{"id":246142,"date":"2025-09-22T10:55:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246142\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:55:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:55:11","slug":"italian-restaurant-with-top-chef-tie-to-open-in-dallas-replacing-meddlesome-moth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/246142\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian restaurant with \u2018Top Chef\u2019 tie to open in Dallas, replacing Meddlesome Moth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ospi, an Italian restaurant from California co-owned by Top Chef contestant Jackson Kalb, will open in the Dallas Design District in 2026, confirmed Vipin Nambiar, the founder and managing partner of HN Capital Partners, which owns more than 1 million square feet in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

Ospi is expected to open in place of Meddlesome Moth, the gastropub that closed in 2025<\/a>. After 15 years, the owner of the Moth said he couldn\u2019t afford rent prices in the Dallas Design District. It is indeed becoming a dining destination, evidenced by new, upscale restaurants like Carbone<\/a> and Evelyn<\/a>, and anchored by spots like Town Hearth, the steakhouse open for nearly a decade. Look next<\/a> for supperclub Delilah and a 20-course restaurant<\/a> called Punk Noir, two high-profile restaurants moving into the Dallas Design District soon.<\/p>\n

Ospi will be more of an \u201call-day option,\u201d Nambiar said.<\/p>\n

The restaurant is described as a red-sauce joint with southern Italian influence and Roman-style pizzas<\/a>, according to a Los Angeles Times story about Kalb and his wife, Melissa Kalb, who co-own seven restaurants, all in California.<\/p>\n

Restaurant News<\/p>\n

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Related<\/p>\n

\"Got<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cuisine is elevated,\u201d Jackson Kalb said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, \u201cbut we want people to be able to come in wearing jeans and a shirt.\u201d <\/p>\n

He adds: It\u2019s \u201calso special enough for birthdays and anniversaries.\u201d It will have a private dining room.<\/p>\n

\"'Top<\/p>\n

‘Top Chef’ contestant Jackson Kalb competed on the TV show without his sense of smell or taste. He made it farther than he expected, to the Restaurant Wars episode.<\/p>\n

Bravo \/ David Moir\/Bravo<\/p>\n

Ospi in the Dallas Design District is the Kalbs\u2019 first Texas restaurant. <\/p>\n

Lunch at this Italian restaurant could include $18 or $19 sandwiches, pizzas for $19 to $29, pasta for $21 to $38, and mains like chicken Parmesan for $32, according to the Venice, Calif., menu. (Prices could vary in Dallas.) Dinner is similar, but a bit more upscale.<\/p>\n

Kalb said he \u201cfell in love with Texas\u201d when he was in Houston filming Season 19 of Top Chef.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to get out there for years. I thought it would be another few years … and this deal came up. It was too good to pass up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Competing on Top Chef, Kalb had lost his sense of taste and smell due to COVID. He was eliminated during the \u201cRestaurant Wars\u201d episode.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, I told myself that I would not use my lack of smell as an excuse,\u201d he said<\/a> in Parade. (His smell is back \u201c99%,\u201d he told The News. Great for Dallas diners.)<\/p>\n

Nambiar said he \u201ccold called\u201d the owners of Ospi in part because he liked Kalb\u2019s tie to Top Chef. He was also impressed with Kalb\u2019s high-profile restaurant background, which started at M\u00e9lisse, a 2-star Michelin restaurant<\/a>, when he started cooking there at 13 years old. (He also started a catering company at 11 years old.) Kalb\u2019s past includes cooking at Jo\u00ebl Robuchon in Las Vegas and Alinea in Chicago. <\/p>\n

Nambiar said Ospi \u201cfeels lighter and healthier\u201d than other Italian restaurants he\u2019s visited. And he believes the district needs another daytime option.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think they\u2019re inspired people who will add an energy and a buzz to the neighborhood,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ospi is expected to open at 1621 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas, in 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ospi, an Italian restaurant from California co-owned by Top Chef contestant Jackson Kalb, will open in the Dallas…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":246143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,18465,11213,4329,9733,9063,988,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-246142","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-design-district","11":"tag-italian-food","12":"tag-real-estate","13":"tag-restaurant-news","14":"tag-restaurant-openings","15":"tag-restaurants","16":"tag-texas","17":"tag-tx","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115247587523025134","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246142","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=246142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}