Sneak Peek and Beefy News: Knife Burger, Knife Steak will open this week in Plano’s Shops at Willow Bend

Restaurateur, author, tv personality, social media influencer and chef John Tesar tells EscapeHatch he’s ready.

He’s ready to write a chapter in Aaron Franklin’s new steak book, ready to oversee construction of his new Spoon seafood restaurant in Laguna Beach (set to open this spring), and ready to meet the with new owners of the Highland Hotel (which houses his original Knife Modern Steakhouse). But mostly he’s ready to debut his three new spaces at the Shops at Willow Bend in Plano.

“We’re ready to open Knife Burger, Knife Steak and Knife Butcher,” Tesar told me today. “Knife Burger will open to the public on Wednesday, then we’ll open the steakhouse on Friday night, then the butcher shop early next week, as soon as we get our Yeti coolers in.”

I’ll have more to say (and show you) after the restos are open, but Knife is a are real looker, done up in ocean blues, dark woods, and pops of color. Original art, a showcase meat aging locker and an open kitchen offer plenty of eye candy, too.

Tesar says he has a few new dishes to debut at the steakhouse — pastas, veggies, meats — in addition to the long-dry-aged steaks he also serves at the original Mockingbird Lane location. He’s been aging big cuts of prime beef for months, readying them to stock the new meat aging locker at the Willow Bend location; that means you’re likely to find the 240-day dry-aged 44 Farms rib-eyes and strip steaks available all the time now.

And as an added bonus, the adjacent Knife butcher shop will cut, wrap and pack some of his prized prime steaks for you to take home, too.

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Knife. I’ve called it one of America’s best steakhouses and heaped plenty of praise on it in dozens of steakhouse stories (including this one for USA Today). Knife is a prime example of why Dallas is America’s’ best steakhouse city.