$100M renovation, talented chefs reposition Sheraton Dallas Hotel as a winner

<img src=”https://escapehatchdallas.com/wp-content/uploads/img_6185.jpg” class=”alignleft size-large” width=”360″ height=”270″/>Wow, what a difference $100 million makes when you use it properly.

That’s how much money the new owners of the downtown Sheraton Dallas Hotel have invested in the property – and a lot of that money didn’t just go to cover deferred maintenance. You can see the investment in the bright, airy lobby; the open-concept restaurant – called Open Palette – that spills into the modern bar lobby bar; and in the ultra hip, comfortably casual Parlor bar, which feels like your best friend’s game room if your best friend employed full-time bartenders and servers.

The hotel’s food and beverage programs have had a complete makeover too, says food and beverage director Ryan Littman, an accomplished chef himself.

To create the menu of craveable dishes at Open Palette, the hotel’s marquee restaurant, Littman, hotel GM Mark Woelffer and their teams surveyed menus at James Beard Award winners across America and plucked out what they saw as compelling trends.

“We weren’t interested in pushing the envelope culinary envelope here, just delivering good food that people want to eat, all of it cooked from scratch,” says Littman. At Open Palatte, that translates to plenty of vegetable-forward dishes like salads, crisp-fried tempura green beans, and roasted cauliflower in lemon dill yogurt sauce, but also super spicy Nashville-style hot fried chicken, cheddar cornmeal waffles, slow-cooked beef short ribs and a classic burger.

If you find yourself downtown looking for something beyond basic restaurant cooking, you owe it to yourself to check out the dining options at the new Sheraton.

Top to bottom, I think you’ll be impressed.