Traci Williams, a former Farmers Branch city council member, is proud to live in an urban area nestled between Dallas and Fort Worth. But she’d often drive to other Dallas suburbs to eat and drink.
“To go anywhere really cool, we have to cross 635,” she said. “To not have a more vibrant play life [in Farmers Branch] is kind of disappointing.”
So Williams took action: She opened a bar and retail store called Locals Craft Beer & Fine Wine with former Farmers Branch mayor Robert Dye. It, and many of the restaurants around it, are the result of a years-long effort to beef up the restaurant offerings in the city.
By 2024, Farmers Branch will have more destination restaurants than it has ever had in its 181-year history.
“We do have restaurants here and there, scattered around,” said Allison Cook, director of economic development and tourism for the city of Farmers Branch. “But we don’t have many, and we don’t have the destination type, where people drive through three cities on a Saturday night.”
That changed almost overnight with Roots Southern Table, a Southern restaurant created by TV chef Tiffany Derry and her business partner Tom Foley. When Roots opened in 2021, it put Farmers Branch on the map for North Texas foodies. It beckoned customers to “drive through three cities,” as Cook had challenged, for fried shrimp and gumbo in a welcoming restaurant tucked into a new development, The Shops at Mustang Station.
“That was the activity we needed — that we never had,” Cook said of Roots’ arrival.
Farmers Branch now has two buzzy centers of restaurant activity. There’s The Shops at Mustang Station, located a few miles north of 635 at Interstate 35E, and the new restaurant park at Mercer Boardwalk, in the southwest corner of those two main thoroughfares. (The city has other beloved restaurants, too: Jen’s Place, which serves breakfast and lunch on Alpha Road; the nationally-lauded Cattleack Barbecue open nearby; and Crossbuck Barbecue and Odd Muse Brewing Company, two neighboring restaurants that provide an all-American combo of beer and barbecue. They were precursors to a surge of restaurants in 2023 and 2024.)
Roots and The Shops at Mustang Station were glimmers of hope that residents like Williams wouldn’t have to leave their home city for a glass of wine and a charcuterie board. In 2011, Farmers Branch developed a public-private partnership with commercial development company Western Securities. A 9-acre plot was assembled and developed into Mustang Station, which includes apartments, retail, restaurants and office space near Valley View Lane and I-35E.
Williams’ wine shop and adjoining lounge, Locals, opened Nov. 22, 2023. Others are opening in 2024. Cook and other city leaders say Mustang Station feels like the new center of Farmers Branch.
“Farmers Branch never had a square and a downtown,” Cook said. It was a farming community for decades, and it was once called Mustang, Texas. “It’s not a county seat, [it] never had a courthouse,” Cook said.
“And 100 years later, we’re like, where’s the center of town? It’s wherever you want it to be.”
The second notable development in Farmers Branch is Mercer Boardwalk, a project helmed by Mehrdad Moayedi, whose company Centurion American developed dozens of neighborhoods in North Texas and is working on the $1 billion Collin Creek Mall project in Plano. Mercer Boardwalk will eventually have at least eight restaurants on 370 acres. A few opened in early November 2023.
Bugatti, which has served Italian food in North Texas since 1980, will leave Dallas proper and relocate to Farmers Branch. Bugatti Ristorante president Zee Aziz — some call him “Mr. Bugatti” — said the Farmers Branch restaurant has more visibility and is more centrally located to their customers.
Cook has seen a lot of dirt move in her 12 years working for the city.
“You want a reason for people to come here,” Cook said. Today, restaurants are the reason.
A look at Farmers Branch’s new and coming-soon restaurants:
In The Shops at Mustang Station — near Valley View Lane and I-35E
- Locals Craft Beer & Fine Wine is a two-sided business. Traci Williams’ side is the wine market, an airy space where customers can engage in a wine tasting and get recommendations from sommelier and assistant manager TeJada Kennedy. Charcuterie boards will eventually become available for dine-in or to take home, and Williams envisions groups of friends convening here for an after-work snack and drink. On the other side of the wall, former mayor Robert Dye’s bar and lounge will sell wine alongside inventive cocktails from head bartender Blake Weaver. The room is designed to cater to “all walks of life, in one spot,” said store manager Britt Wallace. Bottles of wine range from $12 to $700, and cocktails can be classic or not. Weaver also has low- and no-alcohol options. Locals is at 13050 Bee St., Farmers Branch, and opened Nov. 22, 2023.
- Bankhead Brewing Co. is a growing microbrewery with locations in Rowlett and Fort Worth. The coming-soon Farmers Branch brewpub takes the place of Cedar Creek Brewhouse and Eatery, which closed at The Shops at Mustang Station after about a year. Bankhead sells more than a dozen house-made beers, from a light lager to a raspberry wheat beer. Bar bites include avocados stuffed with brisket; street taco pizza topped with beef, onions, cilantro and salsa verde; and brisket poutine. They’re adding a few new menu items like tikka masala pizza, shrimp risotto and goat cheese croquettes with blackberry chutney. Bankhead is expected to open at 13090 Bee St., Farmers Branch, on Dec. 11, 2023.
