Tag Archives: East Dallas

by Steven Doyle | October 27, 2026 · 12:34 pm

Vietnam Restaurant Has Fed East Dallas Since 1996, and It Deserves More Attention

The sign on Bryan Street doesn’t try very hard. No lemongrass, no lotus, no clever play on pho. It just says Vietnam, and it has said that since 1996.

Vietnam Restaurant sits at 4302 Bryan Street in Old East Dallas, a few blocks from the Fitzhugh corner that has become one of the more interesting eating intersections in town. It opened before Uptown filled in and before the revival east of downtown took hold. The building is older than the restaurant. So are some of the regulars.

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Tagged as Dallas, East Dallas, Family-owned, Pho, Restaurant, Vietnam Restaurant, Vietnamese, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | October 14, 2026 · 10:08 am

Maman To Open New Casa Linda Café Tomorrow

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.

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Tagged as Bakery, Casa Linda, Coffee, Dallas, East Dallas, French, Maman, Restaurant, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | October 12, 2026 · 12:02 pm

Alex Fletcher’s Rising Tides Is the Best Kind of East Dallas Dive

If you have had a good cocktail in Dallas any time in the last 15 years, there is a decent chance Alex Fletcher had a hand in it. He started as a barback at The Quarter Bar, then ran the bar programs at The Quarter, Bread Winners, Victor Tangos and the original Henry’s Majestic. Until late 2023 he was national beverage director for Hospitality Alliance, the group behind Toyota Music Factory and Victory Park, and his own company, Shaken + Stirred Hospitality, has partnered with places like Henry’s Majestic and Punch Bowl Social. A neighborhood dive on Garland Road might look like an odd next move for Dallas’ go-to cocktail guy.

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Tagged as Alex Fletcher, Cocktails, Dallas, Dive Bar, East Dallas, Rising Tides, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | September 21, 2026 · 4:05 pm

Kalachandji’s Is the Fair’s Best-Kept Warm-Up

The smartest State Fair days do not start at the gate. They start a few minutes away, across I-30 in the Mount Auburn neighborhood, with lunch at Kalachandji’s.

There is a logic to it. The next six hours are going to be fried, battered, dipped, sugared and served on a stick. A plate of dal, rice and fresh vegetables first is less about virtue than about pacing. It also happens to be one of the most peaceful rooms in the city.

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Tagged as Dallas, East Dallas, Kalachandji's, Krishna Temple, Restaurant, State Fair of texas, Texas, vegetarian

by Steven Doyle | September 15, 2026 · 4:54 pm

The Bar That Died in the Pandemic Just Came Back Stronger

Gabe Sanchez saved up for years to open the Black Swan Saloon. When he finally did, in 2010, he put it in Deep Ellum on West Elm Street and built it around a simple idea: artisan cocktails at working-man prices, served by someone who actually knew what he was doing. There was no menu. There was a velvet painting of Clint Eastwood behind the bar. The shelves were lined with house-infused liquors Gabe made himself — cold-brewed with farmers market fruit, nuts, coffee, whatever was right that week. You told him your spirit and your mood and he made something. People drove across town for it. Then they drove across town again.

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Tagged as Bar, Best Bar, Black Swan, Coctails, East Dallas, Gabe Sanchez, Saloon, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | August 13, 2026 · 2:13 pm

Lounge Here Turns Chicken Fried Steak Into a Dinner and a Brunch Dish

Lounge Here hides behind an unmarked strip center on Garland Road, the kind of exterior that gives away nothing about what’s happening inside. Walk through the door and the room drops you into a retro cocktail lounge, all plush banquettes, moody lighting and a mural by Rainer Judd, daughter of artist Donald Judd. Owner Julie Doyle, known around Dallas for co-founding Tripping Daisy and The Polyphonic Spree and running Good Records next door, built the place to feel like a different decade entirely. The kitchen backs that ambition up with some of the more serious Southern cooking in East Dallas.

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Tagged as Brunch, Chef, Chicken Fried Steak, Cocktails, Dallas, East Dallas, Lounge Here, Restaurant, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | July 22, 2026 · 11:43 am

Inside Strouderosa BBQ, East Dallas’s Quiet Barbecue Standout

Strouderosa BBQ started with a salsa recipe, not a smoker. Back in 2018, the founder was helping a friend run the iBBQ 4U food truck when he started experimenting with a Texas barbecue sauce that had a little more kick than what he’d grown up on. The samples went over well enough that he started canning it and handing it out to anyone who asked for more. That could have stayed a hobby indefinitely, but in January 2020 he was furloughed from his day job, and instead of waiting things out, he leaned all the way into the smoker.

What began as holiday meals for family turned into a Meals of the Week program, then catering, then a full storefront in the Lake Highlands corridor of East Dallas at 9090 Skillman Street.

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Tagged as BBQ, beer, Chef, Dallas, East Dallas, Inside Strouderosa BBQ, Restaurant, Strouderosa, What to do in Dallas

by Steven Doyle | June 30, 2026 · 1:02 pm

Humble Pie for All Your Holiday Pie Needs

Sean Jett grew up a few blocks from where his pie shop now sits. That detail matters more than it might seem to, because Humble: Simply Good Pies doesn’t read like a concept dreamed up by a consultant trying to chase a trend. It reads like a guy who grew up near White Rock Lake and decided the neighborhood needed a place that made pie the way his family always told him pie should be made — from scratch, with real butter, without apology for taking longer than it needs to.

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Tagged as Chef, Dallas, East Dallas, Humble Pie, Pie, Restaurant, What to do in Dallas