Texas Top Chef
Chef Stephan Pyles salutes the art of fine cooking and fine dining.
In November 2005, the pioneer of New American Cuisine and a legendary founding father of Southwestern cuisine, launched the first restaurant to bear his name. The 160‐seat Stephan Pyles restaurant is located within the Dallas Arts District on Ross Avenue at St. Paul Street in Southwest Plaza, which was designed by noted architect George Dahl and originally built in 1963. Located one block from the Dallas Museum of Art and a few blocks from the acclaimed Nasher Sculpture Center and Meyerson Symphony Center, the venue also houses the Fashion Industry Gallery (FIG), a nationally‐recognized boutique wholesale fashion venue.
Chef Stephan Pyles suggests that his namesake eatery is no repeat of any of the 14 restaurants he has created over the past two‐plus decades. These include the award‐winning restaurants Routh Street Café, Star Canyon, Baby Routh, AquaKnox, Goodfellow’s and Tejas, many of which lit up the dining scene in Las Vegas and Minneapolis as well as Dallas. “This is a highly stylized venue and a dining experience that Dallas has never seen,” Pyles says. “If Routh Street Café was about dining in the ‘80s, and Star Canyon about dining in the ‘90s, this place is about dining in the new millennium.” The Stephan Pyles restaurant employs architecture and design to salute the arts of fine cooking and dining.
CHEF STEPHAN PYLES SALUTES THE ARTS OF FINE COOKING AND DINING
“The Arts District has a definite impact on the look and feel of the place. It’s more refined in its décor, cuisine and wine list than anything I’ve done in the past,” says Pyles, a fifth generation Texan. “The restaurant is a true melding of my vision for New Millennium Southwestern Cuisine in a classically modern landmark building. The Stephan Pyles restaurant combines art, food and design in a way that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.”
The new millennium menu weaves a global food tapestry of tastes, flavors, and textures from Texas, South America, Spain, the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and from Chef Pyles’ many years of award‐winning experience in devising and enhancing Southwestern cuisine. Those who appreciate fine spatial design along with fine food will delight in the restaurant’s sensual melding of ultra modern geometric shapes in metal and wood with vivid regional accents: Southwestern sunset and desert colors, stacked Texas flagstone, and the mesquite and hickory smoke smells emanating from a wood‐burning oven, rotisserie and grill.
Contemporary, Texas and Southwest‐themed art combine with dramatic lighting and water effects to enhance the powerful and sensual impact of this space. The focal point of the restaurant is the glass‐enclosed kitchen that can be seen from throughout the space. There are three distinct dining rooms along with a tapas and ceviche bar, a communal dining table and a wine room as well as an al fresco terrace dining area which overlooks the landscaped grounds and water garden of Henry C. Beck, Jr. Park. The private dining room doubles as a space for sharing Pyles’ expertise via cooking classes.
Pyles’ long list of honors over twenty‐plus years includes the inaugural James Beard award for Best Chef in America—Southwest; the AAA 5 Diamond Award; the American Academy of Achievement Award; and the first Texan named to the Who’s Who of Food and Wine in America. In 2006, Esquire named Pyles “Chef of the Year” and included his newest restaurant, Stephan Pyles, in their list of “Best New Restaurants”. Texas Monthly named Pyles one of the “twenty most impressive, intriguing, and influential Texans for 1998” and in their February 2007 issue named his restaurant, Stephan Pyles, “Best New Restaurant of 2006”.
CHEF STEPHAN PYLES SALUTES THE ARTS OF FINE COOKING AND DINING
Stephan Pyles is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner Monday through Thursday from 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday the tapas‐ceviche bar is available beginning at 5 p.m. and the dining room opens at 6 p.m.
Located at 1807 Ross Avenue at St. Paul Street, reservations can be made by calling 214‐580‐7000 or by visiting www.stephanpyles.com.
