Former Mansion on Turtle Creek chef Bruno Davaillon debuts Bullion tonight – and it’s exactly the kind of restaurant you want to eat at right now
When the Dallas restaurant Bullion opens for business tonight, expect to fall in love with French cuisine all over again.
“It’s French cooking but it’s my idea of french cooking,” the Michelin-starred chef-owner (and very French) Bruno Davaillon told me at a friends-and-family preview of Bullion last night.
“We want this to be the kind of restaurant and style of cooking you find in France right now, not three decades ago,” says GM Victor Rojas.
You might recognize a number of staff members, too. Rojas and more than a handful of Bullion’s crew have worked at some of Dallas’ top restaurants, including Flora Street Cafe.
The menu is modern French, rooted in classic technique and loaded with dishes you’d find throughout France rather than a single region. Cassoulet, roast chicken, duck l’orange, lobster, foie gras, beef cheeks, souffles — all of them perfectly cooked, perfectly seasoned, perfectly plated and perfectly delicious. The prices are perfect, too — mostly in the $15-30 sweet spot, IIRC. Bullion’s wine list, still a work in progress as late as last night, is said to offer some French gems — and bargains.
Bullion is a real looker. It’s mid-century modern style incorporates dark woods, low-slung chairs, zebra wood tables, leather seats and sumptuous wall coverings. Along one wall, big glass windows that let light spill in during the day and bathe the room with the glow of the city at night. Along another, a gold-accented cocktail lounge sparkles. Golden hued light bathes the restaurant, making everyone look like a movie star. Bullion’s dining room feels at once comfortable and elegant, like a rich Aunt’s Paris apartment with an enormous glass necklace dripping from the ceiling of her spiral staircase and a dining room that seats 100.
Ahhh, if only we all had a rich Aunt living in Paris. But because we don’t, we have Bullion. I really like this place. I think you will, too.
As a guest remarked upon entering the dining room, “Dallas is back.”