Uptown's Fall Restaurant Reshuffle: What Moved Into the Spaces That Emptied

On Friday, Aug. 21, Harwood Hospitality Group closed Tequila Social at 3100 McKinnon St. and Poco Fiasco at 2823 McKinnon St. Six weeks later, on Oct. 1, the same group opened Docent Steak a few blocks away on North Harwood Street. It calls Docent its most luxurious concept yet.

Uptown's fall has followed that pattern. Most of the new places are in rooms someone else just left, and the replacements tend to aim at a different hour of the night than the businesses before them. The total number of seats in Uptown changed less than where they are and what kind of evening they're built for.

The fall swaps at a glance

Harwood traded four casual rooms for one formal one

The Harwood District lost four restaurants in late summer: Elephant East, Poco Fiasco, Tequila Social and Dolce Riviera, all run by Harwood Hospitality. In a statement to the Dallas Observer, a Harwood International spokesperson said the company "is continuing to thoughtfully evolve Harwood District through strategic investment alongside our partners across development, hospitality and the District's ground-floor experience."

Some of these closings were planned well in advance. The Observer reported that the ground floor at 3100 McKinnon Street was slated for redevelopment and that Tequila Social had always been set to close before the World Cup. Harwood kept it open through the tournament's four weeks in Dallas. Tequila Social's courtyard sat 200 people. Poco Fiasco served pizza and martinis. Both were casual places right off the Katy Trail.

Docent Steak sits at the other end of the range. According to CraveDFW, it fills two floors of Harwood No. 14, the tower at 2801 N. Harwood St. designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. Docent was first announced in early 2024 with a plan to open that summer, so it arrived more than two years late. Upstairs is a white-tablecloth dining room that opens onto a wraparound patio. Downstairs is a looser lounge with TVs.

Docent takes its name from museum guides, and the room borrows from a museum nearby. The Barbier-Mueller family owns Harwood International and The Ann & Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum: The Samurai Collection, and it has placed more than 100 pieces from its collections around the restaurant, including full suits of armor. The kitchen serves two kinds of beef. One is HWD Beef, the group's own Akaushi program, which started at Stillwell's. The other is certified Kobe, which only certified sellers may sell by that name. A rotating Kobe flight serves five cuts side by side.

Docent's website lists these bar and terrace hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 4 to 11 p.m. Friday, 5 to 11 p.m. Saturday, and 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Those are dinner hours. Anyone looking for something later now heads a few blocks east.

McKinney Avenue picked up the late hours

Marlowe opened Sept. 23 at 2912 McKinney Ave., in the former Theory nightclub. DiningOut describes an amber-lit entrance with an enclosed brass patio and a glowing penguin by the door. Partner Alon Abramov picked the penguin as the mascot. It's open Wednesday through Saturday until 2 a.m.

Marlowe has a real kitchen, too. Chef Vidal Cantu, formerly of Gemma, cooks a Mediterranean-leaning menu without seed oils. Caesar salad, feta dip and fries with three dips cost $8 to $16. Cappelletti in brodo filled with short rib costs $26, and mini bourekas with caviar cost $30. Signature cocktails run $18 to $22 under beverage director Kyle Buckelew. For groups, an order called Something to Take the Edge Off brings dirty martinis for four with Caesar salad and fries.

Élephante, a short walk away at 2701 Maple Ave., opened Sept. 1 and also stays open late. Its hours page lists a late-night menu until midnight Thursday through Saturday, a bar open until 1 a.m. and DJs from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. on those nights.

Here are the latest closing times on a Saturday among this fall's openings:

• Docent Steak bar and terrace: 11 p.m.
• Élephante: kitchen closes at 11 p.m., late-night menu until midnight, bar until 1 a.m.
• Marlowe: 2 a.m.

Élephante also covers the early end of the day. It opens at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, so its two floors and 1,250-square-foot patio work for a weekend lunch as well. On the same block, JOEY Maple opened Sept. 10 at 2508 Maple Ave., in the former Sisu space.

The game-day room moved north

As Harwood dropped its casual patios, the casual game-day spot ended up farther up McKinney Avenue. Mar y Sol at 4511 McKinney Ave. served its last dinner on Aug. 15. The Dallas Morning News reported that Lombardi Family Concepts would turn the space into Victory Tap, a sports bar with burgers, pizzas, sushi rolls, birria brisket tacos, wings, queso and guacamole.

Victory Tap was up and running by late October. On Monday, Oct. 26, it hosted a watch party for the Cowboys–Eagles game at its Dallas location, starting at 7:15 p.m. Uptown still has a place to watch a game over wings and queso, now in the 4500 block of McKinney Avenue instead of on McKinnon Street next to the trail.

The old Quarter Bar is next in line

The latest swap is at 3301 McKinney Ave. #200, the former Quarter Bar. Jākö Cocina Y Agave is taking over the space as a full restaurant of about 3,200 square feet with a courtyard patio. The Tarrant County Herald reported that it will add lunch, which the flagship doesn't serve.

Co-founder Adafel Acosta, who also helped found 3ntourage Hospitality, set a mid-November opening target in that Oct. 28 report. Executive chef José Caballero, a native of Venezuela, leads the kitchen. The menu mixes Mexican cooking with South American and Caribbean flavors: mixed ceviche, beef empanadas, Iberian-ham croquettes, tacos with barbacoa, fried snapper or pollo al carbon, and grilled picanha. Tequila and mezcal anchor the bar.

Once Jākö is serving, McKinney Avenue will have a restaurant built around lunch and a courtyard in a space that last ran as a bar.

One date to add before the holidays

The next big gathering on Uptown's edge is at Klyde Warren Park. Its Tree Lighting Celebration, presented by H-E-B/Central Market, is Saturday, Dec. 5, from 4 to 7 p.m. at 2012 Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The program includes the Mayor's Tree lighting, photos with Santa, story time with Mrs. Claus and live performances. The lighting ends at 7 p.m., early enough for dinner afterward at one of the new spots above.

Restaurant swaps like these change how a neighborhood feels from block to block, and that's part of what Diane watches when she helps clients figure out where in Uptown fits their routine. If you'd like to talk through how this fall's changes affect your corner of Uptown, Diane Bearden is glad to help. Contact Diane for a personalized market consultation.