The founding chef of a high-end restaurant in the Uptown neighborhood of Dallas revealed some eerie details about the establishment, which is a favorite haunt of local celebrities, billionaires, and CEOs.
Chef Samir Dhurandhar of Nick & Sam’s Steakhouse recently sat down with NBC 5 DFW to discuss why he thinks spirits roam the kitchen he has run since 1999.
“I was making risotto one day, and sometimes I deglaze the pan with white wine, sometimes I don’t. I thought to myself, what should I do today? And the bag of white wine fell off the shelf. I did use it that day,” Dhurandhar recounted.
Beyond its reputation for luxury and delicious cuisine, the restaurant is known for its alleged supernatural ambiance.
“We did have a guest stay the night here one night because he wanted to experience something,” Dhurandhar told NBC 5. “I think it’s part of the whole experience of Nick & Sam’s, part of the energy. I think they’re having as much fun as all the guests dining here, so I think it’s all a good thing.”
In fact, far from the ghastly ghouls depicted in horror movies and ghost stories, Dhurandhar claimed that the spirits he and his staff think inhabit the restaurant are jolly pranksters.
“We’ve had a manager that got locked in the office, and she couldn’t get out. She had the key, but she still couldn’t open that door. She felt like someone was holding that door,” Dhurandhar recalled.
While Dhurandhar has claimed to have seen objects inexplicably move and fall, he said he only spotted a ghost once when the restaurant was closed to customers.
“There in the middle booth, there was only one light on. And there was a lady sitting there,” he explained. “No one else is here, just some kitchen staff and myself. And I stopped, and I said, ‘Ma’am, are you being helped?’ And she goes, ‘Yes, I’m waiting on a manager.’ I thought maybe there’s an interview or something. Just didn’t sit right with me.”
The woman was gone shortly after that, vanishing into thin air.
Dhurandhar now accepts and even enjoys the presence of “ghosts” at his restaurant. However, he was initially quite skeptical of the whole thing, even after he learned the building once housed dead bodies for the Old Parkland Hospital.
“I never believed it in the beginning. Everyone said it used to be a morgue,” he recalled, per NBC 5. “But about five or six years into Nick & Sam’s, a guest came in who used to run the morgue. And he brought the blueprints of the morgue and showed us.”
Located at 3008 Maple Ave., Nick & Sam’s resides in a building with a history dating back 65 years. In the late 1950s and 1960s, it served as a vault for the hospital’s human remains. Old Parkland closed in 1974. Its campus of red-brick buildings was eventually converted into offices.
Whether or not you believe the whispers about supernatural events, Nick & Sam’s offers its guests an exceptional dining experience in what Dhurandhar considers a city landmark standing firm among new builds.
“I think we stand by ourselves,” he said. “We are blessed to be here for this long. … It’s all about how we take care of our guests. And that’s the reason why we are still here.”
