Who’s behind it: Chez Fifi is a model new French restaurant from brothers David and Joshua Foulquier, every companions throughout the We All Gotta Eat group and Wine Spectator Higher of Award of Excellence winner Sushi Noz on Manhattan’s Increased East Aspect.
“The inspiration behind Chez Fifi comes from the unbelievable experiences my brother David and I had rising up with our mother, Fifi,” Joshua Foulquier knowledgeable Wine Spectator by means of e mail, together with that the restaurant is just a block from his mother’s longtime home. “She was the epitome of hospitality—on a regular basis welcoming household and mates into our home and making them actually really feel like they’ve been part of our family.”
When it opened: December 2024
What’s on the wine report: Sommelier Tira Johnson oversees a wine program of higher than 1,000 labels, with main focuses on France and Spain. This incorporates an in depth assortment of about 90 Champagnes from properties paying homage to Chartogne-Taillet and Jacques Selosse—a variety of pages are devoted to grower Champagnes—along with a few bubblies from Spain, Jura and farther afield.
Diners can rely on bottles from essential wineries all through Alsace, Burgundy (one among many report’s most vital strengths), the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, the Rhône Valley, Galicia, Andalucia, Rioja and previous. Names acquainted to wine lovers embrace R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia, Marqués de Murrieta, Billaud-Simon, Chandon de Briailles and loads of additional.
This method moreover choices a wide selection of California wines, along with a formidable assortment of Kistler labels all through a variety of vintages, along with Oregon Pinot Noirs, Brunellos and Barolos. There are notable picks of dessert wines (along with 10 vintages of Château d’Yquem once more to 1962) and large-format bottles.
“We would prefer to host wine-focused dinners and events throughout the near future!” talked about Johnson. “Now we have now two flooring, which provides us additional flexibility for private events … We want firm to find our Champagne report, which we’re going to proceed to develop.”
The culinary technique: French and Basque influences current through on the menu from govt chef Zack Zeidman (beforehand of acclaimed downtown Manhattan consuming locations Estela and Café Altro Paradiso). “[The menu] blends French-inspired dishes centered on daring, beautiful, vibrant reveals,” talked about Zeidman. “Contemplate it as elevated comfort meals—dishes that needs to be shared, with a focus on standard strategies.” Rely on dishes like a foie gras terrine, an omelet with black truffles, escargots à la Bourguignonne, a ribeye côte de boeuf and txangurro (a “deviled baked crab” standard to Basque delicacies). Desserts embrace chocolate mousse, crème brûlée and baba au rhum with poached pear.
The design: Sweden-based Joyn Architectural Design Studio gave the 40-seat restaurant an “intimate” actually really feel. Impressed by Paris, the restaurant is unfold all through two flooring of a townhouse: The first flooring choices banquette seating, flashes of blue, mirrors and mahogany paneling; the second, which choices extreme ceilings and chandeliers, is home to Salon di Fifi à l’Étage, a 28-seat home the place firm can take pleasure in cocktails and smaller plates surrounded by works from the Foulquiers’ paintings assortment (along with objects from Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso). “[It] has a additional intimate, refined surroundings with a curated assortment of dishes which generally is a bit tighter, showcasing the simplest of what’s equipped downstairs,” talked about Joshua.
The neighborhood: Located on East 74th Highway near Lexington Avenue, on the Increased East Aspect’s Lenox Hill, Chez Fifi isn’t faraway from Award of Excellence winner BLT Prime and the famed Carlyle Lodge, along with cultural institutions identical to the Frick Madison paintings museum (briefly housing the Frick Assortment) and Asia Society and Museum.
“I am excited to get of us smitten by consuming throughout the Increased East Aspect,” Johnson outlined. “So many neighbors and locals are ecstatic about our opening … We’re proper right here to range the consuming panorama of this neighborhood.”—Collin Dreizen
New Catch Location Opens in Dallas
Who’s behind it: Catch Hospitality Group—which is behind Restaurant Award–profitable steak, seafood and sushi outposts in New York Metropolis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Aspen and Miami Seashore—opened a model new Catch restaurant in Dallas in late 2024. Since founding the group in New York Metropolis in 2011, companions Tilman Fertitta, Mark Birnbaum and Eugene Remm have expanded all through the nation with their imaginative and prescient of upscale steak and seafood served in a lively surroundings.
When it opened: Nov. 8, 2024
What’s on the wine report: The model new location’s head sommelier is Ben Reynolds, beforehand of Grand Award winner Pappas Bros. Steakhouse Dallas. He oversees a program of roughly 700 picks, the most important report ever for a model new Catch location. There are 20 wines accessible by the glass, plus 17 cocktails, 5 zero-proof cocktails and a variety of different draft beer and sake picks.
“We knew coming into the Dallas market that the clientele would really take their wine severely,” Catch Hospitality Group wine director Emily Buse knowledgeable Wine Spectator by means of e mail. “We’re notably heavy on French wine, and thus far that seems to have been the fitting switch! For our first few nights, we purchased solely Bordeaux and Burgundy, which was an absolute delight for Ben and me.”
The report boasts gems from wineries paying homage to Vincent Girardin, Domaine Leflaive and Château Troplong Mondot. Diners seeking bottles from farther afield may even uncover Furmint from Hungary’s Oremus, Paso Robles Tempranillo from Epoch and totally different well-known bottlings from California, Italy, Spain and previous.
“Every Ben and I are giant wine nerds who’ve enormous appreciation for the classics, nonetheless love championing some lesser-known and -appreciated vintages and producers,” Buse talked about, together with, “Now we have now an astounding amount of labeled growths from Bordeaux over 10 years earlier and [at] terribly aggressive prices, and our firm are loving it thus far!”
