Longtime Dallas Steakhouse III Forks Moves North to Frisco

Steakhouse III Forks has announced a surprise move to Frisco after a landlord dispute left the restaurant locked out of its longtime location in North Dallas.

The restaurant, which spent 23 years at 17776 North Dallas Parkway, has taken over the space in Frisco formerly occupied by Silver Fox. Both restaurant chains are owned by Dallas-based Consolidated Restaurant Operations. The new III Forks location, at 1303 Legacy Drive, opened yesterday.

The move stems from a dispute with the restaurant’s North Dallas landlord. As CultureMap reported yesterday, the North Dallas location closed on September 9 after being locked out by the landlord, Dallas Stake Investment. Two days later, the restaurant’s Facebook page reported it was closed temporarily due to that mechanical issues and the effects of a major storm on the day it closed. It’s unclear whether those mechanical issues, or other problems, led to a stalemate with the landlord.

CRO vice president Bill Watson addressed the mechanical issues with CultureMap. “The storm brought on a shutdown of power which short-circuited a number of pieces of equipment,” he said. “As we attempted to power back up, we reached an impasse.”

But he also hinted at an issue with rent and Dallas Stake Investment, which III Forks referred to in a statement as an “California-based absentee landlord”.

“During the past six months, we have tried to engage every one of our real estate partners to work creatively and come up with a solution to allow for the continuance of business and rent to our landlords,” he said. “In this environment, every other landlord has been working with us cooperatively.”

A spokesperson Dallas Stake Investment told CultureMap that III Forks was locked out for nonpayment of rent. “We tried to work with them and gave them a lot of options and opportunities, this went back over a long period of time, before COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

For now, though the Frisco location is open, the owners of III Forks are still working to transfer reservations from North Dallas and install signage to complete the transformation. Two other Silver Fox locations, in Richardson and Fort Worth, are still open. In addition, the other III Forks locations, which include Austin, Chicago and two restaurants in Florida, remain unaffected.

• North Dallas steakhouse gets locked out and relocates to Frisco [CultureMap]