The lights went out at the downtown Neiman Marcus on Wednesday, September 30. After more than a century on Main Street, the flagship store closed for good, and the Zodiac Room on the sixth floor closed with it.
Some longtime customers showed up that last day dressed in black. A few left flowers at the entrance. That might sound dramatic if you never had lunch there. If you did, it makes perfect sense.
The good news came the next morning. Neiman Marcus announced that the Zodiac Room will live on at NorthPark Center. The NM Café on the store’s third floor is being turned into a new Zodiac Room, and it opens Thursday, November 20.
For newcomers, here’s what all the fuss is about.
The Zodiac Room opened in the 1950s and quickly became the place in Dallas to see and be seen at lunch. Stanley Marcus made the store a destination, and the restaurant upstairs was part of the show. Over the years the dining room welcomed names like Coco Chanel, Sophia Loren, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean.
Much of what people loved about it traces back to Helen Corbitt, the legendary food director Stanley Marcus brought in to run the store’s restaurants. She shaped the menu, and a good deal of the Zodiac Room’s food came from her kitchen and her cookbooks. Dallas cooks still make her dishes at home.
Lunch started the same way for decades. First came a small demitasse cup of hot chicken consommé, on the house. Then came the popovers, tall, puffed and hollow, still warm from the oven, with a ramekin of strawberry butter alongside. Plenty of regulars would tell you the popovers were the main event and everything after was a bonus.
The rest of the menu leaned ladylike and comforting. The mandarin orange soufflé was a signature, along with the Stanley Marcus pot roast. For generations of Dallas families, lunch there was how you marked a special occasion.
The NorthPark version won’t be a carbon copy, but Neiman’s says the bones will be there. The new room will borrow key design elements from the downtown original, including the turquoise walls, the plush banquettes and pieces of its one-of-a-kind art. The menu will add a few new items while keeping the classics: the chicken broth, the popovers with strawberry butter, the Stanley Marcus pot roast and the mandarin orange soufflé.
The timing is good, too. The Zodiac Room opens just ahead of the holidays, with a special holiday feast menu running from opening day through January 2, 2027.
It isn’t the only piece of downtown heading north. The Neiman Marcus Bridal Salon is moving to NorthPark’s lower level, with an opening expected in early December, and the store’s Santa tradition and several historic art pieces are making the trip as well.
Riding up to the sixth floor on Main Street is a memory now. The popovers, at least, are coming back, and plenty of Dallas will be lining up for them.
The Zodiac Room opens November 20 on the third floor of Neiman Marcus at NorthPark Center, 8687 N. Central Expressway in Dallas.
