Ask Toby Archibald to sum up Dallas dining in three words and he won’t make you wait. “Too much steak”. Then he went back to running one of the most personal restaurants in the city.
That restaurant is Quarter Acre, at 2023 Greenville Ave. on the lowest stretch of Lower Greenville, in the old Rapscallion space. Archibald opened it at the end of December 2022. It has since landed at No. 3 on Texas Monthly’s statewide list of best new restaurants and a spot in the Michelin Guide.
The name is New Zealand shorthand for the Kiwi dream: a house on a quarter acre, with a yard big enough for the kids to run around in. A restaurant of his own was Archibald’s version.
He grew up in Drury, south of Auckland, and spent 20 years cooking around the world. He was a sous chef at The Greenhouse in London when it held a Michelin star. He ran kitchens in Canada and on Bondi Beach in Sydney, and he cooked for Daniel Boulud in New York and Toronto.
The New York years are where Dallas comes in. Archibald met his future wife, a Dallas native, at an All Blacks match against the U.S. rugby team. New Zealand won, and he’d like you to know that. After a stretch of long distance and a Thanksgiving with her family in Dallas, they moved to Sydney together when his visa ran out. He proposed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
When it came time to settle down, they picked Dallas, close to her family and with a real shot at his own restaurant. They arrived in 2016. Archibald became chef de cuisine at Bullion downtown, then executive chef at Georgie by Curtis Stone on Knox, building the local résumé he needed to go out on his own.
Dallas firm Coeval Studio designed the room around his background. It’s airy and modern, and the Michelin inspectors described the look as part forest, part island. The kitchen calls its cooking playful takes on classic and nostalgic dishes, built on local produce and flavors from home.
The best way in is the Chef’s Tasting, seven courses that change by the day and the season, mixing house standbys with one-off dishes. It runs Tuesday through Saturday in the dining room or at the bar, no advance booking needed, and takes about two hours. Tuesday through Thursday there’s also a shorter five-course version for diners on a clock.
The a la carte menu opens with one- and two-bite snacks. On a recent menu that meant a cauliflower pani puri with truffle and triple-crème brie, a potato dauphine with coppa and espresso, and Fish on Chip, smoked kingfish and caviar in a two-bite play on fish and chips.
The Smoked Beef Tartar, with an olive oil emulsion, black mustard and crispy shallots, has been on the menu since opening. Texas Monthly described it arriving under a glass dome in a cloud of smoke. The Kingfish Ceviche with coconut, lime and chili jam goes back to the start too.
Then there’s Harry’s Sausage Sizzle, about as Kiwi as it gets. Every New Zealander knows the sausage sizzle, the sausage-on-white-bread fundraiser outside hardware stores and school fairs. Archibald’s comes with ramp butter, braised onions and green tomato ketchup.
He calls the hot-smoked New Zealand salmon his signature, a dish that goes back to his family sitting around with freshly smoked fish, good bread and a salad. On a recent menu it came with fried bread, sea and soil lettuce, turnip and shallot cream. The N.Z. lamb loin with smoked chanterelles and toasted hay foam carries the same homesick streak, while ricotta gnudi with Texas butternut squash and miso caramel leans local.
Dessert is where the Kiwi references get fun. Hokey Pokey Ice Cream, New Zealand’s honeycomb-toffee classic, gets burnt Oak Cliff honey and manuka honey. Similar to a Pavlova takes on the meringue Kiwis and Aussies still fight over, with coconut, kaffir lime caviar and lemongrass sorbet. Ginger brandy snaps come filled with vanilla chantilly.
At the bar, look for the Kiwi Smash, a Yuzu Boulevardier and a PB&J Manhattan made with Dalmore 12 scotch, blackberry and black walnut. A Garden Hour menu covers classic cocktails, wine by the glass and a snack board.
General manager Jacob Fergus is a North Texas native who has never worked outside restaurants, starting on the floor at an Olive Garden. He later poured from Bullion’s all-French cellar and was assistant wine director at Monarch, and he built Quarter Acre’s wine list with a lean toward the Southern Hemisphere. Sous chef Gosha Kalashnikov grew up in Russia and cooked in Moscow with Michelin-starred chef Evgeny Vikentev, and the restaurant credits him with keeping the menu moving.
Texas seasons took some adjusting. Archibald has said he had to reset his internal food clock the first time someone told him tomatoes were back in season with Thanksgiving around the corner. As a seafood-loving Kiwi, he’s also had to cook a long way from any ocean, and he seems to enjoy the challenge.
Off the clock, he’s a Dallas family man. He takes his wife, their young daughter and the dog to the Trinity River, where the dog tears through the tall grass after birds, and he’s a regular at Dallas Trinity FC games at the Cotton Bowl, where his daughter marvels at how fast the players run.
When the Michelin Guide asked him to describe Quarter Acre in a few words, he picked a line that suits a Kiwi in Texas: “A little piece of VERY southern hospitality and the world, in Dallas.”
Quarter Acre is at 2023 Greenville Ave., Suite 110, Dallas. It’s open for dinner Tuesday through Thursday from 5 to 9:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 10:30 p.m., closed Sunday and Monday. Call 214-647-1616 or book at quarteracrerestaurant.com.
