Top Dallas Chef to Open Two New Restaurants in Historic Belmont Hotel

The Belmont Hotel Dallas, located in Oak Cliff, is an Art Moderne gem designed by Charles Stevens Dilbeck in 1946. Now, it’s getting a very modern restaurant boost.

Chef Joshua Harmon, has been hosting pop-ups at the historic Belmont Hotel for a year now, in advance of opening two new restaurants on the grounds of the iconic hotel that sits at 901 Fort Worth Avenue.

Some say Art Moderne’s horizontal lines and rounded corners were a response to Art Deco, which ruled the 1930s with its angular and vertical design. The quintessential motor court hotel has undergone extensive renovations and is now home to a boutique hotel with its historic appeal intact and an unsurpassed view of downtown Dallas.

Enter Josh Harmon and his irreverent culinary flair. He’ll be adding another outpost of his Butler’s Cabinet, which opened last year in Fort Worth’s Crockett Row Food Hall. The Belmont Hotel version will take up residence in what is now the Board Room, and will be called Coyle Cafe by B.C. ― a nod to the Belmont’s owner Jordan Coyle Ford.

Harmon, Eater Dallas’ Chef of the Year in 2017, says the new Coyle Cafe will have similar salads, artisan sandwiches and to-go fare as Butler’s Cabinet, but with a slightly “more progressive menu.” Coyle Cafe by B.C. will also be catering room service inside the hotel, when it opens, possibly as early as February or March.

The fine dining element will become The Belmont Room. This new Dallas restaurant will take a cue from its killer venue with a focus on classic techniques and updated global flavors.

“I referenced a lot of old hotel menus as a basis for The Belmont Room’s menu,” Harmon tells PaperCity.

The Belmont Room’s new menu aims to be classic and timeless — with defining touches of the unexpected. After all, it’s a Josh Harmon project.

The menu is constantly evolving, but the chef knows a few things for sure. There will be wood-grilled steaks, and there will definitely be a raw bar ― because that is the way people dined in the 1940s.

“You’ll see a lot of in-house pickling and curing of meats,” Harmon says. The chef is constantly experimenting and pickling something. He can’t help himself.

Additional menu items that Harmon has settled on for sure, include a classic beef tartare ― upgraded with an Ethiopian-inspired hot sauce and retro escargot ― modernized with his Israeli garlic sauce.

With typical construction delays related to renewing older architecture, opening estimates are now lurching toward next summer for The Belmont Room. But the updates assure the vintage motor hotel will remain on its perch in Oak Cliff for years to come.

“The owners are bringing it back to its former glory. . . what it’s always been and could be,” Harmon says.