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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.
Decadent Vegas restaurant will bring its over-the-top milkshakes and candy creations to Uptown
Sugar Factory American Brasserie, the self-proclaimed “most Instagrammed restaurant in America,” will bring its decadent milkshakes, giant candy-colored cocktails and $99 “King Kong” sundaes to Uptown later this summer.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Sugar Factory will open in the former Ruth’s Chris Steak House at 1900 Cedar Springs Road. The restaurant, which has courted celebrities like Drake, Gordon Ramsay and Chip and Joanna Gaines, is known for absolutely over-the-top menu items like a $30 whiskey-spiked s’mores milkshake, $40 cocktails served in a 60-oz goblet with names like “Fuzzy Peach Penguin Mango Tongue Twister” (that drink was created by the rapper Pitbull), and a $99 sundae topped with 24 scoops of ice cream. There are savory dishes too, like pasta, burgers and steaks.
Sugar factory was founded in Las Vegas in 2009, and the Dallas location will be the first in Texas. Another location is apparently in the works for Houston.
Beloved Downtown cafe brings breakfast at East Dallas
Ellen’s, the Downtown cafe offering all-day comfort food menus with dishes like meatloaf sandwiches, breakfast enchiladas, and chicken-fried Benedict, is slated to open a new location in East Dallas’ Casa Linda neighborhood later this summer.
According to CultureMap, the restaurant will fill a void left by breakfast spot Barbec’s and Highland Park Cafeteria, both of which closed in 2020. The East Dallas location is part of a big expansion for Ellen’s, which also opened a location in Allen last year, and which has a fourth outpost headed for Fort Worth.
Founders of The Rustic to open Tex Mex Cantina on Fitzhugh Avenue
FreeRange Concepts, founders of The Rustic and Bowl & Barrell, have a new Tex Mex restaurant in the works inspired by co-owner Kyle Noonan’s grandfather, Joe Leo Romero. According to a press release, Joe Leo, which will open on May 5 at 2722 N. Fitzhugh Avenue, will be “neither pretentious nor overly complex.” The restaurant will serve up Everclear-spiked margaritas, fajitas and other Tex Mex dishes in an environment decorated like old school border cantinas, with tequila bottles and sombreros on the walls. Even though Joe Leo’s grand opening is May 5, diners can get a taste of the menu starting April 19 by ordering delivery through the restaurant’s website or through Doordash.
