Joyce & Gigi’s Kitchen, South American restaurant, to open in East Dallas

by Teresa Gubbins

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 9 Comments

With special Bolivian dishes.

DALLAS — Joyce & Gigi's Kitchen is a mother-and-daughter venture specializing in South American food that will open in East Dallas not far from the Arts District this summer.

Gigi, short for Gigliola Aguilera, is the daughter who went to Le Cordon Bleu in Austin and has worked in a number of top kitchens in Dallas including Fearing's, Five Sixty, and the Stoneleigh; she says she also worked for Martín Berasategui in Spain and Aeschbach Chocolatier in Switzerland, which helped sharpen her pastry skills so she can do desserts herself. Joyce is her mother who moved here to help open the restaurant.

"We want to offer a new twist on South American cooking," Gigi says. "We're both chefs, and we're from Bolivia. I came here nine years ago for school, then practiced in kitchens here and a little bit in Europe before I decided to come back and open my own modern South American restaurant."

"It’s going to be a little different than what we have here, incorporating everything we learned in our culinary career," Gigi says. "We'll have escabeche, our version of ceviche, that's a little more elaborate. Also thinking of having feijoada – slow-cooked pork shoulder with chorizo and pork belly, served with polenta. We want to have typical stuff like empanadas and yucca cake, but also some dishes that incorporate French techniques. One dish will have duck confit and risotto topped with two sunny-side quail eggs and plantains."

Gigi is also heavily into cocktails and her wine list, which will be dominated by wines from Chile and Argentina – "a different selection, unlike anything else you would see," she says.

They're just starting to remodel the space with seating for 60 and a bar; Gigi says that their landlord has plans for a coffee shop next door.

"We've still got a couple more months before we open," Gigi says. "We've wanted this for a very long time."

Thanks to BornToRhone for the tip!

Tweet