When Dallas chef Misti Norris’ esoteric restaurant Petra and the Beast closed in Lakewood in late 2024, we wondered what one of Texas’ gutsiest gourmands would do next. Her next creation is decidedly more casual and comforting.
Rainbow Cat is Norris’ ever-changing restaurant-within-a-bar — a place where she can cook whatever she wants to. Rainbow Cat has a permanent residency inside Saint Valentine, an Old East Dallas bar near Jimmy’s Food Store. What does that mean? No longer a pop-up, Norris’ technicolor treats will be available dinnertime and late-night, Wednesday through Sunday.
Her menu of chicken “nugs” and and a bowl of cereal studded with house-made Cinnamon Toast Crunch is “nostalgic comfort food” with technique, as Norris explained.
“In my mind, it’s what chefs want to eat,” she said.
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Misti Norris, left, created Rainbow Cat. Gabe Sanchez owns Saint Valentine, the Dallas bar where Norris’ list of ‘nostalgic comfort food’ is sold.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
And they are: Saint Valentine, owned by barman Gabe Sanchez (of Black Swan Saloon), is already a service-industry bar. Add in Spam and pastrami musubi and shrimp toast on house-made focaccia from Norris, and the Rainbow-Cat-at-Saint-Valentine menu has become a hangout for chefs, servers and bartenders after work.
The menu includes the Unicorn Dog, an on-brand name for a concept without much branding. It’s a house-made sausage served with crispy rice, pickled peppers, hot mustard and more.
Here’s Sour Patch, not a candy dish, but an offering of three pickled or fermented items from Rainbow Cat in Dallas.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
Norris became known in Dallas as a forager, a fermenter and a low-waste cook. She saves scraps of onions and garlic, dries them out and makes onion and garlic powder, for instance.
“She makes everything,” Sanchez said. “Like every [expletive] thing.”
The retro Saint Valentine bar in Old East Dallas was once a roast beef shop. It’s been remodeled, with moody lighting and aqua tabletops.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
He’s known Norris for years, and he worked with her in 2021 and 2022 at Midnight Rambler, when she tried out the Rainbow Cat menu as a pop-up at the downtown Dallas bar. After Saint Valentine opened in November 2023 and Petra closed a year later, he thought Saint Valentine could use a menu upgrade.
“I called her like 15 times,” he said. (He’s thankful she eventually said yes.)
Norris is also working as culinary director at Far Out, a bar and restaurant near Fair Park that’s unaffiliated with Saint Valentine. Without the weight of running Petra and the Beast full-time, Norris said she has time to work at Far Out and Saint Valentine.
“This is what I always wanted to do,” Norris said of the transition from Petra and the Beast’s finer-dining food to more casual fare.
“[Petra] became almost intimidating, and I never wanted it to be that,” Norris said.
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“Now, if she wants to do something new, she can,” Sanchez said.
Read: Don’t fall in love with a dish. The menu will change on a whim — and it has since this Dallas Morning News interview.
Soon, Rainbow Cat will serve pizza. And possibly brunch with to-go cocktails.
In this August 2025 photo, a serving of whipped sour cream and onion pimento cheese, garlic chive and dill oil is surrounded by chef Misti Norris’ Magic Molly Potato Chips at Rainbow Cat in Dallas.
Steve Hamm / Special Contributor
The menu includes rotating desserts that are secretly cheffy. A recent peanut butter chocolate bar comes with potato chips on top, house-made, of course. But also dusted in glitter.
“The ability for people to eat food at this pedigree, in a relaxing setting? It’s rare,” Sanchez said.
He corrects himself: “It doesn’t exist.”
Rainbow Cat’s food is served inside Saint Valentine, a bar at 4800 Bryan St., Dallas. Open five days a week, dinner and late-night only, starting at 5 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.