Chophouse Burger Set To Open in Downtown Dallas

Restaurateur Mike Hoque and his Dallas Restaurant Group (Dallas Fish Market, Dallas Chop House, Wild Salsa) are set to open their burger concept, Chop House Burger, in downtown Dallas the first week of February, an insider confirms.

Who’s the insider? John Tesar, the force behind the Commissary and, despite rumors to the contrary, still a consultant for Hoque and DRG.

“Yes, I developed the menu with them,” Tesar told me. “I just finished it.”

“It’ll be a straight-up American burger, which is different from what we do at the Commissary,”

Though Tesar worked on the menu, his involvement will be otherwise limited. DRG’s executive chef, Anupam “AJ” Joglekar, will ultimately be responsible for what ends up on the plate.

Chop House Burger is carved into the northeast corner of Dallas Fish Market, with access through a separate Main Street entrance.

“Nothing will be cookie-cutter,” says Tesar. “Everything will be made to order.”

Tesar says the tightly focused menu consists of five burgers (all cooked on a flat top rather than in the fancy CVap oven Tesar uses at the Commissary), handmade shakes (whole milk plus custom made Henry’s ice creams), and fries. To sip: sodas, wines, and Texas beer.  Burgers are six-ounce chopped sirloin patties on Empire Bakery buns, topped with a “signature spread” of truffle mayo. They’ll run $5 to $9. The most exotic of the burgers, according to Tesar, is the Buffalo Burger, which he imagines as a beefy version of Buffalo chicken wings on a bun (Empire Bakery buns, of course).

“You can order a burger any way you want, any temperature you want,” offered Tesar. “And none of the burgers will be smashed down. We want the flavor to stay in the burger, not run out the sides.”

Chop House Burger, 1501 Main Street, Dallas