Kent Rathbun has been one of the defining names in Dallas dining for the better part of three decades. He opened Abacus in 1999, followed it with Jasper’s in 2003, cooked for Queen Elizabeth and the Bush inaugural ball, beat Bobby Flay on Iron Chef America in 2008, and built a reputation that still carries weight in a city that moves on fast. These days he runs a catering operation and a BBQ venture with his wife Tracy, consults for a growing number of clients, and is in the early stages of a new restaurant project in Burleson that has his fingerprints all over it.
The concept is called On the Rocks, and it’s a partnership with Jason Benouared and his wife Renee, whose family has operated La Bistro Italian Grill in Hurst for more than four decades. The new restaurant takes the Italian foundation their family built and adds something genuinely different: a hot stone cooking experience built around a specific stone harvested from Australia, capable of being superheated to 800 degrees, brought to your table on a porcelain platter so you finish cooking your own steak, chop, or seafood one piece at a time. Rathbun is coming in as culinary director — designing the menu, helping open the restaurant, and maintaining an ongoing consulting relationship from there.
I called him recently to talk about it. He was in the middle of getting short ribs going, which tells you everything you need to know about the man.
You’ve been doing a lot of consulting work since closing Abacus and Jasper’s. Is that by design, or did it just evolve that way?
“I’ve always done a lot of consulting, honestly. And now that Tracy’s freed up, she’s with me on the consulting side too. We have a number of different clients. This announcement — On the Rocks — is one of them. I’ve been very careful since my, let’s call it my name debacle, about people using my name. But this is a contracted situation where I’m happy to let that happen for the time I’m working with them, and it looks like it’s going to be something that continues.”
So what does the culinary director role actually mean day to day?
“I want to be clear about this — I won’t be there every night. I’m going to be responsible for putting the menu together, helping get the place open, building the team, and then I have a maintenance agreement with them where I come in, check on things, add new items, all of that. I’ve been working in the kitchen for 51 years. I don’t want to be tied to a stove again. I want to enjoy my family. But I still love what I do. This is how I keep doing it on my own terms.”
Tell me about the concept. What is On the Rocks, exactly?
“It’s an Italian restaurant first. And I’ve spent a lot of time in Italy over the years. I actually ran the kitchen at an Italian restaurant up in Kansas City called Milano early in my career. And whenever Tracy and I go to Italy, we rent villas, and we end up cooking for the group almost every other night. So I’ve got a pretty solid feel for it. The menu will be rooted in Italian — real Italian, not the Americanized version. Seasonal ingredients, local sourcing where we can, the things Jason’s family has always done well at La Bistro in Hurst: veal piccata, chicken parmesan, good red sauces. But there’s plenty I’ve got in mind that will push it somewhere a little different.”
And then there’s the stone element.
“Yeah, that’s Jason’s thing and it’s really cool. His family developed this over the years. It’s a stone harvested from Australia — the properties of it allow it to be superheated, and he’s actually had ovens designed that take it to 800 degrees. The stone comes out on a porcelain platter with a metal shield underneath it. We season the stone, and your steak comes out on it — sort of raw. You cut a piece off and cook it right there, one piece at a time, while the rest of it sits on the stone. The bulk of the menu will be steaks, seafood, and chops, some cooked on the stone, some done traditionally. We’ve got a lot of fun ideas around this thing.”
Burleson is a bit of a drive from Dallas. What’s the draw out there?
“You know, it’s right on this street in downtown Burleson where they run a street market every Saturday — six to ten thousand people come through. We’re going to have a real presence out there. You’ll probably see the BBQ trailer, we’ll be selling fresh pasta, pasta sauces, maybe my seasonings. There are concerts right outside the door. And look — 45 minutes is nothing if you live in Dallas and you’re trying to get from your house to Plano on a Friday night. You could spend that sitting at Northwest Highway and Skillman. I’d tell people to make a day of it. Hit the street market, find a little place to stay, come back for dinner.”
You’ve also talked about reviving some Abacus and Jasper’s dinner experiences. Can you say anything about that?
“We’re going to continue those. We did a full Abacus menu — told stories about each dish, talked about the people we worked with and how it all started. It was a good time. We’re going to call them Abacus Revisited and Jasper’s Revisited. I can’t give you all the details on locations just yet, but we’re moving forward with it. People still talk about Abacus every single day. Every time I meet someone, it comes up. I don’t always realize how important that restaurant was to people until I’m standing in front of them and see it on their face.”
Do you think Dallas can still produce restaurants at that level?
“That era of restaurant is sort of not around anymore, and I hate saying that. A lot of it comes down to what everything costs now. Beef, labor costs more than it used to. The economics are just brutal. I feel like I’m one of the more blessed guys in this town because I still feel relevant. I’m in the same conversation with Stephan (Pyles) and Dean (Fearing), and I don’t take that lightly. We trained a lot of people in those kitchens who’ve gone on to do great things, and that means something to me. I still love what I do, and that’s the best part of all of it.”
On the Rocks is expected to open in downtown Burleson. Follow Kent Rathbun at chefkentrathbun.com for updates on the opening and the upcoming Abacus Revisited and Jasper’s Revisited dinner series. Read about Rathbun Curbside BBQ Here.
