Lower Greenville has been waiting for a place like Walkers’ for a while, even if nobody said so out loud. Not another bar. Not another taco concept. Something that works at noon with a sandwich and a glass of wine, and then again at eight o’clock when you want to sit down to something serious.
Siblings Rosemary Walker-Greene and Russell Walker opened Walkers’ at 3016 Greenville Avenue on June 19th, and the name is exactly what it sounds like — a restaurant built around who they are and where they came from. Their grandmother Rosemary taught them both to cook. Her handwriting became the logo. Her recipes are printed on the deli wrap and framed throughout the dining room. Her photographs hang on the walls. It’s the kind of backstory that could feel like marketing if it weren’t so clearly the real thing.
Rosemary Walker-Greene is an Advanced Sommelier whose résumé includes The NoMad in New York and Los Angeles, Rustic Canyon in LA, and Carbone Dallas. She built the wine program. Russell Walker came from running a luxury wood flooring company and handles the operational side. Together they hired well: Chef Aldon Reyes ran the kitchen at Georgie and Le PasSage before this, and before Dallas he spent six years at Juniper & Ivy in San Diego, the Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant that made a serious reputation for ingredient-driven California cooking. The front of house runs through General Manager and certified sommelier Nancy Tran, who worked at PRESS and Charlie’s in Napa Valley and was at Le PasSage and Rose Café here in Dallas. The team is not an accident.
The space was designed by Los Angeles-based Kevin Klein Design, and it shows — curved stone bar, antique fixtures, rich fabrics, oak millwork throughout. It’s 1,360 square feet on the restaurant side, which keeps it intimate without feeling tight. Forty-three dining room seats, twelve at the bar, and two twelve-foot drink rails for the evenings when it’s running full. The market side adds another 950 square feet with a sandwich counter, a communal table near the entrance, and shelves stocked with specialty goods from Texas, California, New York, and Europe.
The concept shifts in three distinct moves. From 11am to 3pm it runs as a market and sandwich counter — made-to-order, counter service, grab-and-go available through close. The Italian sandwich — Lady Edison salumi, mortadella, provolone, hot giardiniera mayo, lettuce, tomato, vinegar and olive oil — is what people are talking about. They ran out of them on opening day. The turkey comes with Green Goddess, cheddar, avocado, and pickled onion, and the steak salad with mojo verde and cherry tomato is the right call if you want something lighter. The cherry tomato salad with barley, sherry vinaigrette, cucumber, celery, and lemon has already developed its own following.
At 4pm the wine bar opens. Twenty wines by the glass, all of them chosen with the kind of intentionality you’d expect from an Advanced Sommelier who spent formative years in Napa. The list leans European — Champagne, Burgundy, Jura — with California and Oregon filling out the edges. The bar bites that come with it are worth knowing: Spanish anchovy toast and beef tongue with crème fraîche and mojo verde. Simple things executed cleanly.
Dinner starts at 5pm and runs to 11, and this is where Aldon Reyes gets to show what he’s actually doing. The menu is seasonal and European-American in its bones, which in practice means it’s precise without being stiff. Pâté en croute with green strawberry and dijon is the kind of opener that signals immediately that this kitchen is paying attention. The Zeppo beets with berries and macadamia are better than a beet dish has any right to be. Agnolotti with English peas and sheep’s cheese is the pasta to order — delicate, properly made, the kind of dish that makes you slow down. The sourdough gnocchi with crab has been ordered twice at the same table on the same night by at least one early visitor, which tells you something.
On the larger plates, lamb with labneh and mint is the straightforward standout, and the skate wing with tomato and Calabrian chili is the dish for people who know what they’re doing when they order fish. The wagyu ribeye finished tableside with au jus is the room’s marquee plate — the server finishes it at the table and the whole thing lands with more ceremony than you might expect from a room this size. Golden chicken with chestnut mushroom and chard is the sleeper. Order it.
The cocktail program runs vermouth-forward and seasonal, which fits the rest of the beverage philosophy here — nothing gratuitous, everything considered. The retail market carries a rotating wine selection you can buy to take home, alongside the specialty grocery items. It’s a useful detail that makes the place more than a restaurant, which seems to be entirely the point.
Walkers’ is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11am to 11pm. Reservations are available and worth making for dinner. The address is 3016 Greenville Avenue, between Ridgedale and Marquita, next to Window Seat Coffee. The website is walkersbar-market.com.
Lower Greenville has had plenty of places to drink. Now it has a place to eat.
