East Dallas gets its second maman in six months on Thursday, Oct. 15, when the New York-born café and bakery opens at Casa Linda Plaza. Doors open at 8 a.m. at 1152 N. Buckner Blvd., Suite 124, in the space Schlotzsky’s held for years.
This is the fourth North Texas address for the brand. Maman made its Texas debut at The Plaza at Preston Center last November, opened in Lakewood’s Hillside Village in April and followed with a café at Legacy East in Plano in August. Southlake and The Seam in the Design District are still on the way.
Casa Linda makes sense for a company that likes a little history with its croissants. The Spanish Revival center at Garland Road and Buckner went up in 1945, and it carries the distinction of being the oldest shopping center in Dallas. The tile roofs are still there. So is Elliott’s Hardware. The plaza lost the Casa Linda Cafeteria back in 2007, and East Dallas has been waiting a long time for another daytime spot on that corner where people show up for coffee and stay for the conversation.
The new café runs 2,366 square feet with seats for 50 inside and another 12 on the patio. The counter pours maman’s full espresso and tea program alongside housemade pastries and savory plates cooked to order. Everything is available for dine-in, and the maman app handles pickup and delivery.
Hours are 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Plan accordingly if you’re after lunch, because the kitchen closes at 4 p.m. every day.
Co-founders Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte opened the first maman in SoHo in October 2014, naming it for the French word for mother and building the menu around recipes from their own mothers’ kitchens. The company now has around 60 cafés across the U.S. and Canada, and the two still design the rooms themselves.
Casa Linda gets the full South of France provincial treatment. Expect vintage furniture, warm wood, the brand’s signature blue toile and espresso machines custom-printed in that same toile. Floratorium built the floral installations around the Texas bluebonnet. Outside, muralist Joel Haynes covered the facade in flowers, which means you won’t have any trouble finding it from Buckner.
The menu includes three items you’ll only find at the Dallas-area cafés. The Magnolia Sweet Tea Fizz is cold-steeped magnolia bud tea cut with Topo Chico, sweetened with Texas wildflower honey syrup and finished with lemon and fresh mint. The Lone Star Cinnamon Bun gets a vanilla glaze and a pastry star on top, and the Salted Caramel Pecan Pie Roll swirls salted caramel and vanilla through a soft, buttery dough with toasted pecans.
The fall menu is running too. The Blueberry Lavender Muffin, topped with a buttery crumble and powdered sugar, is the first muffin maman has ever put in its pastry case. The Pumpkin Pie Croissant Cube is a laminated cube filled with pumpkin pie buttercream, capped with torched meringue and dusted with pie crust crumbles. For something to drink, the Maple French Toast Latte builds on a reduction of Grade A dark maple syrup infused with butter, vanilla bean, cinnamon, nutmeg and fleur de sel.
Regulars from Preston Center will find the standbys, including the Nutty Chocolate Chip Cookie that made Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2017. The shelves will also carry retail goods and items from the brand’s ongoing collaboration with Martha Stewart, plus coffee, tea, matcha and copies of the maman cookbook. Catering is available out of this location as well.
Marshall said in announcing the opening that the team hopes the café becomes “our neighbors’ home away from home.”
Opening day starts with an 8 a.m. ribbon-cutting. The first 100 guests to buy anything walk out with a free maman tote and a classic chocolate chip cookie. Charmed Haven sets up a pop-up from 10 a.m. to noon, with a free croissant charm for the first 50 guests who spend $20. Yarn & Co. takes over from 1 to 3 p.m.
Maman Casa Linda is at 1152 N. Buckner Blvd., Suite 124, Dallas. Menus and app ordering are at mamannyc.com, and the company posts updates on Instagram at @mamannyc.
