Dallas Pizza Chain Cane Rosso Plots New Outpost With a Massive Outdoor Dining Setup

Welcome to AM Intel in the time of coronavirus, a round-up of the city’s newest bits of restaurant-related intel. Follow Eater on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-date details on how COVID-19 is impacting the city’s dining scene.

Cane Rosso heads to Hillcrest Village

Popular Neapolitan pizzeria Cane Rosso is set to join the bevy of new restaurants opening soon in Hillcrest Village, the new development at 6959 Arapaho Rd. in Dallas. It will join Lada, a Tex Mex restaurant which is already open, and Haystack Burgers, plus more restaurants soon to be announced. The new location will feature two spacious patios, owner Jay Ferrier tells CultureMap, and will face a playground and greens pace. The location, Cane Rosso’s ninth overall, is expected to open sometime in mid-summer.

Grand Prairie vegan restaurant launches GoFundMe to survive winter storm fallout

Winter storm closures were just another hurdle restaurants throughout North Texas have faced in the last 12 months, and one restaurant, the Black-owned ITSO Vegan in Grand Prairie, has launched a GoFundMe to pay for bills that normally would have been covered by a week of business. The restaurant, which serves up vegan soul food, is an important resource for diners in the area, owner Amiya Cleveland tells D Magazine. Many of her customers have health issues that require them to limit their meat intake, she said, and ITSO Vegan is the only vegan restaurant in Grand Prairie. So far, the fundraiser has met about 10% of its $60,000 goal.

Gas Monkey’s new “food truck on steroids” will feed 10,000 people a day

A new project from reality TV gearhead Richard Rawlings, who also owns Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill, will be a custom-designed $500,000 food truck that’ll have the ability to feed 10,000 people a day. According to the Dallas Morning News, the truck (a trailer, really) will be 42 feet long. It’s being designed by San Antonio food truck fabrication company Cruising Kitchens.

The truck will be parked outside Rawlings’s auto restoration shop, Gas Monkey Garage, made popular by the now-defunct Discovery Channel reality show Fast N’ Loud, at which Rawlings and his crew bought and restores vintage vehicles. “A lot of people don’t realize I actually love to cook,” Rawlings told the DMN. “It’s my second passion after cars and motorcycles.”

Rawlings is currently in a legal battle over another restaurant, Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill, who he claims is using his brand without authorization.