When it comes to big restaurants, Dallas has a target on its back. Or is it more like a bull’s-eye?
Dallas has been a magnet for restaurants for as long as chains have existed. Dickey’s Barbecue Pit started in a small house in East Dallas more than 85 years ago. Chili’s was born on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue over 50 years ago. Dallas-Fort Worth has since been the birthplace of La Madeleine, Black-Eyed Pea, On the Border, Twin Peaks, Velvet Taco and more.
Dallas is also a breeding ground for restaurants that began elsewhere and are looking for a trampoline within Texas. In-N-Out, Portillo’s and Dave’s Hot Chicken got a jumpstart in D-FW, then bounced to other Texas cities.
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Even flashy New York restaurants Catch and Carbone picked Dallas during a major dining crisis. Amid a COVID collapse that flattened the restaurant economy in other major cities, the number of restaurants in D-FW actually rose.
For years, an invisible highway has run from big cities like Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Las Vegas, and all roads lead to Dallas. Out-of-town restaurants, some backed by private equity money, tell a loud story about food coming to Texas.
Dallas is the most desirable big city in Texas for a growing restaurant brand, said Emily Williams Knight, president and CEO of the Texas Restaurant Association.
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“When you’re looking to expand into a new state,” she said, “you need to pick the safest bet.”
But why is Dallas the Texas capital for replicable restaurants, when these brands could have chosen Houston, Austin or San Antonio first? What makes it the safest bet?
Place a bull’s-eye on D-FW, and Knight said its geographical design allows restaurants to expand from Dallas outward, “in rings.” Many suburbs near the city are affluent, which offers a restaurant chain opportunities to reach consumers willing to pay for something new.
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“You go way north to Denton, or west to Fort Worth,” Knight said, “and one company has a decade of expansion opportunity.” That cross-region real estate play is how we scooped up Salt and Straw, which opened its first Texas ice cream shop in East Dallas last week. A second opens in Fort Worth on Friday.
D-FW’s suburbs aren’t as sprawled as those in Houston, meaning some restaurant groups believe it’s easier to expand within North Texas.
Another factor: supply chain logistics. Dallas-Fort Worth has two public airports, and Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are both headquartered here.
“Dallas is easy to get in and out of,” said Ron Ruggless, a former restaurant reporter based in Dallas who covered chain restaurants for over 30 years. Ease of travel is as important for executives scouting for real estate as it is for the companies delivering restaurant supplies across the region.
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When the owners of New York City bakery Maman considered expanding to Texas, discussions about logistics and distribution drove some of the decision-making. Maman uses a commissary kitchen, or an off-site place where its cookie dough and croissants are made before they’re delivered to each local shop. Maman’s team could find — and afford — a commissary kitchen in Dallas.
Outsiders are noticing. “Why does Dallas get everything?” national media company Morning Brew asked in a YouTube video, noting the string of restaurants moving into Dallas. Morning Brew suggested the price of land in Dallas, which is generally lower than Los Angeles or New York, is part of the story. Many restaurant companies expanding into Dallas are leasing spaces, not buying real estate, but their focus on D-FW has inflated rent rates.
Also pertinent, Ruggless added, is some Dallas developers or property owners offer to pay for part of a restaurant buildout, in what’s called a tenant improvement allowance. It’s a way to lower costs for out-of-town companies and sweeten a lease deal. That’s one reason Dallas attracted Prince St. Pizza, the New York City slice shop that opened on Henderson Avenue in late 2025.
More people are moving into D-FW, especially in Denton, Collin and Tarrant counties. That’s how we landed White Castle, the 105-year-old burger joint that will open in The Colony in 2026.
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“It’s an area that’s vibrant and growing — both for native Texans as well as people coming in from all over the country,” White Castle Chief Marketing Officer Jamie Richardson said.
Stick around Dallas long enough and you’ll hear someone say: If a chain restaurant can work in Dallas, it can work anywhere.
“It used to be true,” Ruggless said. “Competition is much more intense.”
Which raises another consequential question: Can these restaurants last?
