Australian Celebrity Chef to Open a New Dallas Steakhouse With One of City’s Restaurant Kings

Australian celebrity chef Curtis Stone and his brother, Luke Stone, are partnering with Dallas-based restauranteur Stephan Courseau (Up on Knox, Le Bilboquet) to open up a new restaurant in the Knox district. Although not yet named, the highly anticipated spot will be located at 4514 Travis Street, in the former Villa-O space.

Known for his work as an award-winning chef, TV personality and New York Times best-selling author, Curtis Stone is behind New American restaurant Maude in Beverly Hills and Gwen Butcher Shop & Restaurant in Hollywood.

Courseau reached out to Curtis Stone and his brother with the idea of opening a steakhouse. He wanted it to be “not your typical steakhouse” and the “animals to be sustainable with an in-house butcher.”

Gwen, the Stones’ fine-dining restaurant in Los Angeles, has a similar concept. The Knox spot will be “more of a great American restaurant with products that are simple, but right,” Courseau notes.

Stone will be cooking up recipes in his Los Angeles test kitchen for the Dallas menu, as well as training chefs who will head up the kitchen, Courseau tells PaperCity.

“The menu will mimic a lot of what they do at Gwen,” Courseau says.

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Like Courseau’s other restaurants, the new restaurant’s ingredients will come from local farmers and will support what he believes in — healthy and sustainable food.

The butcher shop will be in the back of the restaurant and plans call for it to be open all day with everything from organic juices and bites for breakfast to sandwiches, soups, and salads for lunch, and to-go rotisserie chickens and sides for dinner offered.

Everything from pre-packaged meats to eggs also will be available for purchase.

The space is designed by GRT, a firm based out of Brooklyn. The new restaurant will have the “same spirit” as Gwen says Courseau.

“It will have a West Hollywood vibe and the European look we already have [at Le Bibloquet and Up on Knox],” he says.

Courseau is drawn to the Knox district.

“It’s the only area with an urban feel and Texas cache,” he says. “It has the most mixed demographics in Dallas.” He says that people from Highland Park to the younger crowd in Henderson all come out to Knox. He wants to be a part of the convergence of people and that’s a goal he strives for with his restaurants.

The new restaurant will be Stone’s first outside of California. “Curtis and Luke were intrigued by the market,” Courseau says. “Curtis knows Dallas from appearing on different television shows and Dallas was on the top of their list” for a new spot.

“I was looking for a chef that would share the vision and has talent to train people whether he was at the restaurant or not,” Courseau says. This Australian-Dallas partnership turned out to be a perfect match.

This new Dallas restaurant opening is tentatively set for September, around Labor Day.