Hopdoddy Burger Bar Is Coming To Dallas (Updated)

If the multi-hour waits and sea of people at Goodfriend Beer Garden and Burger Bar is any indication, Austin's Hopdoddy Burger Bar (the name combines the beer component with a Scottish nickname for cattle) should do pretty damn well when it arrives in Dallas and opens, tentatively, in October.

The restaurant, owned by Larry Foles and Guy Villavaso, former owners-now-consultants for Eddie V's Prime Seafood and Wildfish Seafood Grille, is expanding into Dallas and Arizona and opening an additional location in North Austin. Hopdoddy specializes in craft beer and Black Angus hamburgers, though the ubiquitous turkey burger also makes an appearance as well as lamb, tuna and hemp options. The meats are ground in-house daily, the buns baked fresh and there's a focus on sourcing local produce (just check out that photo from the original Austin location for evidence).

Mike "Fed Man Walking" Sutter, formerly of the Austin-American Statesman, calls the burger joint a hybrid of fast food and sit-down bar, and included Hopdoddy during his 50 Burgers, 50 Days challenge:

The best beef I’ve ever had in a restaurant burger, or at least the best I’ve had so far in my 50 Burgers mission. Ask for it medium-rare, heavy on the rare, because it’s ground in the store, in a little room that should require security access. Like eating beef carpaccio or tartare, seared with the care you’d give a bone-in strip steak.

Eater has inquired as to the physical location of Dallas' future Hopdoddy, but has not yet received a response. The little birdy's word, however, says something of Preston Center.

Update: Received an email at 4:49 p.m. (today is Friday, January 27) from Hopdoddy's Chuck Smith: "We are currently in lease negotiations and hope to open sometime in the Fall," he says. "Please follow up with us this Summer." Will do, Smith. Will do.

· Hopdoddy Burger Bar Hopping to North Austin, Dallas, Arizona [CultureMap Austin]
· 50 Burgers, 50 Days: Hopdoddy [Fed Man Walking]
· Hopdoddy [Official]
· All Burgers Coverage on Eater Dallas [-EDFW-]

Hopdoddy Burger Bar, South Congress. [Photo: Hopdoddy/Facebook]