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Food

Chef leaves Legacy Hall, expects to open Asian restaurant near SMU and in Farmers Branch

Red Stix Asian Street Food is taking its restaurant down the road.

Chef Uno Immanivong plans to close Red Stix at Legacy Hall in Plano on March 24. Next, she'll open new restaurants under the same name on Hillcrest Avenue, near Southern Methodist University in Dallas; and near Valley View Lane and Interstate 35E, in a development called Mustang Station in Farmers Branch.

Chef Uno Immanivong left Chino Chinatown in Trinity Groves in 2018 and is now taking her Red...
Chef Uno Immanivong left Chino Chinatown in Trinity Groves in 2018 and is now taking her Red Stix Asian Street Food to two new locations in North Texas.(Jerry McClure / Special Contributor)

Immanivong considers this move, from a food stall to two restaurants, a graduation. Chefs in food halls are often testing out new concepts or growing a brand, and Immanivong says that was her mission when she opened Red Stix at the Plano food hall. Before that, she opened Chino Chinatown in Trinity Groves, a restaurant park where chefs get financing and advice from seasoned restaurateurs like Phil Romano (Romano's Macaroni Grill, among many others) and Bob Sambol (Bob's Steak and Chop House). Chino Chinatown is still in operation but Immanivong left the restaurant in August 2018.

"Now it's time to take a chance on myself," Immanivong says. "It's time to have my own autonomy, to grow faster and better."

She joins a fleet of chefs who have vacated Legacy Hall, as our restaurant critic Michalene Busico has reported.

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Immanivong is Laotian and was born in a refugee camp in Thailand before her parents moved to the United States. As an adult, she worked in banking for 16 years, in part because her parents expected her to have an office job, she says — she was chasing a version of the American Dream. Six years ago, she left the banking industry and got into restaurants, even appearing on ABC show The Taste with Anthony Bourdain as her mentor in 2013.

Red Stix is her Asian restaurant with rice bowls, bánh mì sandwiches and skewers. Immanivong says the menu at the two coming-soon restaurants will feature new items including pho, drunken noodles and lo mein.

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A new food stand called Beijing Brothers is expected to open in place of Red Stix at Legacy Hall in April 2019. Beijing Brothers' menu was created by Yang Sun and Willy Lu and will feature Chinese dishes. The owners operate an existing Beijing Brothers in Coppell.

Beijing Brothers "is our chance to give more diners a true taste of authentic Chinese food," Lu says in a statement. "From hand-pulled noodles to our house specialty, Peking Duck, we're looking forward to sharing our time-honored recipes with a whole new audience."

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We've called Legacy Hall a "magnet for social foodies," and it was voted as the second-best food hall in the country in a USA Today poll. But Busico gave it a 1-star rating in a review in late 2018.

Red Stix near SMU is expected to open in Summer 2019 at 6501 Hillcrest Ave., Dallas. The restaurant Farmers Branch is farther out: an expected December 2019 opening.

Beijing Brothers, expected to open in April 2019, will be located inside Legacy Hall, 7800 Windrose Ave., Plano.

After Red Stix moves out of Legacy Hall, Beijing Brothers is moving in.
After Red Stix moves out of Legacy Hall, Beijing Brothers is moving in.(Thanin Viriyaki)