Crudo Italian expands from Frisco base to Dallas’ Preston Center with Northern Italian-inspired menu

This post has been updated to clarify the restaurant’s dizzying past history.

Javier Perez is back in the kitchen at Crudo, though his kitchen has moved from Frisco to Dallas.

I’d never heard of Crudo Taverna, a Northern Italian restaurant in Frisco, but apparently it’s doing okay. A group of its investors has taken the Crudo name, strapped “Italian” on it, moved Perez to a space in Preston Center, and here we are.

That space, a Crudo Italian spokesman says, is the former Ocho restaurant, but Crudo Italian has nothing to do with Ocho, or an Ocho successor called, unfortunately, Crudo.

Stay with me for a minute. This is confusing.

When Ocho failed, a restaurant guy took over the space from Ocho’s owners, intending to open a place called Crudo. He started to renovate the space, put up the Crudo sign, but he never opened it. Fast forward aproximately two years (to now): Crudo is now in the hands of new partners (real estate guys and the Perez). They renamed it “Crudo Italian,” even though the sign and the menu say “Crudo.” But this Crudo is Crudo Italian, and it’s related to the still-open Crudo Taverna in Frisco.

A spokesman says Crudo Itlalian specializes in handmade pastas, fresh seafood, steaks and scratch cooking like wood-fired pizzas, lobster ravioli with Maine scallops and roasted lemon chicken. In keeping with Italian traditions as old as from 2018, Crudo Italian says they also have their own special “CRUDO-labeled whiskey.”

Crudo Italian (which everyone is just gonna call “Crudo,” since that’s what the menu says, opens January 19. No word on when it will be closing.

8411 Preston Road, Suite 132, Dallas, (214) 888-0050. Photos: Crudo/Kathy Tran