Sloane’s Corner brings good all-day cooking, terrific cocktail bar to heart of downtown Dallas

A new downtown restaurant from an experienced restaurateur has opened in the heart of the city, and it’s worth checking out.

Sloane’s Corner occupies a choice ground-level corner of the newly reimagined Trammel Crow Building on Ross Avenue, but you’d never guess it hasn’t been there for years. Whether you drag yourself in for coffees and breakfast pastries – all made in-house – or pop in for lunch then circle back for drinks and dinner, this place feels right. Done up in honeyed woods and sexy lighting, the restaurant is the new full-time obsession of Tim McEneny and his NL Group (Dish restaurant, Front Room Tavern, Jalisco Norte).

Chef Ji Kang (Dish, Samar) helms the kitchen, where he puts his own twists on American standards like a $14 (!) double-patty burger constructed with Allen Brothers prime beef, smoked gouda, house-made mustard, sweet pickles and an Empire Bakery bun. (He also throws down a terrific charcuterie board with good quality meats and cheeses.) The entrees may not thrill you as much as the starters (thought the scallops are excellent). That’s okay given that you may not want to stray beyond Kang’s excellent yellowtail crudo with slivers of candied grapefruit, or his mussels and clams with roasted fennel and big knobs of Merguez sausage.

Bar expert Ravi Singh has put together another stellar place to sip cocktails and swirl wine. The horseshoe-shaped bar, with its big blocks of branded ice cubes and a secret stash of handmade digestivo, is exactly want where you want to be on a chilly evening; he and his staff know how to make you feel welcome.

And the name? “Sloane is my daughter, so I named it for her,” McEneny told me.