Urban Cafe in downtown Dallas’ Urbanmarket now under eye of restaurateur Mehdi Pezeshki

by Teresa Gubbins

DALLAS — After a month-long closure, Urban Cafe, the dining entity that's part of Urbanmarket in the Interurban building in downtown Dallas, has re-opened under the management of veteran restaurateur Mehdi Pezeshki.

He's currently the owner of Purple Onion, the Southern/home-cooking breakfast-and-lunch spot he opened last year in the Design District. But his term as a restaurateur dates back to the '90s when he owned Middle Eastern restaurant Sinbad's Palace in Richardson, which is now closed, and Shishkabob's, which is still open on Spring Valley Road, also in Richardson.

"At Urban Cafe, we have all kinds of sandwiches, salads, quesadillas, and a great breakfast selection, from omelets to skillets," he says. "We have a nice salad with turkey and mango, and wrap sandwiches with turkey and ham. But we do entree-style dishes, too, like grilled tilapia, salmon, and burgers, we use a half pound of fresh ground, not frozen. We also do a veggie burger, and sushi which is brought in every morning."

At dinner, Urban Cafe sheds its salad-and-sandwich-for-office-workers vibe to incorporate some of Pezeshki's Middle-Eastern roots: namely, a belly dancer, on Thursday and Friday nights, and hookah pipes, too. On weekends, they're open until midnight.