Three months after Beto & Son served its last liquid nitrogen margarita at Trinity Groves, Beto and Julian Rodarte are getting back in the kitchen together. It’s for one night only.
On Wednesday, Oct. 28, Dee’s Table at The Star in Frisco will host a Mexican-inspired dinner cooked by the father and son. Tickets are $95 per person, and cocktail pairings are included.
Anyone who spent a Saturday night waiting for a patio table at Beto & Son will understand what this dinner means. The Rodartes opened the restaurant in November 2016 in a West Dallas development full of short-lived concepts, and theirs became the one that lasted. Their pitch was what Julian called next-generation Mexican food: the Central Mexican dishes his father and grandmother cooked at home, made by a young chef who had just come out of the Culinary Institute of America. It turned out to be the most successful restaurant Trinity Groves ever produced.
People came for the tortillas made from scratch, the ceviche towers and the barbacoa enchiladas topped with a fried egg. More than anything, they came for the margaritas, frozen at the table with liquid nitrogen in a cloud of fog. Julian came up with that drink while he was still in culinary school, and it became the restaurant’s signature. The Rodartes also took their roasted carnitas noodle bowl onto Food Network’s Beat Bobby Flay.
Beto’s own story goes back much further. He was born in Mexico and grew up farming and raising sheep with his grandparents in Del Rio before going to culinary school and cooking in New York and California. In 1993 he helped Phil Romano launch Cozymel’s, then spent years with Brinker developing dishes as an innovation chef. Julian grew up in his father’s kitchens. Before Beto & Son, he trained under Dean Fearing at Fearing’s at the Ritz-Carlton, Dallas, and did corporate recipe development for national chains. Later he served as CEO of Trinity Groves.
This summer the family sold the lease, and Beto decided to retire after about 40 years in the business. Beto & Son closed after dinner on July 25. By then Julian had already moved to Dee Lincoln Concepts, where he is now culinary director for the group. That includes Dee Lincoln Prime, the steakhouse Lincoln opened at The Star in 2018, and Dee’s Table, her more casual spot a short walk away with a menu inspired by her Louisiana roots. Lincoln co-founded Del Frisco’s, and she’s still known around town as the Queen of Steaks.
So the Oct. 28 dinner is a reunion. Father and son will share a kitchen again, this time in Frisco, cooking the food that built their reputation.
The night begins with passed bites. There’s a Chicken Tinga Sope with mole rojo and pickled onions, and Tacos Suadero made with smoked beef, salsa macha and avocado. They’re paired with the Lotos y Limón, made with Casa Lotos sotol, lemon, honey and La Marca Prosecco.
Next comes a Stacked Shrimp Ceviche with avocado, red onion and jicama in a mango aguachile. It’s a nod to the ceviche towers that used to cover tables at Trinity Groves. The Redfish Veracruzano is served in a tomato sauce with olives, capers and poblanos and topped with pumpkin seed gremolata. It’s poured with a Socorro Skinny Prime Martini made with Socorro Blanco and pineapple. Socorro is the same tequila that went into Beto & Son’s Flora margarita.
The main course is a Pan Seared Wagyu Steak Divorciado, the steak split between two salsas the way huevos divorciados are, and served with sautéed wild mushrooms. That one comes with a Racho Mezcal Old Fashioned. Dessert is an Abuelita Chocolate Bread Pudding made with Abuelita, the Mexican drinking chocolate, and finished with a bourbon vanilla sauce. It’s paired with a pour of housemade Fireball.
Look at the menu as a whole and you can see the whole family story. There’s Mexican home cooking in the sope and the suadero, the Trinity Groves years in the ceviche, and a Wagyu steak served under Dee Lincoln’s roof.
Dee’s Table is at 3685 The Star Blvd., Suite 205, in Frisco. The dinner is $95 per person, and that includes the pairings. Reservations are available through OpenTable, or call the restaurant at 972-292-9930.
