Chef-owner of now closed Dallas City Market opens Petaluma Cafe in Cedar Hill

by Teresa Gubbins

Gary Buehler, who was one of the opening partners in Dallas City Market, the ill-fated Eatzi's-style food shop on Lovers at the Tollway, has re-appeared a bit further south: in the Uptown Village complex at Cedar Hill, where he's opened a new restaurant, called Petaluma Cafe.

He found himself in Cedar Hill because Uptown Village wanted a second branch of City Market. But Buehler left the Market in August 2008. (It recently shut down altogether.)

"When Dallas City Market went south, the [landlord] said, 'Come up with a new concept'," Buehler says. "It was really nice of them to do that. I first opened a small food place called Max N Cheese, it's like a 20X20 kiosk, that's doing quite well. We have expansion plans for that concept. But I'd also made a commitment to open Petaluma."

The concept is similar to Café Express or Corner Bakery, in that you order at the counter and they bring your food when it's ready.

"Everything's hand made, we make everything except for the bread," Buehler says.

That includes salads, sandwiches, paninis, and an Italian beef sandwich, because Buehler is from Chicago. They even have chicken-fried steak. "We take a piece of steak, hand-batter it in buttermilk, and pan-fry it, the way it's supposed to be done," he says.

For now it's lunch and dinner, but in two weeks, they'll start doing breakfast, too.