed Pea.

(From left) John Sarvarian, Iris Haftlang, Monaliza Heidari and Omid Haftlang help run St....
(From left) John Sarvarian, Iris Haftlang, Monaliza Heidari and Omid Haftlang help run St. Martin's Wine Bistro in Dallas with owner Mohsen Heidari (not pictured).(Jason Janik / Special Contributor)

Heidari took over St. Martin’s in 1997 and operates the restaurant with general manager John Sarvarian and family members Omid Haftlang, Iris Haftlang and Monaliza Heidari. A younger generation of Dallas restaurateurs, Heidari’s sons Pasha and Sina Heidari, grew up inside St. Martin’s. Pasha and Sina now operate Dallas cocktail lounge Bowen House, fajitas restaurant Las Palmas and Cedars bar Mike’s Gemini Twin.

For years, the restaurant was open on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. It was a quiet place for Ross Perot, Tony Dorsett and Ed “Too Tall” Jones to dine.

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“It has been a part of a lot of people’s lives for a long time,” Omid Haftlang says. He seems to especially have loved watching kids grow up, get married and bring their own children into St. Martin’s.

“I’m going to miss this room,” Omid says as he sits at the wine bar after a Thursday dinner shift.

When the restaurant reopens, it will have live piano and much of the classic ambience and menu of the original. St. Martin’s family members wouldn’t talk about the new location yet because they want to finish their time on Greenville Avenue first.

“It’s bittersweet, for sure,” Omid says. “But I’m so optimistic about the move.”

St. Martin’s Wine Bistro is at 3020 Greenville Ave., Dallas. Dinner reservations are being accepted on OpenTable through May 20, 2023, its last day of service.

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