Tiny mom-and-pop Chapman Chile Kitchen opens in East Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — Chapman Chile Kitchen is a unique mom-and-pop that's halfway between a quick-bite cantina and a takeout place. With only a few items on the menu and even fewer chairs for sit-down dining, the scale here is small. But the concept is neat. Owners Randal and Fran Chapman, who previously worked in the software industry, make what sounds like standard bar food -- wings, stuffed jalapenos, burgers, and chili -- but their execution is anything but.

For starters, they don't use a deep-fry machine.

"Our fryer collects dust and holds tongs," says Fran. "Our attitude is that you don’t fry unless you're good. So our wings are smoked, not fried. We make our chili with lean bison instead of beef. Our chili leaves stains but not because it has grease -- it's because of all the spices. We like comfort food too, but we don’t want to look like we like it."

Their specialty is stuffed jalapenos, which they bake, not fry. Don't call them 'poppers' or you will incite Fran's [faux] wrath.

"We compare them to a miniature chili relleno," she says. "These things are addictive. We were living in Colorado Springs, so we did an experiment selling our stuffed jalapenos [at the Farmers Market]. We would have people waiting for us to make them; we cook them on the grill, and people would be waiting until they were done. We found we could sell 300 to 800 every Saturday. So when we moved back to Dallas, we found this tiny nook of a kitchen and decided to try making it as a business."

Their "tiny nook" is located in what used to be a place called El Rodeo Grill in a mostly residential neighborhood in East Dallas, not so far from foodie destinations such as Jimmy's Food Market and Taco Joint.

A lot of their business is to-go, with people grabbing it to take back to the office, and they're already cultivating a good catering and party business, where people order large quantities of wings and stuffed peppers that can be fully baked and ready-to-eat or to be baked later.

But they do have a couple seats inside, and a couple tables and chairs outside.

"We call it 'Dallas' smallest patio'," Fran says.