National Anthem, the new Dallas restaurant from the founder of Neighborhood Services and Town Hearth, has opened. Here’s the menu


Serial restaurateur and all-around talented chef Nick Badovinus (Town Hearth, Neighborhood Services) quietly opened his newest project, National Anthem, on Wednesday, October 6, EscapeHatch has learned.

The downtown restaurant sits inside the repurposed Magnolia Oil building (2130 Commerce St. at Cesar Chavez Boulevard), a triangle-shaped landmark on the eastern edge of downtown Dallas. The 100-year-old building originally housed an auto service station in the 1920s. In the 1960s, KLIF-AM radio converted the space into its broadcast studios. The real estate developers have rebranded the 8-block area as the “East Quarter.

Badovinus said he’ll reveal details and the menu soon, but he didn’t. We secured a copy of the preliminary menu anyway.

Insiders who’ve visited the space tell say it has a lot of typical Badovinus design touches … an oversized American flag, neon signs, wood tables, good music. His other restaurants include such eye candy as a submarine, motorcycles, cars, a vintage Farah Fawcett poster and American flags.

Badovinus also told us he’s scrapped plans to turn the former King’s Caberet space into a prime rib joint, but he’s moving full speed ahead on the rehab of the former Paul Martin’s Grill in Turtle Creek Village into another Neighborhood Services (but you already knew that).

photo: East Quarter