Crowds pouring into Highland Park Village crave luxury. At this open-air mall in suburban Dallas, they park their Porsches, carry Yves Saint Laurent bags, flit in and out of Audemars Piguet, stopping for brunch at Sadelle’s, a trendy new deli from large food group in NYC.

Sadelle’s has been open for just over a year, and it’s not unusual to find the place crowded on a Tuesday afternoon with well-dressed guests sipping mimosas and snacking on $18 pigs in a blanket and $85 latkes with salmon and sturgeon caviar. Even coffee sugar is served in tiny Dutch ovens called Le Creuset.

Dallas has long had a reputation for living in grand style, an image built on oil money and the sprawling ranches set against its backdrop. series of the same name. But today the city is experiencing a surge of new development, new residents, new wealth – and a gastronomic scene pumped up by the arrival of several elite national restaurant groups, all eager to cater for the party.

These companies are giving Dallas the same attention they previously gave to tourist destinations like Las Vegas and Miami. Over the past two years or so, local outposts have been established STKRH, Komodo, La Neta Cocina and Lounge and even Nusr Et, Salt Bae Steakhouse. Major Food Group opened a branch of its maximalist-Italian restaurant Carbone in Dallas last year and says it has even bigger ambitions in the city.

The local rumor mill is buzzing with rumors about the next potential import – names like Stone Crab Joe from Miami (which said it had no such plan), or Ralph Lauren’s polo bar (who did not respond to requests for comment) and pastis (which stated that “preliminary negotiations” about the space were underway) from New York.

“I’ve had calls from every group of restaurants in the country,” said Stephen Summers, whose family owns Highland Park Village. He added, “Every band you can imagine, from LA to New York to international bands, seems to want to be in Dallas.”

The pandemic has prompted many Americans to move to places like Miami another San Antoniowhere the weather was warmer and Covid restrictions were looser.

No city has benefited more from this change than Dallas. From April 2020 to July 2021, the Dallas-Fort Worth area added about 122,000 new residents, more than any other metropolitan area in the country, according to census data. Some demographers predict that by the 2030s, Dallas – now Texas’ largest metropolitan area – will can replace Chicago How third largest metro area in the country.

Where will these people go to have fun? There are no beaches, mountains, or wonders of the world in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but there are about 15,000 places to eat. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2022, the average family in Dallas spent a larger share of their income on dining out than in New York, Miami, or San Francisco.

Like any major city, Dallas has its share of need – 17.7 percent population lives in poverty economic inequality. The area is home to 92,300 millionaires and 18 billionaires. report for 2022 from Henley & Partners, a London-based investment firm that has ranked Dallas as the 18th wealthiest city in the world. Several Fortune 500 companies, including AT&T and American Airlines, are headquartered in the area.

“You have no idea how fast money is being spent in this market,” said Julie Macklow, founder Macklowe American Single Malt Whiskey, which sells for between $350 and $400 per serving at numerous Dallas restaurants. “It’s like the American version of Dubai.”

These upscale chains cater to the city’s ultra-wealthy—and those who want to spend an evening like them. Group of restaurants from Las Vegas Blue + Partners recently opened crown block at the Reunion Soaring Tower in Dallas, where the seafood tower costs $230. This place was about 10,000 bookings even before he released the menu.

La Neta Cocina y Lounge, a three-month-old branch in Dallas, originally from Las Vegas, offers a $95 lobster taco served in a tortilla stuffed with cheese.

Restaurant owner Ryan Labbe has high hopes for Dallas, where, unlike Las Vegas, food isn’t just a stopover on the way to shows or clubs.

“Dinner in Dallas is your night,” he said.

In Dallas, these companies also found manageable operating expenses. “There is no state or local income tax. Rent is cheaper and ingredients cost less than in many other major cities,” said Matt Wynn, partner and chief development officer for the Chicago-based company. maple hospitality groupwhich has two restaurants in Dallas – monarch another kessaku — and plans to open a third, Maple & Ash. According to him, it has become easier to hire workers and sell extravagant dishes.

At Monarch, “We have a whole king crab that serves eight people and it costs $1,000,” Mr Wynn said. Visitors from Dallas “will show up and spend it.”

In a city whose dining scene was often in shadow Houstonvarious cuisines and Austinmany distinctive independent restaurants, many locals love the attention.

“Two Ritz-Carlton hotels are being built here,” said George White, a former IT salesman who often dine out. “Things are happening.”

But the lavish dining scene isn’t necessarily exciting, said Brian Reinhart, food critic for D Magazine, who recently published a list of the 50 best restaurants in the city – and deliberately excluded out-of-town chain restaurants from it.

