At Monarch, the acclaimed Italian restaurant towering over downtown Dallas, pasta takes center stage. The house-made program — rooted in Chef Danny Grant’s Italian heritage — defines the restaurant’s spirit: precise, passionate, and deeply personal. Each day, the team crafts pastas from scratch, setting a tone of craftsmanship that carries through every dish that leaves the kitchen.
Led by Joseph Almanza, one of Monarch’s founding team members, the pasta operation hums with quiet intensity. The team begins early, working with Caputo “00” flour, semolina, and Di Napoli tomatoes — ingredients chosen for their purity and flavor. “It’s the foundation of everything we do,” says Grant.
The kitchen’s centerpiece is a La Monferrina P6 extruder, a specialized Italian machine that presses rigatoni, casarecce, and radiatori with exacting precision. For hand-rolled doughs, chefs turn to an eight-foot Boos Block table, keeping metal far from the surface to preserve the dough’s perfect texture and elasticity.
Together, they produce between 80 and 100 pounds of pasta a day, with weekends easily surpassing 250 pasta orders. The result is a menu that celebrates both comfort and craft — from the fiery Spicy Vodka “Mama” Rigatoni, based on Grant’s mother’s recipe, to the delicate anolini, a vegetarian favorite. Seasonal creations, like striped spinach-and-egg-yolk dough for shrimp scampi, reveal a team that never stops refining its art.
Monarch is perched high above downtown at 1401 Elm Street, 49th Floor of The National, Dallas, TX 75202.
Dinner: Sunday–Thursday 5–10 p.m.; Friday–Saturday 5–11 p.m.
Happy Hour (bar & lounge): Sunday–Friday 5–6:30 p.m.
Reservations: monarchrestaurants.com/reserve | 214-945-2222 | info@monarchrestaurants.com
Follow along on Instagram and Facebook: @MonarchRestaurants
