Victory: That Gasoline Smell...

Indeed, whether it's Taco Borga of La Duni fame bringing his Peru-centric Alo Cenaduria and Piqueos Latin tapas to the Knox-Henderson shopping district or Tei Tei Robata Bar founder Teiichi Sakurai devoting an entire restaurant to the disciplined art of soba noodles with Tei An, or Dean Fearing's stunning $6 million, seven-room shit-eating grin that seems stuck in a 1990s global fusion time warp with spurs, Dallas restaurateurs are holding their breath and betting the bank.

Stone Cold Sobering

Nipping at the ankles of this dynamism is an array of forces, from the sub-prime meltdown, to the high cost of filling up the Beemer, to the ethanol-fueled spike in commodities prices that's exerting upward price pressure on everything from farm-raised tilapia to chickens to steak and, hence, menu prices.

According to Mabel, the restaurant business is thriving at the extremes—both at the top end and at the bottom end. It's the middle that's sagging. Growth in the mid-priced casual dining segment has slowed or is flattening, a condition that precipitated Lone Star Funds' $629 million private equity buy-out last year of Lone Star Steakhouse & Saloon. Lone Star announced its plans to spin off its Del Frisco's Double Eagle and Sullivan's steakhouses in a move that will include a $100 million initial public offering sometime next year, ostensibly to keep Lone Star's sagging midlevel feeders from dragging down its more profitable upscale steakhouses.

Yet some are bucking the casual dining sag with personality and flawless execution. Witness Consilient Restaurants' The Porch.

That sets up an interesting market niche for the crafty. Dallas loves its celebrity chefs, its home-grown stars trekking through dining rooms with glad hands and high-wattage smiles. As the costs of producing chef-driven restaurants escalate and the cadre of frequent diners to keep them aloft remains limited, the market is ripe for modest chef-driven neighborhood venues. Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District now hosts Zen Sushi (by chef Michelle Carpenter), the reanimation of Tillman's Corner as Tillman's Roadhouse with Stephan Pyles alum Dan Landsburg in the kitchen and a Café Madrid outpost. Watch for Dallas versions of the gastro-pub, chef-driven watering holes reminiscent of Lakewood's Cock & Bull when Pyles alum Lisa Balliet turns it into a haute sudsery (now former Jeroboam chef Hugh Stewart is doing the haute part).

Stephan Pyles is rumored to be close to a deal on a downtown location that would serve as a more modest sibling to his restaurant. Olenjack's Grille in Arlington, founded by former Reata chef Brian Olenjack, wrings fine-dining quality from moderate prices. Then there's acclaimed chef Tim Love of Lonesome Dove Western Bistro. Love's newly launched Love Shack specializes in freshly ground burgers sourced from top-notch steers, plus hot dogs, venison and buffalo sausages and hand-cut fries. "These chefs want to sell some shit that they can really get some volume out of, get it out there and show their stuff," says Jeffrey Yarbrough, president of Big Ink PR and Marketing. "They can make a hamburger taste just as good as they can a $50 plate."

Yarbrough yearns to see this casual chef-driven template applied to steakhouses; he envisions humble neighborhood joints with a couple of well-chosen cuts, a bird, a fish and a handful of sides to create an economical alternative to the opulent special-effects steakhouses that breed like timber 'shrooms along Dallas' highways and byways.

"Steak is not going away," Mabel says. "It is a staple of the diet...a perceived luxury. It's here. Once something gets into the American diet, it's hard to shake." Yet we shook New York's Smith & Wollensky at the end of 2006. An omen? Hardly.

Bob's Steak & Chop House is now in Grapevine. Laurent Tourondel's BLT Steak, another New York import with a casual setting and $92 American Wagyu rib eyes, just opened aft the Galleria. Ounce Prime Steak House, opened by San Antonio restaurateur and Fleming's alum Danny Schertzer, hit Addison in the former La Valentina spot with Akaushi beef ($100 for a 14-ounce New York strip), a "genetically controlled" breed of Japanese Wagyu cattle. The fifth Silver Fox Steakhouse resides where Star Canyon once kicked the kitsch out of Southwestern.

The year also saw the reanimation of Tiki culture at the Hotel Palomar with Trader Vic's, the demise of Luqa and Petrus Lounge downtown, an event that sent chef wunderkind David Gilbert into the arms of Jack Baum and Mort Meyerson, who feature his work at Meyerson's in the Rosewood Court Development; the regrettable replacement of Susie Priore's Iris with a Campisi's; and the exit of founders Kathy McDaniel and Charlotte Parker from The Grape after 35 years and the entrance of chef Brian Luscher as new owner; and the sad passing of chef Annie Wong, the mother of Dallas Thai food (Thai Lanna, Star of Siam, Liberty Noodles) at the age of 71 because of complications from a stroke. Avner Samuel's Urban Bistro perished (two locations), and Fireside Pies expanded to Plano, Grapevine and in the former Urban Bistro location at Lovers and Inwood.

Kent Rathbun restructured his restaurant group, parent of Abacus and Jasper's restaurants in Plano, Austin and The Woodlands, by teaming up with former Ruth's Chris Steak House CEO Bill Hyde. Hyde operates the Zea Woodfire Grill franchise in Plano. Plus Abacus chef de cuisine Tre Wilcox, buoyed by his appearance as a contestant on the Bravo TV hit Top Chef, has vacated the Abacus kitchen to pursue TV studio klieg lights. Now that's napalm.