Flora Street Cafe, Stephan Pyles' elegant restaurant in the Dallas Arts District, is about to be carved into two different restaurants: One expensive, exclusive and formal, the other a casual spot where you can even grab brunch.
Starting with Monday's lunch service, the main dining room will toss away the white tablecloths and heavy silver and become a looser, less expensive version of Flora Street Cafe, Pyles' lauded venue for Modern Texas cuisine. This is the update Pyles promised back in December, when he joined forces with chef Tim Byres, formerly of Smoke, with plans to "casualize" one of Dallas' most prominent dining destinations. Dinner will get a casual remake a week later, starting April 8.
But, Pyles revealed today, that is only part of the plan. By the end of the month, Flora Street's private dining room will be transformed into a separate, art-filled, restaurant-within-a-restaurant featuring a 10- to 12-course tasting menu and a chef new to the Dallas dining scene. A chef that Pyles may hire tonight.
"We wanted someone very progressive and innovative and kind of the-sky's-the-limit," Pyles said. There are three finalists for the job — from Washington D.C., Seattle and Chicago — each either a second-in-command at a major restaurant or an executive chef on the verge of stardom, he said.
In a trial by fire, each chef flew to Dallas to cook a seven-course meal for Pyles and Byres that showcased individual style but also used Texas ingredients, including chilies, hoja santa, huitlacoche and, in one case, chapulines, the savory grasshoppers traditional in regional Mexican cooking. "We're doing the last tasting today," Pyles said. "And we'll make decision probably tonight."
Pyles is transforming the former pastry kitchen at Flora Street into a separate kitchen for what is tentatively being called the Tasting Room at Flora Street Cafe. He wants the 16-seat restaurant to preserve an element of fine dining at Flora Street, which earned a five-star review from the Dallas Morning News in 2017, while also introducing talent from outside of the city.
"You don't keep these highly innovative, creative people for more than a year or two," said Pyles, who knows that from experience. Plenty of Dallas' leading chefs — including Byres, Matt McCallister, who is about to open Homewood, and J Chastain, of the Charles — have worked in Pyles' kitchens, and now he hopes the Tasting Room will be a launch pad. The multicourse menu will be $250 per person, including wine pairings; the same as the current Flora Street tasting menu.
Prices for the new casual lunch and dinner menus at Flora Street Cafe will be 20 to 25 percent lower than the current a la carte menus, with appetizers ranging from $12 to $22 and main courses in the $20s and $30s, he said.
Flora Street will still serve Modern Texas cuisine, a style that Pyles pioneered in the 1980s and that Byres advanced with his live-fire restaurant Smoke in Oak Cliff. The dining room will keep the power decor — the wall of windows, the serious artwork and the open kitchen — but on Monday at lunch, without a pause in the schedule, "we'll flip the switch," Pyles said, and begin offering the new menu. "We'll be doing some ceviches and some signature dishes from my restaurants and from Tim's, but that we've refined. I want to keep it a refined experience."
Though the menu is still being developed, Pyles said to expect a selection of beef, poultry and seafood, perhaps tilting more heavily toward beef. He might do flatbreads or pizza in the bar. And he's considering bringing back some old favorites, such as his cowboy rib-eye steak. Don't worry: The Lobster Tamale Pie will still be there, served in a crystal chalice with an ancho-dusted disk of sugar balancing paddlefish roe and other small wonders over chunks of butter-poached lobster and rich corn custard.
"What I miss is just doing a really simple great roast chicken," Pyles said. "Now, when we do chicken it has to be fancy roulades, or it has to be pheasant or duck or squab. I think we can do some really good basics and some braised meats too."
The first brunch was served on Sunday and if it is a preview, the plates look as pretty as ever. Familiar dishes include Pyles' Tamale Tart with Roast Garlic Custard and Byers' Heavy Handed Blueberry Pancakes with Vanilla Poached Apricots.
There are also avocado huaraches, created as a spin on avocado toast, as well as causas with deviled quail egg, shrimp and rocoto aioli; pulled pork barbecue eggs benedict; huevos rancheros made with duck eggs and duck confit chorizo; and a coconut chia seed bowl with berries, pistachio, caramelized banana and maple coconut cream. Prices range from $7 to $22.
"I don't think I've done a brunch since Baby Routh," Pyles said, referring to the restaurant he opened here in 1986. "It's great fun and I'm loving it."
Pyles' enthusiasm comes after a tough 2018 for both chefs. Pyles closed his Uptown restaurant Stampede 66 and reopened a version of it in Allen, in an agreement with Benchmark Resorts and Hotels. Byres left Smoke when it was sold to the Belmont Hotel, and before that, closed the Theodore in NorthPark Center and Tight Quarters, a grain-bowl stall in Plano's Legacy Hall. The Dallas Observer reported that Byres was part of a hospitality group named in lawsuits and tax leins over unpaid rent.
In an interview at the end of last year, Pyles said: "If I've learned anything in last 35 years of owning restaurants, it's that I cannot predict the future of dining. But I've never seen the Dallas market like this — so competitive and so turbulent."
Taking a high-low approach within the same restaurant is strategy shared with chefs around the country. José Andrés, in particular, embraces the format, with Somni, a $235 tasting counter within the Bazaar, his sprawling Spanish restaurant in Los Angeles, and é by José Andrés, a $275 tasting counter within his complex of casual restaurants in Las Vegas. Here in Dallas, Regino Rojas opened the $120 Purépecha Room behind Revolver Taco Lounge in Deep Ellum, while Misti Norris switched the formula up, transforming her casual restaurant Petra and the Beast into a $125 tasting-menu experience on Saturday nights.
What is Pyles' vision for his high-low concept?
"In a word, successful," he said.
Updated on March 26, to add rollout plans for the new Flora Street Cafe dinner menu and to correct the brunch day to Sunday.
