Thursday, May 8, 2008

Best Bites: Dining out in DFW May 9

By Teresa Gubbins

Opening Bell, the coffeehouse in the ground floor of the South Side on Lamar loft building, is about to colonize another high-rise residence by opening its second branch in mid-June on the ground floor of the ultra-cool Mosaic building in Dallas' central business district.

New branch of Opening Bell has all-important front door and sign.

Just to the right of the restaurant Scene, this second Opening Bell will have 2800 square feet; the original branch has 1350. Whereas the original had live music in the coffeehouse, this one will have its own adjacent performing space.

"It's not just a coffee shop, it’s very similar to something you'd see in California," says owner Pascale Hall. "You walk in, and if you can imagine this, you're looking at two baseball diamonds that are side by side. One side is the café, the other side is music venue, and we have a tunnel that goes from one side to the other. If you want to see live music, you pony up some money to get into that space."

Anticipating this opening, she bought the performance stage and sound system from Tower Records on Lemmon Avenue when the record store closed last year.

"They were having a big liquidation, and everybody was putting their names on stuff," she recalls. "Bill’s Records was buying listening stations. They had this stage down in the basement. Everybody from the Old 97s to Citizen Cope has played on that stage. I bought their light board, and I bought one of the listening stations for the South Side store where we promote local bands."

Live music has been a successful venture for Opening Bell, especially since they started serving beer and wine, a scenario they'll duplicate at the Mosaic. Since February 2007, they've also had a kiosk in the Las Colinas Medical Center in Irving, and now Lewisville Medical Center is requesting a coffee bar on its premises as well.

"And both want us to do music in the courtyard -- go figure," Hall says.

On the East side

Los Rios Mediterranean Bistro opens next week in East Plano, at the intersection of Shiloh and Park Boulevard, in the same shopping center as Albertson's.

In this part of East Plano, you don't see many nice restaurants, so the locals will surely embrace this place when they see the menu of moderately-priced Mediterranean, French, and Italian. Bill Nakawah, a chef who owned restaurants back in the '80s and '90s (he asked if I knew the esteemed Waltrina Stovall, the former restaurant critic at the DMN), knows the desperate dining situation in this part of town because he lives there, too. The location used to be a pizza place (specifically: "Wings Pizza N Things"), and Nakawah will capitalize on the oven and other equipment when he makes his own pies -- and that means dough from scratch using a blend of flour that includes durum.

Fore!

You don't have to be a golfer to dine at The Texas Grill at TopGolf Dallas, a high-tech golf facility that opened last year on Park Lane, the third in the U.S. TopGolf's specialty is the technology it uses to help you judge practice shots, including microchips embedded in the balls. But there's also a full-service restaurant-bar-cafe that's open from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., breakfast through dinner, including a full bar. The food's pretty basic -- pizza, burgers, salad, chicken -- but the dining area overlooking the greens and "tee-line" is pleasant, and there's something amusingly voyeuristic about eating there if you're not a golfer.

Open and shut

• A second area location of America's Incredible Pizza Co. will open in Mesquite in June. Like a Chuck E. Cheese on steroids, America’s Incredible Pizza Co. combines pizza with entertainment, but the scale at America's is over the top: 50,000 square feet, with three "themed" dining rooms; pizza, pasta, salad, and dessert bars; and an amusement park for kids with nearly 100 video and prize games, go-kart track, miniature golf, mini-bowling, and bumper cars. The branch will be the 8th in Texas; the first local outlet opened last year in Euless, and the corporate owner, a Houston-based company called FEC Holdings, is looking to open a third branch near Dallas as well.
• Also in June: a second branch of Zea Woodfire Grill, opening on Luther Lane in Preston Center, in the spot vacated by the abruptly closed Carrabbas. The first opened in Frisco, near the Ikea store; more are on the way.
• Meanwhile, a second branch of Naan Grill and Sushi is going into the big development at US 75 and Bethany in Allen (the original is at the Shops at Legacy), along with a second branch of New York pizza import Grimaldi's and a second area branch of Brio Tuscan Grille, which debuted in Southlake in 2006.

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Comments

Donna Chen Verified

Oooh another Grimaldi's!

4 days, 5 hours ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

Teresa Gubbins Staff

yes, one closer to us northerners, donna chen

4 days, 4 hours ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

WhitneyTM Anonymous

Hope the music at Opening Bell II is better than the coffee. Sorry, but I've given the SSoL shop several chances. I know independent coffee shops have a tough time (that's why I don't own one). But you have GOT to bring something to the table. Nothing I hate more than wishing I'd just gone to Starbucks.

4 days, 3 hours ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )