A Superstar Celebrity Chef’s New Texas Restaurant Looks Like a Club

and Brings Robotic Flower Power

By Linden Wilson Jobe // Jun 29, 2016

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Summer posole with smoked shishito broth, rockfish escabeche was just one of the stunners at Flora Street Cafe.

As one door closed, another has opened for megawatt chef Stephan Pyles. His recently debuted Flora Street Cafe follows the closure of Stephan Pyles restaurant, which anchored the Dallas Arts District dining scene for 10 years.

Flora Street Cafe is still in the Arts District, but closer to the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and the Winspear Opera House, on the ground floor of the Hall Arts building — perfect for pre- or post-performance dining. Pyles fans are abuzz over the club-like atmosphere evoked by its earthy finishes, dark wood floors, jewel-toned silk tapestry and 15 deconstructed-glass chandeliers.

Glass chandeliers suspended at different heights in the dining room (Photo by Imani Chet Lytle)

Pyles’ modernist Texas fare includes plenty of meat (akaushiwagyu ribeye, wild boar loin and jowl barbecue, pheasant and Nilgai antelope) and homegrown produce (the local garden roots drizzled in poblano-lime butter are superb).

Another focal point is Shy Light, a work by artists Lonneke Gordijn, Ralph Nauta and Jozeph Hendricks that hangs above the leather-paneled walnut bar. The robotic sculpture — which was crafted in Amsterdam of silk, aluminum, steel and LED lights — unfolds with the choreographic motions of a flower. Flora Street Cafe, 2330 Flora St., 214.580.7000.