Siblings Rosemary Walker-Greene and Russell Walker are opening Walkers’ at 3016 Greenville Avenue on June 19, and the concept is worth paying attention to before the neighborhood discovers it for itself.
Rosemary is an Advanced Sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers — a credential that requires years of structured study and a pass rate that hovers around 30 percent — and she spent time at The NoMad in New York, the Rustic Canyon family of restaurants in Los Angeles, and Carbone in Dallas. Russell built a wood flooring company serving the luxury design and architecture industry before deciding a restaurant made more sense. Together they have put together a dual-concept space: a market and sandwich counter that runs from 11 a.m. and a proper dinner restaurant that opens at 5 p.m. The same room does both, and the transition from one to the other is part of the idea.
During the day, the market side carries a focused selection of specialty goods — La Belle Vie from Austin, Austin Honey Company, Inez Olive Oil from Santa Ynez, Bonilla la Vista Potato Chips from Spain, Raazi Tea from Brooklyn — alongside made-to-order sandwiches and salads. The Italian with Lady Edison salumi, mortadella, provolone, hot giardiniera mayo, lettuce, tomato, vinegar, and olive oil is the one to start with. The Turkey with Green Goddess, cheddar, avocado, and pickled onion is the other. At 4 p.m. the wine bar opens — 20 selections by the glass and a bar snack menu that includes Spanish anchovy toast with butter and pickles, sturgeon with potato chips and caviar, and beef tongue with crème fraîche and mojo verde, which is a better bar snack menu than most dinner menus in this city.
Dinner is the full argument. Chef Aldon Reyes comes from Georgie and Le PasSage, before that six years at Juniper & Ivy in San Diego — a Michelin Bib Gourmand-recognized restaurant — and before that Le Cordon Bleu, with butchering skills passed down from his father. The dinner menu is seasonal and unfussy: pâté en croûte with green strawberry and dijon, agnolotti with English peas and sheep’s cheese, lamb with labneh and mint, golden chicken with chestnut mushroom and chard, skate wing with tomato and Calabrian chili. Nothing on it is trying too hard, which is a different kind of effort than most new restaurants manage.
Service is led by Nancy Tran, who came up through Michelin-starred PRESS in Napa Valley, where she was Service Director under a French Laundry alum, before moving to Dallas to run the teams at Le PasSage and Rose Café. The room was designed by Kevin Klein — whose credits include Short Stories in Los Angeles and The NoMad New York — around a curved stone bar, parquet floors, antique fixtures, and the kind of warm, unhurried light that makes an evening stretch.
The wine program is Rosemary’s. It leans toward small-production, sustainably minded wineries across France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, California, and Oregon, with a particular affinity for Champagne, the Northern Rhône, Jura, and Burgundy. A rotating retail selection runs at approachable price points for the neighborhood. The cocktail program is vermouth-driven and seasonal — if you’ve been waiting for a serious vermouth moment in Dallas, this is probably it.
Reservations available now for June 19 on OpenTable. Walkers’ is at 3016 Greenville Avenue, Dallas. Open Wednesday through Sunday. Market 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., wine bar 4 to 11 p.m., dinner 5 to 11 p.m. Phone: (469) 708-3200. Follow @walkersbar_market on Instagram.
