Fried rooster is out, but this dish is worth a trip to this downtown Dallas restaurant

Way down in the Texas Hill Country a couple of weekends ago, I ran into Richard Blankenship, the top chef of CBD Provisions in downtown Dallas. He’d rolled out a new dinner menu, he said, and was transitioning in a new lunch menu. No newcomer to the restaurant scene, Blankenship’s never been shy about offering odd bites.

“The fried rooster is off the menu, but that’s just temporary,” he told me, “while my supplier breeds a whole bunch more.” Turns out, CBD Provisions’ demand was outstripping supply.

I agreed to meet Blankenship at CBD for lunch last week, and the new daytime menu looks damn good. Tough to resist ordering chorizo queso with fluffy flour tortillas, n’duja pimiento cheese on toasted sourdough bread, a 44 Farms roast beef sandwich with sweet and sour pickles, or a Texas Cobb salad sporting tomatillo relish, Bleu cheese crumbles, pickled eggs and avocados.

But until that fried rooster returns, I’m pretty happy with a side of that chorizo queso and this roasted local chicken: a plump, golden-skinned beauty on a mound of lentils and brightened with thin coins of shaved watermelon radish.

It hasn’t quite made it to the menu yet, but Blankenship says it’s headed that way soon.

1530 Main Street, Dallas, 214-261-4500.