Tupelo Honey restaurant makes its Texas debut today at The Star in Frisco

Serving generous portions of from-scratch Southern cooking, Ashville, NC-based Tupelo Honey makes its Texas debut today at The Star in Frisco, the Dallas Cowboys new HQ complex.

Tupelo Honey’s menu feels just right in this corner of the South: “Cathead” buttermilk biscuits (“because they’re the size of a cat’s head,” says executive chef Thomas Robey, a veteran of New Orleans restaurant Commander’s Palace), nachos slathered in pimento cheese instead of the usual cheddar, watermelon margaritas, shrimp and grits with chorizo, even a $100-a-shot sipping tequila.

Two big pressure fryers in the kitchen deliver crisp-fried chicken that Robey dusts with powdered honey for a kick of sweetness. The guy dressed in black who’s carving the charcuterie is Tupelo Honey’s CEO, Steve Frabitore. And the man decked out in a fancy vest and long-sleeve shirt who’s clearing tables, delivering food and pitching in at the hostess stand is VP of operations, Tyler Alford. All three plan to be at the new restaurant every day for more than a month to ensure the Texas debut goes well.

“How else can I know what to fine-tune here if we’re not actively engaged on a daily basis,” Frabitore tells me as he shows me the Texas prime beef he’s dry-aging in a special meat locker. “We’re introducing dry-aged steaks to our menu here, which we’ll cook in a 1,700 broiler to get a great sear and crust on them.”

Tupelo Honey hopes to open additional restaurants in the DFW area, but for now their focus is right here in Frisco.