“If we’re moving towards a world where high-end restaurants are as much chained as the simplest fast food,” he said, “it will be harder for Dallas to maintain any sort of distinction or culinary character.”

Chain restaurants have historically been part of the city’s identity, albeit less expensive: Chile, Mexican Grill and Cantina On the Border another 7-eleven everyone started here. The proliferation of these businesses has hurt the image of local restaurants, said Mark Masinter, founder Open real estate consultantswhich rents out real estate to Dallas restaurants.

But in recent years, many of the city’s independent restaurants have thrived and gained mainstream recognition. Bon Appétit chose Dallas as its home restaurant city of the year in 2019. Other publications have named Petra and the monster another Southern Ruth Table among the best in the country. (The Times included Roots in its 2021 list of favorite American restaurants.)

Sam Romano, owner of a local steakhouse. Nick and Sam, said the influx of out-of-town restaurant groups would further elevate Dallas’s profile. “With restaurants comes prestige,” he said, citing Major Food Group’s decision to open a subsidiary of Carbone, one of four in the US. “That says something about Dallas.”

A few years ago, Dallas didn’t even come to the attention of New York restaurateur Eugene Remm. On the advice of a colleague, he visited this place in 2021 and was surprised to find that the dining rooms are overcrowded every evening of the week.

“If you can find restaurants that are busy on Mondays and Tuesdays and restaurants within a dense two-mile radius that can bring in $17 million to $22 million, there are no more than 10 markets that can justify that kind of spending on a regular basis.” He said. “That makes it special.”

He plans to open a store next year. catchan upscale seafood and steak restaurant located in the fast growing Uptown area.

He once associated Dallas with “George Bush and cowboy hats,” but found it more like New York. “People are going to membership clubs and have the same Dior store, the same Gucci store and all the same.”

Not every national restaurant group succeeds here. Chef Tom Colicchio has closed his Location of Craft in Dallas in 2012. Il MulinoItalian import from New York, closed in 2006, after only two years in business.

Today, Dallas visitors are more cosmopolitan, says Candace Nelson, who opened the restaurant. sprinkles cupcake shop in 2007, then a Los Angeles branch of the restaurant. Pizza in 2022. “They are thrilled when a concept from their many travels chooses their city to visit.”

On a recent Friday night at Carbone, the excitement among the guests was palpable. Throughout the evening, buyers in suits and stilettos poured out of the Cadillac Escalade. Waiters in raspberry uniforms scurried around the restaurant with $600 bottles of Burgundy and edible gold-coated chocolate cake bars.

“People who work here call themselves captains and they have outfits,” said Nav Singh, who works in real estate and spent money to celebrate his birthday at Carbone. “They are putting in the effort. At the mom and dad store, it might be a white shirt, black pants.” He said that compared to the average restaurant in Dallas, “it’s more upscale.”

But the boom of out-of-town restaurants was not without losses for the owners of the field.

In 2021, Julian Barsotti, longtime owner of Carbone’s restaurant in Dallas, sued Carbone alleging copyright infringement. But it was Mr. Barsotti who turned out to be name change of his restaurant following a deal with Major Food Group.

“If the name meant so much to them, I would be happy to compromise in the end,” said Mr. Barsotti, who said he could not divulge the terms of the deal.

Erin Willis, who recently closed her French restaurant RM 12:20 Bistro in East Dallas said large restaurant groups were partly to blame.

“These big corporations that now own all the restaurants can pay for more ads, they have deeper pockets, they are shinier,” she said. “It upstages little places like me and we can’t survive.”

Outside groups also dilute the city’s culinary diversity, she says.

“There are so many ethnic dishes in Dallas, but what the corporate side is doing is bringing the same thing to the metroplex,” she said. “No variety. It’s pushing out people who are trying to stay true to their culture.”

Teiichi Sakurai runs a Japanese restaurant downtown. Tei Ana short drive from two world famous sushi bars, nobu another teachthat came from other cities. But Mr. Sakurai said that the competition had not affected his business.

“Nobu, they have a lot more European dishes made with carpaccio-style Japanese fish,” he said. “We make handmade soba.”

And Dallas visitors are loyal, he said. “We have 25 years of loyal customers.” According to him, national groups come and go. “They don’t remember names.”

Regino Rojas, who serves dishes from his native Michoacán, Mexico in his restaurants, Revolver Taco Lounge another Revolver Gastro Cantina, upscale chains focus more on creating atmosphere than serving unique food. According to him, he has a different clientele.

Also, according to Mr. Romano of Nick & Sam’s, Dallas is getting denser and bigger as new developments expand the metro area. If restaurant groups want to open a store here, “we have the space and the people for them.”

Is there such a thing as too many places to eat?

“I don’t think there are enough of them yet,” he said.

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