The entrance to Scilla in Dallas is a showstopping bar with a slab of pink marble. “I think this bar will be busy all day long,” said Benji Homsey, a partner in the project.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
You are supposed to be here: That’s how it feels walking into Scilla, Dallas’ newest Italian-inspired restaurant from the team behind The Charles, Mister Charles and El Carlos Elegante. Double doors lead into a grand, backlit, pink marble bar that’s so heavy, steel beams hold it up from behind.
Anchoring the bottom of a 13-story tower near the Dallas North Tollway and Preston Center, Scilla was created to be the Park Cities’ new dining room. Those who want to really make it feel like home can join the private club, not yet open.
“We’ve wanted to do something here for a long time,” said partner Benji Homsey, a Dallasite who got into the business in 2018 with Chas Martin. Their first restaurant, The Charles, was a fling, you could say. They did it “for fun,” the two have said. It worked so well that Homsey, Martin and the Duro Hospitality team are now not-so-accidentally the owners of six Dallas restaurants and one Michelin Key hotel that are collectively operated by over 500 employees.
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Add to that list The Chumley House, one of the best restaurants in North Texas and Duro’s only one in Fort Worth.
The Whole Red Snapper is a shareable main at Scilla, the new restaurant in Dallas near Preston Center.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Scilla, like many of the company’s other restaurants, might transport diners to Europe. Pick a city in Italy and you might be reaching for your sunglasses as you catch a glimpse of mermaids on the ceiling of one dining room.
“We don’t have the ocean out our front door. We don’t have mountains,” said Martin, a Fort Worth resident turned Dallasite.
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Valet your car out front, and inside Scilla, you can eat branzino with artichokes and muhammara pesto, caviar toast, paella and hamachi crudo with limoncello vinaigrette.
“It’s going to be 105 degrees next weekend, and people will still go out to dinner,” Martin said of Dallas diners. Might as well pretend you’re near the Mediterranean.
Scilla’s seafood tower, made with Maine lobster, Cristal Blue prawns, oysters and more, is one of the raw bar options.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Scilla’s culinary point of view most closely matches the company’s Greenville Avenue restaurant, Sister. Both are “Italian-ish,” as the founders like to say, served in a dining room that feels like somebody’s maximalist home. But Scilla is much larger than Sister, with a big patio.
For a company that made its name from Charles spinoffs, the team zigzagged from the theme by opening Sister, Norman’s Japanese Grill and The Chumley House.
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So who’s Scilla? That’s Martin’s mother, Priscilla.
But also: Scilla is a small town in Calabria, Italy. And Scylla is a mythological Greek creature. A man-eating monster, actually.
“She’s flattered,” Martin said of his mom from West Texas, not a monster at all.
Cocktails have sensuous names like the Skinny Lover and Hibis-Kiss. Here’s the Sicilian Shaved Ice made with Duro Socorro Joven Tequila, blood orange and pineapple morita.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
The Hamachi Crudo at Scilla is made with meyer lemon kosho, finger lime and bergamot limoncello vinaigrette.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Ross and Corbin See, of Sees Design, are co-owners of Duro Hospitality. The brothers and their team designed Scilla and all of the Duro restaurants.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Scilla’s rigatoni alla Zozzona, a pasta dish, is made with pancetta ragù and Carbonara espuma.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News
Scilla’s menu will feel familiar to anyone who’s enjoyed a Duro restaurant in Dallas. Culinary endeavors are led by chef J Chastain, an alum of the Mansion on Turtle Creek and Stephan Pyles. Scilla’s kitchen, led by executive chef Brendan Frankel, is cooking a series of courses meant to be shared. Cicchetti, or small snacks like bruschetta to start, can be followed by light crudos, baked dishes like smoked duck and pastas. To finish, customers can pick wood-fired entrees like lamb kebabs and charred octopus accompanied by contorni, or sides, such as grilled carrots with mint chimichurri and creamy polenta with mushroom conserva.
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Chastain’s favorite dish is the paella di mare. It’s the company’s first paella — a bit of a surprise, given the hearty, large-format dishes they’ve already produced in other Dallas dining rooms. It went on the menu after Chastain and Director of Culinary Jared Harms hosted paella dinners for one another, honing the recipe.
Despite the company’s reputation for restaurants serving the Dallas elite, it’s Duro’s first restaurant this close to Preston Center.
“We’ve wanted this neighborhood for a while,” Homsey said.
Scilla is at 8111 Douglas Ave., Dallas. It’s expected to open July 17, 2026. Dinner at first, with lunch to come.