The tortilla is the first thing you need to understand about Molino Olōyō. Not the filling, not the protein, not the salsa. The tortilla. That’s where this whole operation begins, and once you taste one, you’ll understand why chef Olivia López has spent the last five years obsessing over it.
Her corn comes from small family farms across Mexico — Oaxaca, Tlaxcala, the Yucatán. She sources heirloom varieties that most people have never seen: kernels that are pink, purple, deep blue, brown. Each one nixtamalized in-house, soaked in a lime solution the way it’s been done for thousands of years, then run through the mill until it becomes masa. The result is a tortilla with actual flavor — earthy, complex, faintly sweet — and a texture that holds up to whatever gets folded inside it. There’s nothing else like it in Dallas.
That tortilla is about to have a permanent address. Molino Olōyō opens this spring at 4422 Gaston Avenue in East Dallas, taking over the former Cry Wolf space. For the people who’ve been chasing this pop-up around the city for five years, standing in long lines at Wayward Coffee, sliding into DMs to snag a weekend pickup — this is the moment they’ve been waiting for.
The space runs three concepts at once. The fonda is the casual end: street-style food served any day you walk in. The wagyu suadero taco that Texas Monthly named one of the 50 best tacos in the state lives here, along with churros filled with toasted corn ice cream. Come hungry, order two or three, don’t rush it.
Then there’s the tasting room, which is a different meal entirely. Multi-course, intimate, the kind of dinner where López gets to show everything she’s been working toward. Dishes like pescado con moles. Bay scallop aguachile. Cacao nicatole con fresa. The cooking draws on her years inside serious Dallas kitchens — Mirador, CBD Provisions, Billy Can Can — filtered through her own obsession with Mexican ingredients and the coastal Colima flavors she grew up eating. Seafood turns up often here. So does corn, in forms you won’t see anywhere else.
The mezcalería connects both rooms, with an agave-forward cocktail program, wine, and botanas to keep you at the bar longer than you planned.
The interior was designed by Hatsumi Kuzuu, who shaped the look of Tei-An, with branding from Memo NYC. It’s going to be a beautiful room. But the food is what you’re going there for.
López is a 2023 James Beard semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas. Her partner Jonathan Percival runs Pequeño Farms in South Dallas, supplying produce straight to the kitchen. They built this slowly, without shortcuts — tamale deliveries and pop-ups and private dinners until the moment was right.
The moment is now. Follow @molino_oloyo on Instagram for the opening date.
