Update: Shortly after this story published, Diego Fernandez, the chef at Fauna, sent a text saying he is "no longer the chef at Fauna or affiliated with Stephan Pyles." Chef Stephan Pyles later followed with his own announcement: Peter Barlow, a former chef de cuisine at Flora Street Cafe, will be the new chef at Fauna, starting on Thursday. Additional details have been added at the end of the article.
Is there anything that Stephan Pyles hasn't shaken up at his grand flagship restaurant, Flora Street Cafe?
Today's news: The Arts District restaurant has a new executive chef, Ross Demers, who was most recently the executive chef at Beverley's, a stylish new bistro in Knox Henderson.
In the past few months, Pyles added in a phone interview, he has also replaced Flora Street's general manager and sommelier with two big names on the Dallas dining scene: Paul Pinnell and Rudy Mikula.
All of that is on top of Tuesday's news that Tim Byres, the major talent behind the bygone Smoke restaurants, has left his position as Pyles' managing director.
And then there is the official news that we called him to talk about: On Thursday, Flora Street will strip away the white tablecloths and pricey tasting menus in favor of a more casual, less expensive a la carte experience at dinner.
That's a lot of change coming hard and fast, to put it mildly. But Pyles, who has always made reinvention a part of his business plan, denied problems at Flora Street, apart from getting through the usual summer doldrums.
"You bring up all these changes and you scared me a little!" Pyles said, with a laugh. "No, it's actually very good change. ... It's the restaurant business, changes happen, and I'm probably less concerned than most. It's more raucous than typical, but it feels pretty natural to me."
At least some of it was by design. "Casualizing" the dinner service is the last step in a transformation that Pyles began back in December, an effort that has turned Flora Street into two entirely separate operations with two new chefs at the helm.
Now there is the looser version of Flora Street, which debuted new lunch and Sunday brunch menus before Demers came on board six weeks ago. And an ultra-luxury, restaurant-within-a-restaurant called Fauna, which opened in June featuring a $150, 12-course tasting menu prepared by Diego Fernandez, a chef from Alinea, Grant Achatz's modernist, Michelin three-star restaurant in Chicago.
When it opened in 2016, Flora Street was instantly among the city's top-tier restaurants. It earned a five-star review from The Dallas Morning News, the highest rating at the time, for its refined renditions of modern Texas cuisine and elegant, art-filled dining room. Pyles' restaurants — including the now-closed Stephan Pyles and Samar — also have a tradition of bringing in new talent who go on to do great things on the Dallas dining scene, including Homewood's Matt McCallister, J Chastain of the Charles, and Byres.
Until recently, Flora Street has been run by two co-executive chefs, Cody Sharp and Evan Pemberton. Pemberton departed about three months ago, Pyles said, to join the staff at Roister in Chicago, which is also owned by Achatz. Sharp left more recently to do consulting work, Pyles said. Six months ago, Pyles' longtime business partner, George Majdalani, who Pyles said "has been with me since 1994, when he was GM at Star Canyon," departed and was replace by Byres.
Got all of that?
Unlike the past, Flora Street 2.0 will be helmed by Dallas veterans. The new general manager, Pinnell, has a long history in the city that includes Nana at the Hilton Anatole and Dali Wine Bar. The sommelier, Mikula, came to Dallas from Per Se in New York City and then worked at Nana, Hibiscus and Savor. The wine program will undergo a similar shift in tone, Pyles said, with a list featuring lighter and more affordable selections.
Demers, the new executive chef, has passed through numerous Dallas kitchens, including Oak, Spoon, On the Lamb and the Mansion on Turtle Creek. More recently he headed up Local Traveler in East Dallas, where he said of the menu, "I'm not stuck in a certain genre of cooking." There, his menu ranged from ceviche to pizzas and house-made pastas. Until six weeks ago, he was executive chef at Beverley's, picking up where consulting chef Josh Sutcliff left off on a menu that rambled from French to Texan to Jewish dishes.
So perhaps it's no surprise that the new menu at Flora Street describes a more global approach, with dishes divided into four sections: Shareables, Ceviches, Masas, Summer Fresh and Large Plates.
Many of the shareables items, all $12, are taken from the Samar menu, including lentil cake with beet yogurt, marinated Manchego with olives and marcona almonds, and naan with an assortment of Middle Eastern spreads.
Ceviches include salmon Veracruzana and scallops with aji Amarillo. Masa dishes — think fried squid tacos and avocado huaraches — and are all $14, with the exception of the lone Flora Street holdover, lobster tamale pie, which is $24.
An appealing menu of seasonal dishes, $22 and under, includes tomato-watermelon salad with stracchiatella, the shaggy version of mozzarella cheese, Alaskan king crab with Crowder peas and tomato chutney, and summer squash cavatelli.
Large plates start at $24 for pasilla-braised rabbit with toasted gnocchi and top out at $39 for smoked prime rib made with Texas Akaushi beef.
Down the road, there are more casual changes in store, Pyles said. For example, he will soon add "larger, rustic tables" for bigger groups and floral short-sleeved shirts for the wait staff.
And will it be stable after that? We'll have to wait and see.
Update: We didn't have to wait long. Hours after we spoke with Pyles, Fernandez was out as executive chef at Fauna. Fernandez, who told the Dallas Morning News of his departure in a text, would not comment further until after consulting attorneys.
Fauna's new chef will be Peter Barlow, a former chef de cuisine at Flora Street Cafe and the founder of Niteshade Chef Collaborative, Pyles announced shortly after.
Pyles said he met with Fernandez on Wednesday afternoon to discuss changing Fauna from a five-night-a-week restaurant to one that is only open on weekends. "Fauna is very busy on weekends, but not on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday in the summer," Pyles said. "We brought in a full-time annual salary chef and that doesn't make sense now. So we both came to the agreement that he would pursue other interests."
"We pursued several options," Pyles added, including having Fernandez continue at a reduced salary, "and this is what we agreed on. He's a talented guy. He'll do well."
Pyles said Barlow will begin immediately, starting with dinner on Thursday night, when Fauna has six seats out of 16 booked. Then the Friday-Saturday schedule will begin with both days already sold out. Liam Byres, Fauna's sous chef and Tim Byres' son, will continue as sous chef and Aaron Benson will remain Fauna's sommelier.
Barlow will bring a more regional focus to the menu, Pyles said, with modern interpretations of moles and masa dishes. Barlow worked in restaurants in Tennessee before coming to Flora Street in 2016, and was chef de cuisine when the restaurant earned a five-star review from the Dallas Morning News the following year.
He will be Fauna's executive chef through the fall, when additional nights may be added to the schedule. "We will evaluate in the busy season whether and how much to expand services," Pyles said in an email. "I would be quite content with two very special nights a week. We would like to have guest chef appearances as well."
Asked if he still feels this intense period of departures and resets at Flora Street is good, Pyles replied: "I feel no different than I did when we talked earlier. I've been in the business 35 years and I know what change is. It's periodic. It's shattering at some points. And I've gotten beyond that. Change is good."
