Tag Archives: Brunch

Dinner, Brunch, and Everything In Between at Encina

Matt Balke grew up in Uvalde, a small ranching town near San Antonio where the Spanish name for the place was once Encina — holm oak. He left for Texas Tech, then changed course and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America, graduating salutatorian in 2007. None of that is what shaped him most. That came later, working under James Beard Award winner Sharon Hage at York Street in Dallas — the woman Balke credits as his real culinary education. After York Street, his path ran through Bolsa, The Rustic, SMOKE, and back to Bolsa as executive chef until its closure in early 2020.

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Brunch This Weekend at Frenchie, Ooh LaLa

Stephan Courseau and Daniele Garcia have been building French restaurants in Dallas since 2013. They are both French. They have both been here long enough to become something else — not exactly American, not exactly the version of themselves that landed in Texas over a decade ago, but something in between. Frenchie is them trying to put that feeling on a plate.

“Frenchie is an American French restaurant made by French guys who are now in the American mainstream,” Courseau said when it opened. “It represents the version of the French people we are today.” That is the kind of thing that sounds like marketing until you eat there and realize it is just true.

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One of Dallas’ Most Private Dining Rooms Is Open to Everyone This Mother’s Day

Most people in Dallas have walked past The Crescent, looked up at that postcard Uptown skyline, and assumed whatever is happening on the 17th floor of the office tower is none of their business. They are mostly right. The Crescent Club sits up there in the manner of a private club from another era — hardwood floors, deep wood paneling, panoramic views over the Dallas skyline — and on a normal day it is open only to members and hotel guests. Mother’s Day is not a normal day.

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The Charlotte on Henderson Is a Brunch Worth Planning Around

Wyl Lima grew up in Keene, Texas, which is not a place most people have heard of. It’s a small town built around Southwestern Adventist University, a school that draws students from over a hundred countries. Lima was born in Angola, moved to Texas at ten, and spent his formative years eating food that had nothing to do with what was on most Dallas menus — flavors from Africa, the Caribbean, Southeast Asia, South America, all of it cycling through a neighborhood that looked nothing like it from the outside.

He went to Chicago to learn technique. Michelin-starred Temporis, where he worked as chef de cuisine, gave him the structure. What he’d grown up eating gave him the instinct. When he came back to Dallas, first at Sister and then at The Charlotte, those two things finally got to work together in the same kitchen.

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Skip the Pancakes, Brunch at Beverley’s

You know a brunch spot is working when the valet is full, the front patio is full, and nobody at any of the tables seems in a hurry to leave. That is Beverley’s Bistro & Bar on a Saturday around noon. The food is the reason, but the mood is why people stay. A couple at the bar splitting a plate of caviar latkes and not saying much because they do not need to. A family of six crammed into a corner booth with three kinds of eggs between them. Somebody at the next table ordering a second glass of prosecco before their plates have been cleared. You walk in and you feel like you just showed up at a party that was already going.

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Barcelona Wine Bar Is Doing Brunch Right on Knox-Henderson

Most brunch menus feel like an afterthought — a few egg dishes bolted onto a dinner concept to fill weekend seats. Barcelona Wine Bar on Miller Avenue didn’t do that. Their Saturday and Sunday brunch runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and gives you the full tapas menu alongside dishes built specifically for the morning, which means you can order olive oil pancakes with cinnamon butter and a plate of gambas al ajillo at the same time. Nobody is stopping you.

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A Bangin’ Brunch at Garden Cafe

Dallas has no shortage of brunch options, and most weekends the same names cycle through every list — the Uptown spots, the Knox-Henderson regulars, the places with two-hour waits and bottomless mimosa deals that keep you there until 3pm whether you planned to be or not. Nothing wrong with any of that. But if you want something quieter, more personal, and honestly more interesting, you have to drive east.

Found into the historic Junius Heights neighborhood of Old East Dallas, Garden Cafe has been doing farm-to-table brunch since 2002 — before that phrase became a marketing term — and it remains one of the most genuinely singular dining experiences in the city. Most people outside the neighborhood still haven’t found it. That’s their loss and your opportunity.

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Brunch at Pillar in Bishop Arts

Brunch at Pillar is a meticulous orchestration of flavors, textures, and atmosphere. Chef Peja Krstic has taken beloved breakfast staples and transformed them into something artful, indulgent, and thoroughly unexpected—now elevated further with a thoughtfully curated beverage program that turns a Sunday meal into a full sensory immersion.

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