New Burger Restaurant With Serious Food Truck Cred Slides Into a Historic Building

Miley Holmes and Caroline Perini­ — purveyors of gourmet mini-burgers — wanted to open a restaurant. Five years, three food trucks, one shaved ice truck and a mobile bar later, their small burgers slide into a 100-year-old building in Dallas’ Deep Ellum.

The pair chose Deep Ellum for their new Easy Slider restaurant because the neighborhood was the site of their first foray into mobile service. They chose the building at Pryor and Main for its history.

“The floors tell a story, the walls tell a story, the beams and the ceiling tiles tell a story. Everything tells a story,” Perini says.

Along with the history of the building at 2701 Main, the restaurant has a low-key, relaxed vibe, a large outdoor area and pictures tracking its evolution from its very first trucks into a full new restaurant.

Holmes and Perini gassed up their first Easy Slider truck in 2011 with the end goal of opening the brick and mortar restaurant. They decided to begin the food truck operation as a way of testing the market.

“The Idea is that nothing is going to change. The only difference is that we have air conditioning and heat, we have a roof over our head.”

“When you open up a food truck and create a concept it’s a moving billboard,” Perini says. “And then people start to catch on and enjoy your food and start to follow you.”

Holmes tells aspiring food truckers how important these end goals are as the business can be brutal.

“The margins are tight, the market is extremely unpredictable, and it’s a logistical nightmare so we always advise anyone going into the food truck business to have a long-term goal,” she says. “Whether it’s becoming a full-time caterer, or whether it’s opening a restaurant or something else.”

But even with the new restaurant Easy Sliders won’t go off the road. Holmes and Perini love the trucks, and catering weddings and other events throughout the state make up 70 percent of their business.

“The idea is that nothing is going to change,” Perini says. “The only difference is that we have air conditioning and heat, we have a roof over our head and we have a full bar.”

Easy Slider started its soft opening on Monday and plans to hold an official grand opening party later this month.