Kevin Ashade was born in Dallas, grew up in the U.K. and Nigeria, came back to Texas, went to the Culinary Institute of America, and spent years inside some of the most serious hotel dining rooms in the city — Nana at the Hilton Anatole, Craft at the W Hotel, The Oceanaire Seafood Room. He built a catering company called GourmEats. In 2016, he went on Beat Bobby Flay and beat Bobby Flay, with his coq au vin.
In January 2020, he opened Pangea in Garland — an upscale Southern restaurant with global threads running through it — and built a loyal following that drove from all over North Texas to eat there. Five years in, he closed it without much notice. Dallas noticed immediately. The phones started going. His Instagram swelled. The messages piled up. He had 2,200 of them by the time he showed his phone to a reporter a few weeks ago.
On February 13, 2026, Pangea reopened at 1910 Pacific Avenue in downtown Dallas, in a space that used to be a vegan restaurant. Ashade redesigned everything. He wanted the room to feel like leaving Dallas — like arriving somewhere else entirely. He got there. Clay vases in sand and terracotta line the walls. Basket-style cage lighting softens the room. Outside, a patio layered with greenery and natural textures feels resort-like in a way that takes real effort to pull off on a downtown Dallas street. Three hundred forty reservations were booked for opening night.
“We want to create a vacation feel,” Ashade has said. “A place that makes you feel like you are traveling in Mykonos, Tulum, or Ibiza.”
The menu is the clearest expression of who he is — all three of those childhoods, all of that kitchen time, all of those cultures landing on the same table at once. The coq au vin that beat Bobby Flay is here, and it should be the first thing you order if you’ve never been. The jerk roasted lamb shank carried over from Garland and has its own following. The stuffed salmon and crab cakes have been on every version of this menu. New additions include a branzino plate, expanded steak options — New York strip, filet, ribeye — running $35 to $50, and a full raw and sushi bar with an omakase option starting at $85. The Nigerian, Italian, and Japanese threads that define Ashade’s version of cultural fusion are woven through all of it without any of them competing for attention.
Brunch runs Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. with chicken and waffles, eggs Benedict, steak frites, pastry baskets, and a full coffee menu. Friday lunch runs 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner Tuesday through Saturday until 11 p.m., Sunday until 10 p.m., with the kitchen staying open until 2 a.m. on weekends for anyone who shows up late and hungry downtown.
The original Pangea was a destination. People drove to Garland for it. This version doesn’t require that anymore — it’s a few steps from the Majestic Theater, on the same block as Kitchen + Kocktails, in the heart of a downtown that has been trying to build a real dining identity for years. Ashade showing up here with a room this considered and a menu this personal is exactly the kind of thing that makes that happen.
Reservations at pangeadallas.com.
