There's plenty to tell about Stephan Pyles Flora Street Cafe at Hall Arts, one of Dallas' most exciting restaurant openings of the year. The fine dining place comes from chef Stephan Pyles -- and stop me if you've heard this one -- who is one of Dallas' most lauded chefs. Pyles recently closed Stephan Pyles to open Flora Street Cafe.
But rather than tell you, can we show you instead?
Dallas Morning News photographers got a sneak peek inside the new restaurant, which has been hosting closed-to-the-public charity events for more than a week. It officially opens Tuesday, May 31, and reservations will get snatched up quickly.
Take a 360-degree virtual tour of Flora Street Cafe:
As you pan around the new restaurant in the interactive above, click or tap on the thumbnails to learn more.
A few highlights of chef Pyles' new restaurant:
- Play a game of peekaboo with the Shylight, a moving art installation that pops in and out of the ceiling, fluttering like a flower in the wind. "We can't afford a Picasso," Pyles jokes, "though we are in the Arts District." This dynamic piece is one of Pyles' ways to respect the aim of the Arts District: well, art. Pyles flew to Amsterdam to work with artists Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta and Jozeph Hendricks on the Shylight.
- Pyles had a smoker and grill installed in the open kitchen that adds some fire to his dramatic dining room. Pyles' focus is "sophisticated Texas" cuisine: a combination of "elevated Texas" and southwestern cuisine, the chef says, that includes plenty of cooking over open fire. One of the dishes he'll use the new grill for is his "deviled crab stuffed soft shell served with avocado flan, Texas grapefruit and crispy pig's ear." The soft-shell crab is grilled over pecan wood. Many of the dishes are a collaboration between Pyles and his new chef de cuisine Peter Barlow, reports Dallas Morning News restaurant critic Leslie Brenner.
- A lot of the dishes will be kissed by smoke, so the wines at Flora Street will compliment that. Almost all of sommelier Madeleine Thompson's wines are sourced from sustainable, small vineyards.
- You can't miss the big, colorful piece of art they call a "curtain" hanging on one wall. It's made of thousands of pieces of cut silk by U.S. artist Tim Harding. From afar, the curtain looks like a painting. But walk closer and you'll see the fabric texture.
- Flora Street's design dares you to look inside. The glassed-in restaurant is a showpiece located across the street from the Winspear Opera House and the Meyerson Symphony Center and next to the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadelupe. Arts District onlookers will likely notice the many white and clear chandeliers hanging in the window, designed to be "ghosts" of the grandiose chandeliers in traditional opera houses, according to a publicist.
Located at 2330 Flora Street, Suite 150, Dallas. Details.
See the menus:
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