Ferris Wheeler’s ran for eight years on Market Center Boulevard before it closed last fall — a big backyard, a stage, cold beer, and barbecue. It was a good run. What replaced it is something harder to describe in a single sentence, which is usually a good sign.
AM/FM at 1950 Market Center Boulevard is an all-day diner, a lounge, and a backyard concert venue, and it operates as all three at the same time depending on the hour. It comes from Matthew Harber and Annette Marin, who own Spune Productions — a Dallas music and concert promotion company that books Club Dada, the Granada, Three Links, Sons of Herman Hall, and other venues around town. They had been involved with the Ferris Wheeler’s space since 2023 helping build out the live music side, and when the BBQ operation closed they took the whole thing over. The Ferris wheel is still there, by the way. It’s not rideable, but it lights up, and it is visible from the backyard stage on a Friday night in the way that only a non-functioning amusement ride in the middle of Dallas could be.
The interior was redesigned from the ground up — banquettes along the walls, warm lighting, wood panels, green leather chairs, and a small indoor stage wired so the DJ can control the room’s lights from behind the decks. The vibe lands somewhere between a recording studio, a neighborhood bar, and a diner your parents might have gone to in another decade. It works. The space is comfortable in the way that places that are actually trying to be comfortable tend to be.
The food is where AM/FM separates itself from every other music venue in this city. Harber and Marin initially wanted to keep things barbecue-focused. After weeks of testing they weren’t satisfied, and that’s when they brought in consulting Chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman and her Oh Hi! Hospitality group. What followed was a series of conversations about childhood food — Marin is Latina, Harber is from Tennessee — that led to the menu that’s on the table now. Quiñones-Pittman describes it as Mexican-American kitchens and Nuevo Southern traditions, which is accurate, but it undersells how personal the whole thing feels on the plate.
Quiñones-Pittman spent six years as executive chef at José before leaving in 2025 to start her own hospitality group. She is a James Beard semifinalist who built a reputation at José on ceviches and aguachiles that were reliably the best bites in the room. The AM/FM menu is a different register entirely — diner food, all-day, approachable on purpose. She said she wanted the menu to feel like home, and honest, and created with care rather than performing. Dig in and you’ll find she pulled it off.
Start with the chorizo fritters — crispy, savory, served with butter lettuce wraps and green tomato chow chow, a dish that came directly from Harber’s Southern upbringing filtered through Quiñones-Pittman’s palate. The crab bisque arrives with a grilled pimento cheese sandwich on the side, which is the kind of pairing that makes you wonder why nobody thought of it sooner. The fried green tomatoes are the old reliable — done well, not overthought. For breakfast, the masa pancakes are made with masa harina and are the most talked-about item on the menu, dense and slightly sweet and unlike any pancake stack you have had before. The chilaquiles are the real thing — not dressed up, just right. Order them before noon and you will understand why the place is already building a breakfast following.
For something more substantial, the pot roast guiso is slow-cooked and seasoned with dried chiles, cumin, and cilantro — Tex-Mex inflected in the best possible way, and the kind of thing that hits differently at noon than it does at 10 p.m. The jalapeño popper meatloaf is exactly what it sounds like: a whole jalapeño popper tucked inside a slice of meatloaf served over mashed potatoes. It is excessive. It is very good. The pozole grits — made with hominy and enough cheese to make you pause — are an indulgence worth ordering once just to understand what Quiñones-Pittman is capable of when she is not trying to impress anyone.
The cocktail program is overseen by Carlos Marquez, Quiñones-Pittman’s partner at Oh Hi! Hospitality, and is built around accessibility as much as craft. The menu is divided into AM Standards, Analog Classics, FM Highballs, and Off The Dial — each section escalating in ambition. The French I-35 is cava, gin, elderflower, lemon, and Thai basil, which is the kind of drink that sounds like it was written on a napkin at midnight and turns out to be exactly right. The beer list is strong, which makes sense given that the owners spend most of their working lives in music venues.
Live bands play the backyard stage throughout the week. DJs run the indoor FM lounge. Happy hour runs weekdays from 3 to 6:30 p.m. with $7 cocktails, beer, and wine at both the indoor bar and the backyard. Hours are Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to midnight, Sunday until midnight, and Friday and Saturday until 2 a.m. For the full concert calendar follow @amfmlive on Instagram and the full menu and updates at @amfmdallas. More at amfmdallas.com.
