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2 restaurants — one upscale, one casual — to open in Uptown Dallas high-rise

23Springs office tower will include Little Ruby’s, a New York cafe famous for its avocado toast.

Restaurants hailing from New York and Los Angeles are slated to open in an Uptown Dallas tower in fall 2025.

Élephante, a coastal Italian restaurant that started in Santa Monica, California, and Little Ruby’s, an all-day cafe from New York City, are expected to open at the 23Springs office development at Cedar Springs Road and Maple Avenue. The project is next-door to Uchi and across the street from the new $20 million steakhouse, Nuri.

Although Élephante and Little Ruby’s come from opposite sides of the United States, they are owned by the same company. Its founder, Nick Mathers, was born and raised in Sydney, Australia. He loves to travel.

23Springs in Dallas is a 26-story tower with a park and restaurants. The development is...
23Springs in Dallas is a 26-story tower with a park and restaurants. The development is located at Maple Avenue and Cedar Springs Road in Uptown Dallas. The building is expected to open in spring 2025 and the restaurants will follow in fall 2025, said founder Nick Mathers.(Courtesy of GFF)

“I just want to take you somewhere,” he said of his restaurants.

At Little Ruby’s, he wants to take you home, where he surfed off the coast of Australia. At Élephante, he was inspired by the Italian island of Pantelleria in the Mediterranean sea.

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“When you step into the restaurant, I want you to feel like you’re not in Dallas,” Mathers said of Élephante. “It’ll be like you’re in a mini vacation.”

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The 26-story office building is nearly topped out, said Paul Bennett, senior managing director of Granite Properties. When the building opens in March 2025 (as is planned), 23Springs will have a half-acre park on the ground level, giving some green space to the property since the six-story parking garage was tucked underneath.

Granite Properties, a commercial real estate firm headquartered in Plano, has teamed up with Highwoods Properties on the project. The Raleigh-based firm took a 50% equity stake in the tower after it was announced.

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Élephante will be situated in a standalone, two-story restaurant. Little Ruby’s will open inside a second standalone building.

A third restaurant will open near Little Ruby’s, and Bennett and his team haven’t picked the tenant yet.

While the focus of the office tower is providing space for businesses like Deloitte, Sidley Austin LLP and Bank OZK, Bennett said the restaurants were designed for anyone in Uptown.

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“We’re trying to encourage a community experience with the park and the restaurants,” he said.

Here’s more about Élephante and Little Ruby’s.

Élephante: a coastal Italian restaurant that’s big on lunch

The biggest restaurant on the property is Élephante, at 11,000 square feet. It originated in California and will open next in Scottsdale, Arizona, then Dallas.

Among the pastas at Italian restaurant Élephante is spaghetti alle vongole, or pasta with...
Among the pastas at Italian restaurant Élephante is spaghetti alle vongole, or pasta with clams. The restaurant is expected to open in the 23Springs development in Uptown Dallas in 2025. (Photograph: Jakob N. Layman / Jakob N. Layman)

The feel of the restaurant is “sophisticated rustica,” Mathers said: stucco, plaster and warm wood interiors.

Mathers says many customers start lunch or dinner at Élephante with an appetizer of whipped eggplant, which looks like hummus. It’s so popular, Mathers says Costco reps have asked if he’ll consider selling it at their big-box stores. (And will he? “Who knows. I wouldn’t say never.”)

Lunch is big at Élephante, Mathers said, and that fits this part of Uptown, which is heavy on office space.

Pizzas come in at least six varieties, with the soppressata with chili oil and honey being the most popular.

Pastas seem hard to pass up: spicy vodka with Calabrian chili and basil (with the option to add lobster), cacio e pepe, spaghetti alle vongole and the like.

The main courses include a shareable 20-ounce bone-in rib-eye, branzino with leek and fennel salmoriglio; and polenta with black truffle mushrooms.

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Mathers said he watched the TV show Dallas long before he stepped foot in Texas. What he found on a trip to Big D was a city with good shopping and restaurants. He thinks there’s room for Élephante’s coastal Italian menu.

“Not that it’s a bad thing, but there are so many steakhouses,” he said.

Little Ruby’s Cafe: a brekkie spot with cocktails and coffee

Little Ruby’s will take over a smaller space, about 3,000 square feet, at 23Springs. It’s possible the space will feel big, because Mather’s first Little Ruby’s, in New York City, was a “shoebox” of a restaurant, at 300 square feet.

Little Ruby's egg sandwich is stacked with bacon, tomatoes, arugula, spicy relish and hash...
Little Ruby's egg sandwich is stacked with bacon, tomatoes, arugula, spicy relish and hash browns. The Australian-inspired restaurant from New York City is expected to open in Dallas' 23Springs tower.(Melissa Hom)

Mather calls the restaurant “super casual and down-to-Earth,” the kind of place where joggers can stop in for a coffee alongside businesspeople dressed for the day. He likens it to Cheers, if the bar served Australian classics.

“Brekkie” includes Vegemite toast, eggs and veggies, and the cafe’s famous avocado toast. Mathers said Little Ruby’s was the first to sell avocado toast in the United States — a claim that’s hard to prove but fun to believe.

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The all-day cafe menu branches out from breakfast to shrimp pasta, kale salad and a slew of burgers.

Mathers opened the restaurant when he was 24 years old.

“It’s dear to my heart,” he said. “I want it to feel like an extension of my kitchen.”

The Little Ruby’s in Dallas will be fifth in the United States and the first one outside of New York City.

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