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What’s that massive, new restaurant in the Dallas Design District? It’s Culinary Dropout

Culinary Dropout is a 2-story, 22,000-square-foot restaurant and bar.

The first thing Dallasites might say when they drive past Culinary Dropout is, Whoa, that restaurant is huge.

Culinary Dropout looms large on Turtle Creek Boulevard in the Dallas Design District, neighbors with plenty of other biggies. The Mexican clocks in at 15,000 square feet, including the patio, and it cost an unprecedented $11.5 million to build and design. Coming-soon supper club Delilah will be 12,000 square feet when it opens in the neighborhood later in 2024.

Culinary Dropout has two main bars, upstairs and downstairs. Lighting is warm and moody.
Culinary Dropout has two main bars, upstairs and downstairs. Lighting is warm and moody.(Nathan Hunsinger / Special Contributor)

But Culinary Dropout is bigger: 22,000 square feet. The restaurant and bar has a rooftop patio, a DJ booth, three private rooms and a stage. Its two stories are decorated with lush greenery, shades of olive green and loungey bars.

It opens June 12, 2024. Tell 450 of your closest friends, because they’ll all fit inside.

Shang Skipper, director of operations for Culinary Dropout, said the restaurant is “so big” because they wanted the patio to look out over the Dallas skyline. Even in the hot summer sun, the view is great.

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Some of Culinary Dropout's menu items include the Strawberry & Spinach Salad (bottom), Wagyu...
Some of Culinary Dropout's menu items include the Strawberry & Spinach Salad (bottom), Wagyu Pigs In A Blanket with honey mustard creme fra che (right) and the Asian Crunch Salad. Culinary Dropout opens in Dallas' Design District on June 12, 2024. //we have permission to use this photo//(Fox Restaurant Concepts)

Culinary Dropout is one of the fast-growing brands from Fox Restaurant Concepts, which created North Italia, Flower Child, The Henry and more. Their pizza place Dough Bird is expected to open at Inwood Road and Lovers Lane in Dallas this year. The first Culinary Dropout opened in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 2010. Dallas will be its lucky No. 13th restaurant nationwide.

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Four more Culinary Dropouts drop in the next 12 months, Skipper said.

The Phoenix-based company picked the Dallas Design District because it is “kind of funky, kind of edgy,” Skipper said. “We really like that vibe and feel. And we thought we could add to that.”

Indeed, Culinary Dropout feels like the type of restaurant where one frozen paloma spritz or a watermelon margarita might turn into three as the sun sets near the Dallas skyline. The option is also there to pick one of four zero-proof cocktails, each priced at $8.

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Nearly every table orders the pretzels and fondue, several staffers told The Dallas Morning News. This No. 1 seller ($15.50) is served with provolone cheese sauce and pretzel nibs made in the Culinary Dropout kitchen every day.

After that, diners are turning to the fried chicken ($23) served with a buttermilk biscuit, smashed potatoes and gravy. The menu hits all sorts of culinary points of view, from white truffle deviled eggs to chicken wings, sushi, pizzas, pasta, spicy vegan curry and even steak frites — one of the hottest dishes in Dallas right now.

Speaking of hot, it’s going to be steamy up there on the rooftop patio this summer. The bar has a mister system and the option to enclose part of the bar.

“We know Dallas is a very social town,” Skipper said. And the Dallas Design District is getting more social by the month, as restaurants continue to open nearby all year.

Culinary Dropout is at 150 Turtle Creek Blvd., Dallas. It opens June 12, 2024 and serve lunch and dinner seven days a week and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays. Reservations available but not required on OpenTable.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X (formerly Twitter) at @sblaskovich.