- Radici is chef Tiffany Derry’s second Farmers Branch restaurant. When it opens, she’ll sell Italian food that honors her business partner Tom Foley’s Italian heritage. It also represents the many years Derry worked in Italian restaurants in Houston and Dallas. “Italian was one of the first things I truly learned to love, outside of Southern food,” she said in an August 2023 Dallas Morning News story. Her tentative menu calls for vongole-style clams and white lasagna. Radici is expected to open at 12990 Bee St., Farmers Branch, in early 2024.
At Mercer Boardwalk — near 635 and I-35E
- Black Agave Cocina y Cantina is Mercer Boardwalk’s contemporary Mexican restaurant. One of the taglines is “we know how to throw a party,” and executive chef Omar Adame’s menu includes shareable starters like chicken tinga nachos and shrimp aguachile alongside three-taco platters, enchiladas and fajitas. For those who want to spend a little more, Adame’s menu includes whole red snapper for $39.99 and New York strip tampiqueña for $36.99. Adame was born in Mexico City and grew up in Zacatecas, in central Mexico. He said his menu is a little Mex, a little Tex, with a strong offering of seafood. Cocktails include a stout selection of tequila drinks and frozen cocktails, plus three micheladas, all with the option to add lime-poached shrimp. Black Agave is at 1980 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, and opened Nov. 2, 2023.
- Barrel & Bones, an upscale barbecue restaurant, shares a kitchen with Black Agave. Here, customers will get table service — a change from most order-at-the-counter barbecue spots. “It’s hard to compete with those guys,” chef Adame said, “so we wanted a new, fresh idea that can stand on its own.” Sandwiches are more involved than at most barbecue joints, as seen with the spicy pastrami brisket sandwich with sauerkraut, pickles, cheese and Alabama barbecue sauce; and the pork belly bánh mì with avocado, jicama slaw, teriyaki sauce and cilantro. Barbecue purists can order brisket, turkey, chicken and sausage by the half-pound. Barrel & Bones also has a whiskey list that’s hundreds of labels long. Barrel & Bones is at 1980 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, and opened Nov. 2, 2023.
- Dough Bro’s Italian Kitchen & Bar is a to-go pizza shop just big enough to stop in and grab an order. It’s the third and final restaurant inside the building with Black Agave and Barrel & Bones. Dough Bro’s food will soon be available for DoorDash, Grubhub and Uber Eats delivery. Dough Bro’s is expected to open at 1980 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, on Dec. 15, 2023.
- Bugatti Ristorante closed at its longtime location on Northwest Highway and Lemmon Avenue in Dallas in March 2023 and will soon relocate to Mercer Boardwalk in Farmers Branch. The restaurant was started by Michael Bugatti in 1980, first at Walnut Hill and I-35E. The company is known for its tortellini alla panna (veal-stuffed pasta) and capelli D’Angelo (angel hair pasta with shrimp and sun-dried tomatoes), and has been selling those for more than 35 years on Northwest Highway. Restaurant president Zee Aziz says construction made running the restaurant difficult, and he’s eager to move to an area that founder Bugatti used to pass every day on his commute from Coppell to Dallas. Aziz said the new restaurant will have “exactly the same look. The only thing we’re changing is the address.” Catering continues to be available while the restaurant is closed. Bugatti Ristorante is expected to open at 1940 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, in March 2024.
- Copa Club is a coming-soon private social club from the owner of Hugo’s Invitados. It’s expected to have old-school jazz music, live piano and sports on the TVs, said Christopher Zielke, the director of hospitality at Centurion American. He’s one of the executives who helped place each restaurant and bar at Mercer Boardwalk. Copa will be a grandiose 11,000 square feet. Copa Club is expected to open at 1960 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, in early 2024.
- The Drunken Oyster and Absinthe Bar is an alluring addition to the development, as it comes from a chef contestant on Season 3 of Next Food Network Star on Food Network. Rory Schepisi was born in Jersey, and today, she lives in Amarillo, Texas, where she runs the New Orleans-inspired restaurant Drunken Oyster. Her Farmers Branch version will have live music and French Quarter classics. We haven’t seen the menu yet, but the Amarillo restaurant serves charbroiled oysters, chicken-fried alligator, gumbo and crawfish étouffée. The Drunken Oyster and Absinthe Bar is expected to open at 1940 Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway, Farmers Branch, in mid-2024.
- Sky Rocket Burger is the last restaurant on the Mercer Boardwalk docket, for now. The restaurant started in Far North Dallas. After it was sold to new owners, the original owners are back and involved in the Mercer Boardwalk restaurant. Sky Rocket Burger has a simple menu: You pick the number of patties, then add cheese and veggies. Other options are fries, tots and milkshakes. Sky Rocket Burger is expected to open in fall 2024. The address has not been set yet, but it’s inside Mercer Boardwalk.