Shannon Wynne, a Dallas restaurateur who co-owns 35 restaurants and has been in the business for nearly 50 years, has seen big restaurant groups move into D-FW year after year.
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He was priced out of the Dallas Design District when his 15-year-old gastropub Meddlesome Moth closed in 2025. Less than a year later, the space is already filled. Top Chef contestant Jackson Kalb, a California resident, opened Italian restaurant Ospi a few weeks ago.
“Our experience is, somebody comes into the Design District and builds a fancy New York restaurant. They blow the doors off,” Wynne said. “A year later, they do half the revenue.”
Dallas-based business owners face an increasing challenge to sway diners to spend their dollars in locally owned restaurants. At the same time, national restaurant brands have exploded in Texas in the past year, luring Dallasites to shiny, new dining rooms.
Here’s a look at why seven of those restaurants picked Dallas first.
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Delilah in the Dallas Design District
For supperclub Delilah, exclusivity is everything. “I don’t think Delilah can be taken anywhere. It is a pretty serious place,” co-founder John Terzian said two years before Delilah opened in the Dallas Design District.
Dallas made the cut on a short list of cities where diners will spend big and dress up.
Delilah opened in Dallas in 2026, and parts of the sexy space are reminiscent of the original in Los Angeles and of similarly flashy Delilah spinoffs in Las Vegas and Miami.
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“We think Delilah can and should only be in a handful of cities in the world, and Dallas is one of those,” Terzian said. “It’s got a great mix of sports — NFL, NBA and colleges. And you’ve got a great, strong art gallery scene.”
He ticks off the cities that matter for Delilah: “To me, there’s LA, there’s Miami, there’s Vegas, there’s Dallas.”
Done, done, done and done.
There’s likely one more expansion location for Delilah, Terzian said: New York. Lady Delilah is expected to open in NYC later in 2026.
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- Number of restaurants nationwide: 4
- Restaurants in Texas: 1
A “No Photos Please” sign welcomes guests to Delilah in Dallas.
Juan Figueroa/Staff Photographer
Craft Beer Market in Dallas’ Preston Center
The founder of Canadian company Craft Beer Market made the leap from Calgary to Dallas because he thought the two cities had similar personalities.
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“The synergies between Dallas and Calgary are big,” founder PJ L’Heureux said, noting the business-forward urban cores, each with Western charm. The two-story Craft Beer Market that opened at Northwest Highway and Preston Road in Dallas is the first in the United States, picked over opportunities in Colorado, Tennessee and Florida.
L’Heureux added: “In Canada, finding a 10,000-square-foot space is hard. In Texas, it isn’t.”
- Number of restaurants in North America: 10
- Restaurants in Texas: 1
Craft Beer Market’s first restaurant in the United States has a Texas-sized first floor (pictured) with a rooftop.
Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer
Prince St. Pizza in East Dallas
While some restaurant operators spend months or years scouting locations in Dallas and beyond, Prince St. Pizza CEO Lawrence Longo signed a lease on Henderson Avenue “sight unseen.”
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He already liked Dallas, he said. When the company hosted a pizza pop-up in Deep Ellum in 2021, Longo realized the Dallas customer “has a really good palate.” (He also learned Dallas customers don’t mind standing in line for pizza they’ve seen on Instagram.) The hype was high when Prince St. opened in late 2025.
Prince St. has grown from New York to Chicago, Charleston, Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and more, but so far, Dallas is the only shop in Texas. Longo said in 2025 he’d be willing to open more Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants, but he put pressure on Dallas consumers:
“It really depends on how much you like the brand.”
- Number of restaurants nationwide: nearly 20
- Restaurants in Texas: 1
Prince St. Pizza is a slice joint from New York that expanded to Dallas in 2025.
Courtesy Prince Street
Maman in University Park and East Dallas
Maman founders Elisa Marshall and Ben Sormonte knew they were “onto something” in 2014 in the first few months of selling cookies from their bakery in New York’s SoHo neighborhood.
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“We had lines around the block,” Marshall said.