The culinary technique: Catch is known for its maximalist-leaning takes on seafood, sushi and steak. That technique drives the menu in Dallas, which is overseen by culinary vice chairman John Beatty and culinary director Michael Vignola, along with touring govt cooks Ryan Brooks and Adrian Vela and govt sushi chef Stanley Xu. Diners conversant in several Catch locations will acknowledge the signature Catch roll (with crab, salmon and miso honey), Cantonese lobster, mushroom spaghetti and truffle sashimi. 4 steaks are equipped: prime New York strip, prime cowboy rib eye, center-cut filet and Wagyu porterhouse. The “From Japan to Dallas” half choices sushi picks flown in from Japan’s Toyosu Market. Diners may even take pleasure in Japanese Wagyu seared tableside on a scorching rock.
The position: The model new Catch is located in Uptown Dallas’ Maple Terrace progress, a Nineteen Twenties establishing revitalized with high-end flats, office home and upscale street-level consuming. Like the other Catch locations, the 16,000-square-foot home was designed by the Rockwell Group. Nevertheless this location pays tribute to the world’s historic previous as a “playground” for celebrities paying homage to Dean Martin, Judy Garland and Elvis Presley. The home is marked by a monumental most vital bar and a central olive tree, a signature design issue shared by a variety of Catch consuming locations. For private events, firm can rent out the Emerald Room, which opens instantly onto a second-floor outdoors patio.
What’s subsequent for Catch Hospitality: In December 2024, Catch Hospitality closed Catch Steak in Los Angeles, following that with the closure of Catch Steak in New York Metropolis earlier this week. (The flagship Catch, in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, stays open.) In keeping with an announcement supplied to Eater, the company hopes to focus on its Catch locations, along with the model new outpost in Dallas, along with one in Scottsdale, Ariz., set to open later this 12 months. It moreover plans to renovate Catch New York Metropolis and Catch Los Angeles. And in September 2024, the group opened Nook Retailer, which has shortly change right into a celeb hotspot in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.—Kenny Martin
Dallas’ Travis Highway Hospitality Opens Le PasSage and Rose Café
Who’s behind it: Le PasSage and Rose Café at Le PasSage are the newest duties from Travis Highway Hospitality, the Dallas group behind Wine Spectator Restaurant Award winners Le Bilboquet, Knox Bistro and Georgie. The company was based mostly by longtime Dallas restaurateurs Stephan Courseau and Daniele Garcia with managing companions Bruno Davaillon and Edward Goemans.
When it opened: Oct. 18, 2024
What’s on the wine report: Travis Highway’s firm beverage director, Daniel Bowman, oversees a list of higher than 185 wines and 40 sake picks, with 2,200 bottles throughout the cellar. He expects the wine report will develop to spherical 350 decisions. Seventeen wines and 5 sakes are equipped by the glass.
Bowman knowledgeable Wine Spectator by means of e mail that the report “incorporates a world alternative with a strong focus on France, notably Burgundy.” Nonetheless, the workforce moreover “wished to introduce our firm to hidden gems—areas and worldwide places a lot much less typically found on wine lists, paying homage to Greece, Austria, Germany and Hungary, along with distinctive French appellations like Jura and Collioure.”
Whereas the report affords a great deal of splurge-worthy bottles from the likes of Lucien Le Moine, Robert Mondavi and Domaine de la Vougeraie, value and choice are clearly priorities for Bowman, who says his focus “leans additional European and off-the-beaten-path.” Many bottles may very well be had for decrease than $100, even Burgundies.
Rose Café has a smaller, additional casual report—plus consuming menus overseen by govt chef Sotear Tep—tailored to the home. Nevertheless, if firm want to look previous this report, they may order bottles from Le PasSage’s full wine program.
The culinary technique: Davaillon, Travis Highway Hospitality’s culinary director, isn’t any stranger to Dallas diners, having held govt chef roles at Rosewood Resorts & Resorts, the company behind Higher of Award of Excellence winner the Mansion Restaurant. Alongside govt chef Hou Lam “Dicky” Fung, the longtime firm govt chef for the Mr. Chow assortment of consuming locations, Davaillon showcases the culinary traditions of Vietnam, Cambodia, China and Thailand through an technique grounded in French methodology.
“[We’re] about honoring the precision of French delicacies whereas embracing the colorful tastes of Southeast Asia and previous. Our intention is to produce diners an experience that feels every acquainted and totally new, the place every factor, from the menu to the design, tells a story,” Davaillon talked about in an announcement.
Signature dishes embrace blue crab–stuffed Dover sole with lemongrass butter, inexperienced prawns with cashews, shaking beef with grass-fed filet mignon, and a Texas Wagyu New York strip with white soy miso butter. Nevertheless the shareable mains steal the current: Choose from whole-fried snapper, ginger-scallion full lobster and Peking duck for 4. And don’t sleep on the starters, which embrace eggplant dumplings in yuzu soy broth, fried bitter greens with candied walnuts and lotus root chips and yellowtail crudo with burnt ginger sauce.
The position: Travis Highway Hospitality has made itself a mainstay of Dallas’ occurring Knox–Travis district, positioned on the confluence of the historic Highland Park, Uptown and Turtle Creek neighborhoods. Le PasSage and Rose Café are located on the underside flooring of the Terminal on the Katy Path, a model new progress combining luxurious residences with upscale consuming and retail alongside a 3.5-mile pedestrian path. The 4,800-square-foot home, designed by Michael Hsu, evokes the Orient Particular and the “golden age of luxurious put together journey,” with burled picket all by means of.
The additional casual, all-day Rose Café has a coated, open-air patio with views of the Katy Path. The home, with its green-tiled bar and striped banquettes, was deliberate as a welcoming social and consuming hub for trail-goers, neighborhood residents and visitors alike.—Okay.M.
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