The Dallas Farmers Market has been going through big changes this year.
By SARAH BLASKOVICH and ROBERT WILONSKY
Staff Writers
Ever since the Dallas Farmers Market went private in June of last year, we’ve been promised a new look — and new tenants — for Shed 2, once the home to Pecan Lodge. Finally, the names of all four restaurants, plus one additional shop, have been announced. All are slated to open in spring 2015:
Rex’s Seafood and Market, a restaurant and retail fish market from owner Rex Bellomy, who has a standalone shop on Lovers Lane in Dallas
Stocks & Bondy, a soup and sandwich place with counter service. The shop will sell stocks and sauces to home cooks. Its chef is Joanne Bondy, who left the Gaylord Texan’s Old Hickory Steakhouse about six months ago.
Nammi and Coolhaus, two Dallas food trucks that will sell together in one restaurant. The menu will have traditional Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches from Nammi and ice cream sandwiches from Coolhaus. Nammi and Coolhaus already operate together inside Valley View Mall; that shop will remain open.
Palmieri Cafe, an Italian coffee shop with gelato, pastries and coffee
“A restaurant from Firebird Restaurant Group,” which operates Snuffer’s, Meso Maya, El Fenix and others. Sources familiar with the deal said weeks ago it would be a Taqueria La Ventana, like the one behind Meso Maya near the Perot Museum of Nature and Science. But that has changed in recent days.
“It’s a broader concept and one of a kind, which I think is brilliant, because they have a La Ventana half a mile away,” says UCR’s Jack Gosnell, who assembled the tenants and signed the leases. “We said whatever you guys want to do is fine with us. So they’ll have a broader offering than just a taqueria.”
The farmers market will also have plenty of patio seating, says Gosnell.
We’ve already reported that Mudhen, the restaurant and beer garden from restaurateur Shannon Wynne, will also open in 2015 in the Dallas Farmers Market. That restaurant is a standalone shop.
The Dallas Farmers Market gave us a first glimpse of the updates on Labor Day weekend, when The Shed — formerly Shed 1 — opened. (Existing vendors in that shed were relocated to Shed 3.) DMN contributor Kim Pierce says The Shed is “like an open-floor market pavilion,” where all vendors are required to label where their produce comes from.
President and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc. John Crawford says in a press release he’s already seen “more development and foot traffic than the neighborhood has ever seen.”
“We are thrilled with the quality, variety and experience coming to the area,” he says.