The founders seized the opportunity to expand their coffee and pastry shop outside New York City, though Marshall was nervous about leaving the nest. “Things work in New York,” she said, “but sometimes they just work in New York.” Not so with Maman, which grew to Washington, D.C., in 2022, then to Florida.
Dallas is Maman’s focus now, and Marshall said the “multitude of neighborhoods” was one of the reasons she was comfortable expanding into North Texas. The company has two shops open in D-FW now — one in University Park and another in East Dallas — and eight more bakeries are planned for North Texas within a few years.
Dallas was the most appealing Texas city, she said. “We can open Mamans 10 minutes from one another, and yet it feels like a different world,” she said. Next up are Mamans at Casa Linda in East Dallas; Central Expressway and Haskell Avenue; the Dallas Design District and the Shops at Legacy East in Plano.
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- Number of restaurants in North America: over 50
- Restaurants in Texas: 2, with more opening soon
Maman is known for its croissants, like this cube topped with meringue.
Christine Vo/Staff Photographer
Avra in Uptown Dallas
The owners of New York City Greek restaurant Avra had just one location in mind for their Texas expansion. “It was always going to be the Crescent,” said Avra co-owner Nick Pashalis in a 2025 interview. “We thought that was the best space for us.”
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It’s rare for a restaurant to have such focus within a state as sprawling as Texas. When Avra opened in fall 2025, it took over a whopping 14,000 square feet at the Crescent. The restaurant can fit 350 diners eating Greek salads and whole roasted fish.
While other restaurateurs might move onto the next flashy city, co-owners and cousins Nick Tsoulos and Nick Pashalis seem to work more cautiously. Dallas is their only Texas restaurant for now, but they’re interested in expanding to other parts of the state.
- Number of restaurants nationwide: 8
- Restaurants in Texas: 1
Avra’s fish market shows off seafood flown into Dallas each day. The restaurant opened in September 2025 in Uptown Dallas’ Crescent development.
Shafkat Anowar/Staff Photographer
Salt and Straw ice cream in East Dallas
After looking at Dallas real estate for more than seven years, Salt and Straw’s founders opened their first Texas location in mid-May 2026.
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Cousins Kim and Tyler Malek picked Dallas because of the construction on parts of Henderson Avenue’s eastern end. Canadian company Local Public Eatery and New York chain Prince St. Pizza have already opened restaurants on Henderson Avenue. Soon, PopUp Bagels will open next door to Salt and Straw.
“When this redevelopment in Knox Henderson started, it seemed like the perfect time to open there,” co-founder Kim Malek said. To celebrate its entry into the Lone Star state, Salt and Straw released two Texas-only flavors: paloma sherbet and cream cheese jalapeño jelly ice cream.
- Number of restaurants nationwide: 55
- Restaurants in Texas: 1. The second opens May 22, 2026 in Fort Worth.
Salt and Straw ice cream has 18 core flavors and five monthly newcomers.
Steve Hamm/The Dallas Morning News
White Castle — coming soon to The Colony
For 105 years, White Castle has never sold its fast-food burgers in a Texas restaurant. That changes in fall 2026, when the family-owned company opens its first White Castle in The Colony.
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Chief Marketing Officer Richardson said fans were begging for a White Castle in D-FW. But this Ohio company’s decision to expand into Texas is more than an answer to consumers’ requests; it’s saying “yes” to Grandscape, one of Dallas-Fort Worth’s biggest restaurant and retail developments in history. Grandscape has a front-row seat to the suburban populations in The Colony, Frisco, Plano, Little Elm, Carrollton and more.
White Castle will expand across Dallas-Fort Worth, Richardson confirmed, though no other leases are signed yet. Fans of its cheeseburgers with steam-grilled onions will anxiously await the next move.
- Number of restaurants nationwide: 336
- Restaurants in Texas: 0. The first is expected to open in fall 2026 in The Colony.
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Over 100 years ago, White Castle was founded in the Midwest. In 2026, the fast-food burger company is expanding into Texas — finally.
White Castle