Chef Matt McCallister Will Shutter FT33

After six years as one of Dallas most beloved restaurants, chef Matt McCallister’s FT33 will close its doors this summer.

McCallister announced the restaurant’s closure on his Facebook page, saying that the restaurant will serve its final artfully-arranged plates in June. “While part of me feels a sense of relief to finally get to this moment, it is still bittersweet and full of emotion,” he wrote. Scope out an excerpt from the statement below:

While part of me feels a sense of relief to finally get to this moment, it is still bittersweet and full of emotion.In 2012, I opened FT33 with big dreams of turning Dallas upside down by focusing on creative food without the pretension (the real irony is that statement, in and of itself, is pretentious). My ego (insecurity) was huge and my knowledge of running a great restaurant was negligible. In the beginning, I set aside most things in my life to go after my dream of running an ambitious restaurant and had no clue what I was doing…I had no real defined set of standards or even a philosophy of my own personal cooking style.

Since its debut, FT33 has been the Dallas restaurant most likely to be in the national spotlight and a stalwart of the Eater 38. The restaurant earned McCallister tons of acclaim, including multiple James Beard Award nominations, a coveted Food & Wine Best New Chef nod, and a five-star review from former Dallas Morning News critic Leslie Brenner. “I feel that the food we are cooking now is what FT always aspired to be but it took a while to find its true voice,” McCallister continued. “I’ve also grown up a bit…maybe I’ve grown beyond what FT once fulfilled for me. That isn’t a bad thing…it just is.”

McCallister hints at a new project that’s coming soon in the post, but doesn’t give any new details on what that restaurant will be. He’s most recently been involved with developing the menu at Malibu Poke, a quick-service restaurant from TJ’s Seafood owner Jon Alexis that just announced plans to expand in both Dallas and Austin. The closure of FT33 comes nine months after McCallister closed the doors to Filament, his Southern restaurant in Deep Ellum.

FT33 will close its doors on June 23. Stay tuned for more details on McCallister’s next move, and see below for his full statement.