Come November, the old Meyboom Brasserie spot on Greenville Avenue is going to look and feel like a completely different place. Fonda Toro moves in at 2100 Greenville Ave., and if you’ve been watching that corner since the Belgian beer hall closed last year, the wait is just about over.
The people behind it are Mauricio Gallegos and John Paul Valverde, both East Dallas residents, both with enough of a track record that this isn’t a gamble so much as a next move.
Gallegos runs Cultivo Hospitality, which includes Xamán Café and Ayahuasca Cantina in Oak Cliff — the speakeasy behind the coffee shop on Jefferson Boulevard that Esquire named one of the 42 Best Bars in America in 2024. Ayahuasca also earned a James Beard Award nomination for Outstanding Bar this year, which is the kind of recognition that takes years to build toward. Gallegos also opened Puerto Cocina & Bar in the Design District in December 2025. He knows what he’s doing with Mexican food and drink, and none of it involves a frozen margarita machine.
Valverde is the creative director of Coeval Studio, the design firm he co-founded in 2008. Spend enough time eating in East Dallas and you’ve already been inside his work — Fortune House, Quarter Acre, Hendy’s on Henderson, Boogies, The Rustic, Happiest Hour, and Stirr all came out of his studio. At Fonda Toro, he’s working to restore the original terrazzo floors that were under the Meyboom build-out, adding a Japanese garden in the back, and opening up a new patio. Total renovation runs about 3,261 square feet at an estimated $375,000, per state licensing filings.
Valverde has been careful about how he describes the food. Not Tex-Mex, not fusion. He told the Lakewood Advocate to think of it like a neighborhood bistro, “but instead of it being very French inspired, it’s mostly Central American inspired, and you could get anything.” His goal, he said, is a place people come back to on a Tuesday as easily as a Saturday — dressed up or in jeans, for a quick bite or to linger.
The menu runs 30 dishes. Aguachile divorciados comes split down the middle, shrimp in verde on one side and octopus in rojo on the other. There’s a single A5 wagyu taco on a flour tortilla with salsa martajada and charred onion, cacio e pepe built with chiltepín toasted tableside, and flan de cajeta finished with white miso and sea salt. Also on the list: baja fish tacos al pastor, rib-eye carpaccio, and lobster enchiladas. Appetizers run $17 to $19, tacos start at $18, a flank steak lands around $32, and sushi plates run $16 to $22.
The sushi bar is in the back and isn’t an accident. It fits with the bar program, which pulls from Italian amaros and Mexican agave spirits and uses Japanese technique in the cocktails. The wine list runs 30 bottles — natural wines, sherry, orange wine, sake — and non-alcoholic options are getting real attention rather than a token spot on the menu.
Fonda Toro opens in November at 2100 Greenville Ave., directly across from the Trader Joe’s. No exact date or reservation system has been announced. Follow @fondatorodallas on Instagram for updates.
Also coming to Greenville Ave.
