Khanh Nguyen started Zalat Pizza in Dallas back in 2015, and eleven years later the company is opening its 31st Texas location, this time in McKinney’s Heritage Village at 1720 N. Central Expressway, Suite 210, just south of Highway 380 on U.S. 75. For a brand that’s grown this far this fast, Zalat has held onto the same personality it launched with, which says something about how deliberately Nguyen has grown it.
Continue readingFiled under Steven Doyle
Oak & Stone opened its first Texas location in McKinney on May 19 — the Florida-based restaurant’s debut outside the Southeast after eight successful locations back home — and it has spent its first few weeks establishing itself as something McKinney didn’t quite have before: a 6,000-square-foot social restaurant built around the idea that eating and drinking should be interactive, unhurried, and a little unpredictable. Now, just a month in, the kitchen and bar team have introduced a summer cocktail program that leans into all three of those qualities. They’re calling them Poptails, they’re $15 each, and they involve a gourmet popsicle served directly in the glass.
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McKinney’s historic square is about 30 miles north of Dallas and worth every one of them. The buildings date to the 1800s, the shops are locally owned, and on a good weekend the whole thing hums in a way that’s hard to manufacture and easy to enjoy. Two days here goes fast.
The historic downtown square is the whole point of the trip — more than 120 shops and two dozen-plus restaurants packed into a walkable stretch of 19th-century buildings. Come on a Friday. Stay through Sunday. You won’t run out of things to do.
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Most people who end up at Square Burger in McKinney did not plan to be there. They were walking around the downtown square, realized they were hungry, and pushed open the door of a 1929 building on the corner of Kentucky and Virginia streets. What they found inside surprised them. It still does.
Brandon Horrocks and Craig Brundege opened this place in June 2010 with credentials that had no business ending up in a burger joint. Horrocks graduated at the top of his class from the Culinary Institute of America, did a fellowship at Wolfgang Puck’s Granita in Malibu, cooked in Mexico City, and worked Dallas rooms like Patrizio’s and Café Pacific. Brundege came through serious kitchens in San Francisco and Los Angeles — Providence, one of the best seafood restaurants on the West Coast, was on his résumé. They chose burgers. Specifically, they chose McKinney.
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Florida has been quietly building something worth paying attention to. Oak & Stone started in St. Petersburg in 2018, spent eight locations proving its concept worked, and then decided Texas was the next move. McKinney got the first one. It opens May 19 at 8575 W. University Drive in the West Grove development, and if you have been waiting for something genuinely different in North Texas, this is worth the drive up.
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Ruth Thompson was teaching cooking classes to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in McKinney in 2008 when the idea started taking shape. Not a program. Not a workshop. A real restaurant, with real jobs, real wages, and real customers who came because the food was good. It took four years to build the model and three more to open the first location. Thirteen years after those first cooking classes, Hugs Cafe opened its Dallas doors on December 8, 2025, and the people who work there will tell you exactly what it means to them.
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Oak & Stone, the elevated American restaurant known for bold flavors, genuine hospitality, and its self-pour tap wall experience, will make its Texas debut in McKinney in Spring 2026. The restaurant will be located at 8575 W. University Drive, Suite 150, McKinney, TX, welcoming guests for lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch.
Founded in Florida as part of the Artistry Restaurants family, Oak & Stone was built on a simple belief: people don’t just come to eat – they come to have an experience. The brand offers an elevated yet approachable dining experience where guests are invited to slow down and connect while enjoying housemade dishes and a robust drink program.
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Fire Bowl Café, a popular Austin-based Asian cuisine brand, is excited to announce the grand opening of its first North Texas location in McKinney! Known for its fresh and fully customizable stir-fry dishes, Fire Bowl officially opened at 4060 W University Dr, Suite 300 on April 24, 2025.
Owned by DLC Restaurant Holdings—the team behind Firo Pizza, Craft Pies Pizza, and Desperados Mexican Restaurant—Fire Bowl Café brings its signature “Stir Fry Your Way” concept to the DFW area. Since launching in Austin in 1996, Fire Bowl has been serving fast, fresh, and flavorful Asian-inspired meals made with premium ingredients and prepared to order in sizzling woks.
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