Deep Ellum Hostel’s Izkina Transforms Into an Entirely Different Restaurant This Weekend

Just a year after opening inside Deep Ellum Hostel, Spanish tapas spot Izkina will flip into a new global-themed restaurant that speaks to more of its adjoining international guests, reports the Dallas Observer.

As of this weekend, the 2,000-square-foot bar (2801 Elm Street) will be called Booty’s. The rebranding effort also entails implementing menu changes, light design alterations (think a new entrance), and adding a new bar manager. The restaurant recently closed temporarily for the revamp. The hip hostel’s owners Collin Ballard and Kent Roth are drawing direct inspiration from New Orleans’s Booty’s Street Food for the name and menu, notes the pub. The small plates gastropub in the Bywater shuttered in 2016 (they’re friends with its former owners).

“Instead of focusing it to the Mediterranean and Spain in particular, we’re going to be doing foods from all over,” chef Joel Orsini tells DO.

Only one Izkina menu item will stick around for the switcheroo: the egg-and-potato tortilla española, topped with house Spanish hot sauce. Izkina’s cooking methods using vinegars, fermentation and preservation will also carry over, as will its rooftop garden, reports the pub. Look for more Asian plates on the revamped menu as well.

A minor refresh included adding planter boxes in front of its roll-up garage door windows that’ll swap out in the fall with new foliage. And instead of entering from the outside off of Elm Street, a door inside the hostel that resembles stacked luggage is its new dedicated entrance.

There’s also a new leader behind the bar. Black Swan Saloon alum Dylan Huddle previously worked alongside Orsini at the now-closed FT33, which was big on seasonal and local ingredients for cocktails.

• Izkina Is Out, Booty’s Is In as Deep Ellum Hostel’s Eatery Gets a Makeover [Dallas Observer]
• New Spanish-Influenced Cocktail Bar Izkina Is Open in Deep Ellum [EDFW]
• Booty’s Street Food Shutters in the Bywater [ENOLA]