Torry Cray and Adrian Verdin (we’ve followed Verdin through his hospitality career and he’s a keeper) have been on quite a run. Three restaurants in one year, all under the Café Olivia name, and this one might be the most interesting of the bunch. Café Olivita opens in early October at Park Center in Plano, and it’s not just a smaller version of the original. It’s Café Olivia rethinking what it means to serve an office building.
The space sits at 2400 Dallas Parkway, inside a five-story building Shaddock Companies bought last year and has spent months turning into something office workers might actually want to linger in. New tenant lounge, a conference center, upgraded parking, the whole repositioning. Café Olivita is the piece of that renovation people will actually taste.
At about 2,335 square feet with room for 67 guests, it’s noticeably smaller than the original Café Olivia, and that was on purpose. Verdin has said the idea was to bring the same chef-driven approach into office communities without losing what makes Café Olivia feel worth visiting in the first place. Not a grab-and-go counter. A real place to sit down, whether that’s breakfast before a 9 a.m. meeting or a lunch that runs a little long.
Wallace Johnson Studio designed the space with a coastal Mediterranean feel, terracotta and sage green tile, white countertops, natural wood tables, warm grey floors underneath it all. Nothing loud. Just the kind of room that makes an office building feel less like an office building for the twenty minutes you’re in it.
The menu keeps Café Olivia’s greatest hits alongside a few things built specifically for this format. The Rising Pig and Oaxaca Mornings cover breakfast, The Olivia sandwich and the Amalfi hold down lunch, and the Grain Bowl, Miso Salmon, and Green Goddess Cobb give the health-conscious office crowd something worth actually looking forward to instead of dreading. On the drink side, the Pink Cloud, the Olivia Latte, and the Valencia Bloom round out a beverage program that’s clearly gotten just as much attention as the food.
Jeff Patman, speaking for the Shaddock ownership team, called Café Olivita the centerpiece of what they’re trying to do with the whole building, a place tenants can actually walk to instead of driving off campus for a decent meal. That’s really the whole pitch here. Office food doesn’t have to be an afterthought, and Cray and Verdin are betting Plano’s Willow Bend corridor is ready to prove it.
Café Olivita opens in early October at 2400 Dallas Parkway, Suite 140, in Plano, open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
