Bowie House
I’d been wondering if the old Shinjuku Station space in the Near Southside would ever be occupied again. Yoichi just answered my question. Opening later this summer, this new Japanese spot will be the city’s first omakase restaurant — a style of dining similar to a prix-fixe or tasting menu in which you pay one price to be served dishes of the chef’s choosing; you sort of leave yourself in the hands of the chefs. You’ll be in good hands, though. According to CultureMap, owners Ian Kim, Ilwon Suhr, and Mark Kim are all expats from Crown Block, Reunion Tower’s sky-high restaurant. Suhr also owned Fujiyama, a sushi restaurant in Carrollton, and Kim worked as a chef at Sushi by Scratch, an omakase restaurant at the Adolphus Hotel in downtown Dallas, according to CultureMap. The restaurant’s 12-course omakase menu will consist of various forms of sushi and sashimi maki, two appetizers, and a dessert. Look for it in July or August. 711 W. Magnolia Ave.
Another Japanese concept will open in the same area this summer, just a few blocks away. Ichiro Izakaya Diner and Bar is taking over a portion of the Bryan Avenue space that Funky Town Picnic Brewery & Cafe recently vacated. The restaurant will share walls with a still-unnamed new concept from brothers Alessandro and Alfonso Salvatore, the owners of Bocca Osteria Romana. Alessandro says the restaurant will revolve around Neapolitan-style pizza with some Caribbean and Mexican influences. Both restaurants will open sometime later this summer or early fall at 401 Bryan Ave.
Opened this April, The Yard at Bowie House is the luxury boutique hotel’s chill new outdoor restaurant. Developed by the resort’s executive chef Antonio Votta, the menu includes dishes large and small, from shareables like pita chips and dip and fresh oysters to bowls and burgers. Every Thursday, there’s live music. aubergeresorts.com/bowiehouse
Restaurants come and go — that’s the nature of the food and bev business. But lately there’s been a rash of high-profile closings that’s beginning to make me wonder if we’re heading into a culinary recession of sorts. Among those that have recently closed include the excellent pizza joint Pizza Verde; two very good Southern comfort restaurants, the long-running Old Neighborhood Grill on the south side and Campfire Grill in Watauga; Ben Merritt’s fine dining west side spot The Fitzgerald; Lili’s Bistro on Magnolia, which had been open 20 years; the Arlington location of Bodacious BBQ, open for 40 years; and the list goes on. Each closure is a painful loss, a favorite dish we’ll never taste again. But even in this question mark of an economy, the spirit of our food community flickers. Maybe from these ashes, new flavors will emerge. The question isn’t whether we’ll mourn what’s lost, because we will, but how we’ll cultivate what’s next.
