{"id":180201,"date":"2025-08-27T16:54:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T16:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180201\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T16:54:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T16:54:18","slug":"inside-sauvage-the-tiny-12-seat-restaurant-now-open-in-dallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/180201\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside Sauvage, the tiny, 12-seat restaurant now open in Dallas"},"content":{"rendered":"

At new Dallas restaurant Sauvage<\/a>, opening Aug. 27, 2025, diners perch at an L-shaped bar and watch as their 16-course meal is cooked in front of them.<\/p>\n

With 12 seats, Sauvage is one of Dallas\u2019 tiniest restaurants.<\/p>\n

And at $245 per person, not including drinks, it\u2019s also one of the priciest.<\/p>\n

Husband-wife chef team Casey and Amy La Rue consider Sauvage a do-over from their last tasting menu restaurant, Carte Blanche on Dallas\u2019 Greenville Avenue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Restaurant News<\/p>\n

Get the scoop on the latest openings, closings, and where and what to eat and drink.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

At Sauvage in downtown Dallas, the chef-owners tiled and resurfaced the bar themselves.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what Carte Blanche started off as,\u201d said Casey La Rue during a Dallas Morning News interview inside the small Commerce Street restaurant attached to the Statler Hotel.<\/p>\n

Their ideal dinner restaurant is intimate and focused on beautiful food. Carte Blanche was too big, they said. Diners sat at tables, not at a chef\u2019s counter. Carte Blanche closed in 2024. <\/p>\n

Casey is curious to see if Sauvage can create an atmosphere where food is serious but customers feel at ease.<\/p>\n

\u201cFive servers in suits around your one little table can be intimidating,\u201d he said. By design, Sauvage won\u2019t have as many servers fussing over customers.<\/p>\n

Sauvage\u2019s menu is \u201cwood-fire omakase,\u201d according to the reservations page. It\u2019s a tasting menu \u2014 meaning diners do not choose what comes next \u2014 and the focus is on the hearth in the corner of the kitchen. <\/p>\n

No options exist for vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian diners, though accommodations for gluten-free needs, shellfish allergies and no-pork preferences will be made.<\/p>\n

\"Jerk<\/p>\n

Jerk shrimp is among the 16-or-so courses at Sauvage in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

The La Rues have distinct cooking styles: He likes to cook with wild game and often jazzes up a dish with caviar, truffles or foie gras. She\u2019s an impressive baker, and the bread, croissants and desserts are mostly her work. (See also: La Rue Doughnut<\/a>, a shop in Trinity Groves where her pastries are on display.)<\/p>\n

\"Casey<\/p>\n

Casey La Rue (pictured) owns Sauvage with his wife, chef Amy La Rue.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

An early look at the menu shows about 16 courses. Caviar to start; venison bresaola early in the meal; then whole roasted grouper, jerk-style prawns, wild boar burnt ends and more.<\/p>\n

Despite a more relaxed atmosphere, \u201cthere\u2019ll be some showmanship,\u201d Casey La Rue promised. (And for the price of nearly $500 per couple, not including a tip, that\u2019s likely expected.) For the amberjack course, chefs will make grapefruit kakigori, which is Japanese shaved ice. They\u2019ll hand-crank it in front of guests. <\/p>\n

While the La Rues seem content that Michelin inspectors are now in Texas<\/a> \u2014 and they\u2019ll soon release a new list of Dallas\u2019 best restaurants<\/a> \u2014 Casey said he would have opened a tasting menu regardless. He reportedly stretched the truth<\/a> on which restaurants he\u2019d worked at in his past, The News reported.<\/p>\n

Is this Dallas chef cooking like he has something to prove? Maybe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis restaurant gives us more focus to make the kind of food we want to cook,\u201d Casey said. He named it Sauvage, the French word for \u201cwild.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Antelope<\/p>\n

Antelope sausage with fermented harissa is on the tasting menu at Sauvage in Dallas.<\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

Sauvage was a do-it-yourself project \u2014 which is unlike nearly every other new, high-end Dallas restaurant today. Dallas is home to a steakhouse that cost $20 million to build<\/a>, it\u2019s worth remembering. Over at Sauvage, the chef-owners watched YouTube, then did the work themselves: They resurfaced the bar, laid tile on the walls, hung wallpaper and applied charcoal limewash to the walls.<\/p>\n

\"Sauvage<\/p>\n

Sauvage is cloaked in olive-colored drapes that keep out the bustle on Dallas’ Commerce Street. <\/p>\n

Tom Fox \/ Staff Photographer<\/p>\n

It was done out of necessity, both said. They maxed out credit cards while redesigning the restaurant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just us; no investors,\u201d Casey said. <\/p>\n

A subtle nod to the work they did themselves is the lamp made out of acacia branches at the front of Sauvage. Diners wouldn\u2019t know it, but that\u2019s fashioned from a tree from the La Rues\u2019 yard. <\/p>\n

Amy takes in the room. \u201cIt feels like you could spend a few hours in here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Sauvage is at 1914 Commerce St., Dallas. Dinner only. $245 per person, reservation required<\/a>. Cocktail and wine pairings available for extra fee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At new Dallas restaurant Sauvage, opening Aug. 27, 2025, diners perch at an L-shaped bar and watch as…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":180202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,7712,14052,2105,14647,83453,9733,9063,988,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-180201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-fortworth","11":"tag-downtown-dallas","12":"tag-food-and-drink","13":"tag-french-food","14":"tag-michelin-guide","15":"tag-restaurant-news","16":"tag-restaurant-openings","17":"tag-restaurants","18":"tag-texas","19":"tag-tx","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115101778961721044","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}