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Just a few months after opening two luxurious new restaurants in Downtown’s The National Building, Chef Danny Grant is already planning a third restaurant for Dallas, a neighborhood-focused eatery set to open in the East Quarter.
Etta, from Grant’s hospitality group What If Syndicate, is expected to open in 2022 at 2203 Commerce Street. The Dallas outpost will join two existing Ettas in the Chicago area.
According to What if Syndicate, the name “Etta” means the keeper of the hearth, and diners can expect dishes straight from the restaurant’s wood-fired oven, including fresh bread, pizzas, house-made pastas, and salads. Etta’s signature dish is something called the “Pig Picnic,” a massive spread of roast pork loin and pork belly served with vegetables, lettuce cups, fresh baked bread, and sides like dill yogurt, chimichurri, serrano, Veracruz oil, drippings and garlic butter.
The 11,000 square foot, two-story restaurant will be housed in a renovated century-old building and will feature a second-floor patio. According to a press release, the restaurant group is also exploring ways to use the building’s garage and alleyway space as development in the East Quarter continues.
Grant first gained fame in Chicago, where he worked at the critically-acclaimed French restaurant RIA before leaving to helm the kitchen at celebrated steakhouse Maple & Ash. He came to Dallas in 2020 to open Monarch, a modern, wood-fired Italian eatery, and Kessaku, a luxury sushi restaurant, at Downtown’s newly-opened Thompson Hotel inside The National. Grant said in a statement that Etta will be built on the success of those two restaurants.
“(Developer) Todd Interests’ plan for the development of East Quarter in Dallas is progressive and incredibly thoughtful; we are honored to be a part of it,” Grant said. “It is the perfect place for us to expand our footprint after our success of Monarch and Kessaku at The National.”
