Top Chef Carla Pellegrino Debuts An Italian Restaurant in Victory Park, Sugar Factory Shutters, And More Dallas Restaurant News

The Dallas dining scene is forever evolving. To help you stay in the know, we’ve gathered the buzziest openings, the unfortunate closures, and any other food news we might find fitting. The Dallas Dish is your weekly helping of need-to-know North Texas restaurant news — and will hopefully point you in the direction of your next great reservation.

The Latest Dallas Restaurant News to Know

A Top Chef is opening her new Italian dining concept in Dallas’ Victory Park.

Award-winning Top Chef alum chef Carla Pellegrino will debut a new Italian concept in Victory Park in early 2025. Urban Italia will go into the former WFAA studio — a massive 6,100 square-foot space. Dallas-based ID 4 Studio is designing the restaurant, which will feature a “warm and inviting space,” according to Urban Italia CEO Sanjay Joshi in a statement. Pellegrino is a renowned chef in New York and Las Vegas, who came to North Texas earlier this year to debut Grapevine’s Teatro. The menu at Urban Italia will feature wood-fired pizzas, homemade pastas, risottos, and more.

“Chef Pellegrino plans to blend the old-world charm of Neapolitan cuisine with the innovative spirit of American-Italian classics, offering something for everyone. The restaurant will feature an open kitchen, allowing guests to witness the culinary magic as pizzas are prepared in a traditional wood-fired oven, imported directly from Naples.”

A Top Lower Greenville spot is launching an exclusive new dinner series this fall.

Chef Toby Archibald of Quarter Acre is launching the Drifter Dinner Series on Friday, August 16. Once a month through November, the Lower Greenville restaurant will host a top chef from across the country. At each dinner, chef Archibald and the visiting chef will collaborate on an eight-course tasting menu with cocktails and wine. First up will be chef Diego Galicia of San Antonio’s Mixtli. In the following months, Dallas chef Matt McCallister, Spoon & Stable (Minneapolis) chef Gavin Kaysen, and chef Aaron Bludorn (of Navy Blue in Houston) will be the guest chefs. There are four seating times for each dinner and tickets are $495 per person. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Baylor Scott & White Dallas Foundation, Tinies Texans — a cause chosen by chef Archibald. Purchase tickets here.

An extravagant Las Vegas-based concept shutters in Uptown, but plans to move to a new location.

After debuting its first Texas outpost in Dallas in 2021, Las Vegas-based Sugar Factory has closed on Cedar Springs Road. A sign on the door states that it will be moving to a new location, but no other details on when or where are known. The flashy spot is known for over-the-top desserts and celebrity sightings at its locations in New York City, Miami Beach, and more. (Nick Cannon was in attendance to the Dallas opening.) There’s a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos burger on the menu, as well as rainbow-colored sliders, cocktails served in smoking goblets, and insanely sugary milkshakes. Sugar Factory just opened its third Texas location in Houston.

A European-inspired restaurant near Inwood Village transforms into a new concept.

In 2022, Lynae Fearing and Tracy Rathbun (co-owners of Shinsei and Lovers Seafood and Market) debuted their latest concept, Dea near Inwood Village. It was an upscale Italian spot that served steaks, fish, and homemade pasta. Now, Fearing has rebranded the concept to Perch Bistro & Bar, a neighborhood bistro. There are still Italian dishes on the menu including wood-fired pizzas, crab cake arancini, a beef short rib-based Genovese rigatoni, and duck confit. Perch is open Monday through Saturday for dinner.

The owners of Encina are chosen as H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best winners.

Matt Balke and Corey McCombs, owners of Bishop Arts gem Encina, just gained statewide recognition for their blue corn butterscotch pancake mix, which just nabbed third place at the 11th Annual H-E-B Quest for Texas Best. Only four small businesses out of more than 450 entries win a piece of the combined $70,000 cash prize and the chance to sell their products in H-E-B stores across Texas.

A local Italian spot is ranked among the top 100 pizzerias in the world.

Some more exciting Dallas restaurant news: One of our favorite local spots for pizza and pasta, Partenope, has been consistently ranked in the top 100 pizzerias in the world over the past few years. 50 Top Pizza named chef Dino Santonicola’s downtown Dallas concept (which just expanded to Richardson) as the 12th best pizzeria in the country this year. Husband and wife team Dino and Megan Santonicola will return to Naples (Dino’s birthplace) for the international ceremony.

Last year, Partenope was ranked 16th and the year before, 17th, showing that the local spot is just getting better and better. This year is the first the local joint is in the top 100, as you have to place 12th to be included.