Deepak Chalise has been cooking at Cosmic Cafe since 1997. This past March, he opened the doors again — except this time his name is on the lease. Same room, same menu, same elephant statues at the foot of the stairs. He just finally owns it.
Chalise was born in Nepal and arrived in Dallas at 21. He started working at Cosmic Cafe in 1997 and spent the better part of two decades as the restaurant’s head chef, learning the menu, learning the rhythms of the place, and becoming as much a part of it as the Tibetan prayer flags on the front porch. When Cosmic Cafe closed in October 2021 — quietly, after 25-plus years on Oak Lawn — he kept working. He went back to school and finished his master’s degree. He saved money. He secured a loan. And when the time was right, he bought the restaurant from the owner who had been running it in its final years, and started the work of bringing it back.
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by Steven Doyle
