July is inexplicably hot month for restaurant openings in Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

Dead of summer. Lots of people out of town. You wouldn't think that July is a good time to open a restaurant. Yet a half dozen fairly high profile restaurants are all opening in Dallas in the same week:

• July 15 marked the return to Dallas of Hard Rock Cafe down at the edge of Victory Park, across from House of Blues.
• This weekend, PARK, the restaurant starring chef Marc Cassel opens on Henderson. The restaurant has been quietly serving friends, family, and interested passersby, although its official date is really next week.
• Also opening on Henderson this weekend, Urbino Pizza e Pasta, from some of the folks involved in Blue Collar Bar.
• Split Peas Cafe, the upscale souper-salad-type place from El Paso.
• Zinsky's Deli, from Bengal Coast owner Mark Brezinski and Blue Mesa's Liz and Jim Barron, opening by end of next week.
• Sauce on the Square, swanky new pizza-and-pasta joint in McKinney, opens Friday.

"We did it on purpose, to throw everybody off -- just when you think it's over, we come back for more," jokes Hard Rock's sales/marketing manager Christina Oickle. "The timing, well, August, in Texas, is that a good time to open a restaurant? It's not. It just happened to fall in August. We had always planned on coming back to Dallas once we found a better location, but we didn't happen to find a location until now."

Brezinski senses that, among people who've invested their money in disappointing things like stocks and banks, restaurants are starting to seem more promising.

"I definitely think there was a high level of caution, almost like the faucet was turned off for the last couple of years," he says. "With some of these other investments that seem less secure, I think people are looking at restaurants as something you get to see, taste, feel, and touch. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've had lots harder problems raising capital than we did for Zinsky's. Part of that is the concept, a deli. But compare it to Bengal Coast -- that took some teeth pulling."

Nonetheless, Urbino owner David Pedack calls July "the worst month" to open a restaurant, right up there with January.

"There's a couple of sweet spots during the year, and this probably isn't one of them," he says. "It's not that the economy is turning around. Some of these places have been working on the ground for a while. But it's not like you calculate the time; you usually get pushed forward.

"Everyone's in a race to open."

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