Farnatchi’s Pizza, new from owner of Medina in Victory Park, ready to open in Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

Farnatchi Pizza is a new chain-let aiming to open three branches in the Dallas area over the next few months, including one next week in Addison on Belt Line Road, in what used to be a Quizno's.

Owner is Yaser Khalaf, owner of Medina Oven & Bar in Dallas' Victory Park; Jeffrey Torres, who has experience with multi-unit entities such as McDonald's and Papa John's, is operator/general manager.

They'll be serving gourmet pizza with all fresh ingredients, Torres says.

"We'll be doing a New York-style crust with dough made in house, sauce made in house," he says. "We'll have some pizzas you recognize like the Margherita, and we'll be using ingredients like arugula, avocado, artichoke hearts. All of the ingredients we're purchasing are top of the line or next step down. We realize we're going to have a higher food cost but we're delivering a higher quality pizza.

There'll also be salads, sandwiches, and paninis and, once they get a handle on all that, they'll add pastas later on.

They'll also convert LA Gourmet Pizza on McKinney Avenue in Dallas into a Farnatchi with a remodel of the space and the menu. Their third branch is located at Knox and US 75 in the space previously occupied by the now-closed Salad Creations. It'll have a brick oven, and they hope to open it in 3 to 4 months.