Bishop Arts News
Brunch all day is totally the right thing.
Pull out your world atlas for this: A new restaurant and bar based in New York is coming to Dallas from an Australian team. Called Isla & Co., it'll open in Bishop Arts, at 408 W. 8th St., better known as the former Lucia Dallas space. (Lucia relocated to 287 N. Bishop Ave.)
Isla & Co. is from Parched Restaurant Group, a New York outfit from two natives of Australia, Barry Dry and Tom Rowse, whose other concepts include coffee cafe Hole in the Wall, The Sentry penthouse lounge, and Daintree in Midtown Manhattan.
There are currently Isla & Co. locations in Williamsburg, Brooklyn; Fairfield, Connecticut; and Midtown Manhattan. Bishop Arts opens October 21.
Co-owner Tom Rowse says that their goal with Isla — pronounced "eye-la" — is to recreate a common concept in Australia.
"Isla is one of most popular female names in Australia," Rowse says. "We liked the idea of having a female name, and it's also a Scottish word that translates to 'island'."
"The concept started in New York where we could find coffee specialty shops and places doing good brunch or good dinner, but no one that did them all," he says. "That kind of versatility is not unique in Australia."
So they're there for morning coffee, lunch, and dinner, with a seasonal food and beverage menu featuring influences from Australia, Europe, and SouthEast Asia, plus cheerful, engaging service.
"The service aspect can be challenging, especially in this environment, but it's important to us," Rowse says. "We are very culture driven and put a lot of time into not just hiring the right staff but in doing continuous training. We want to create a fun work culture that passes on to the guest experience. We even have a 'culture officer' who supervises this process."
Dallas had been on their radar for a couple of years.
"A few years ago, we might've gone to Austin, but Bishop Arts spoke to us," he says. "We like to be in areas with good restaurants and Bishop Arts has a great food & beverage scene. And the space itself is exactly what we were looking for, with 40 seats inside and 40 outside."
Food
Executive chef Matt Foley attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, worked at two-Michelin-starred Marea, and was corporate chef at fast-casual restaurant group DIG, before joining Parched, where he oversees the menus at Hole in the Wall and Isla & Co.
Brunch is served daily until 4 pm and includes:
Dinner dishes include:
Drinks
Isla & Co. has a specialty coffee program inspired by Australia's hardcore coffee culture, serving Hole in the Wall Espresso with two house blends suitable for espresso or drip, originating from Ethiopia and the Americas, and roasted in Denver. Need the world atlas again!
Their bar program includes a wine list focused on natural and organic wines, plus craft beer and signature cocktails like the Espresso Martini (Tito's vodka, Mr. Black coffee liqueur, espresso), Wizard of Aus (Starward Whiskey, lemon juice, sugar, egg white, Shiraz wine float), Isla Old Fashioned (bourbon, Amaro Montenegro, Eucalyptus bitters), and The Taipan (Hiatus Tequila, spicy pepper, yuzu, agave, and shiso).
All beverages including mimosas and bloody marys are served from brunch through to dusk.
Isla & Co. is also slated to open locations in Atlanta, South Beach, and West Palm Beach later this year.
Bagel News
Downtown Dallas is due to get some authentic, artisanal bagels: Starship Bagel, an old-school bagel shop that serves New York-style bagels, specialty shmears, lox, and coffee, will open a shop at 1520 Elm St., along Stone Street Gardens, with a front-row view of The Eye sculpture.
Owner-founder Oren Salomon says he's hoping to be open and rolling out bagels in early 2023.
Salomon debuted Starship in 2021, when he opened the first location in Lewisville, doing New York-style bagels made in small batches with the most premium ingredients, in classic varieties such as Plain, Sesame, Poppyseed, Everything, Garlic, Salt, and Zaatar.
Starship features lox from Brooklyn-based Acme Smoked Fish Corp and a quartet of cream cheese shmears: plain, garden veggie, lox, and fermented jalapeno. 
A perfect plain bagel by Starship Bagel.Paul Arturo Torres
With the exception of their egg bagel, all bagels are vegan, and they make their own vegan shmears, which have developed a big following at the Lewisville original. Their coffee is from Onyx Coffee Lab, a top-rated roaster based in Arkansas.
Salomon is a young entrepreneur with a true passion for making great bagels who developed his authentic recipe in which the dough is made from scratch, boiled, and baked fresh daily.
Since opening, Starship has not only been selling bagels from the shop, but also has an extensive delivery program in which freshly made bagels are delivered to 15 cafes across Dallas-Fort Worth including Merit Coffee, Fiction Coffee, Lemma Coffee, and Staycation in Richardson.
Even better, they do home deliveries, as in delivery to your front door, on Saturdays and Sundays (which you can order here, assuming you're in the delivery zone).
"One of the good things about bagels is that they're very portable," Salomon says. "A fresh bagel can last at least 6-8 hours."
The downtown Dallas shop is going into the old Cafe Strada space, primarily a walk-up counter with outdoor seating spread across the patio. Salomon says that Downtown Dallas Inc. helped facilitate the deal and provided tables and chairs as part of their ongoing commitment to improving downtown public spaces.
It'll feature the same menu as Lewisville, with bagels and a few sandwiches such as lox & cream cheese, or cucumber with tomato, sprouts, red onion, and avocado.
"We don't do crazy sandwich concoctions — our menu is designed around getting you to taste the bagels," he says.
"Bagels demand a high foot-traffic walk-up culture, and downtown Dallas is the best neighborhood in DFW to match the tone of bagels," he says. "I also like the idea of tempting New Yorkers staying at the Joule who might not be able to resist my New York-style bagels."
