La Neta Cocina y Lounge, originally from Las Vegas, is opening a Deep Ellum location, as reported by The Dallas Morning News.
The contemporary Mexican restaurant, located in mixed-use development The Epic, will officially be open to customers on February 20.
La Neta’s CEO and designer Ryan Labbe believes that the restaurant sets itself apart from the competition. La Neta translates to “the truth,” and he told the DMN that “the truth, to me, is we’re different.”
The menus of La Neta’s Las Vegas and Dallas locations are very similar, but Labbe said he understands that patrons in Texas might have different desires than those in Las Vegas.
Some items, such as steaks, will be added to the Deep Ellum menu, offering even more options for Dallas customers.
One of the most exciting additions will be some of the new desserts.
Labbe said the Dallas location is launching a “BFD” menu, which stands for “Big F–king Desserts.” This portion of the menu will include attention-grabbing desserts that cannot be found anywhere else.
Already, menu items such as the La Neta Piñata are hot topics. The La Neta Piñata is a white chocolate heart shell filled with cookies, brownies, sprinkles, and churro bits that customers are given a mallet to break open.
“Everything’s bigger, so I thought we really needed to grasp that,” said Labbe, per the DMN.
The BFD menu section will draw inspiration from the “Big F*#K’N Tacos” section that is available in Las Vegas, and will be available in Dallas as well. This section features three tacos with incredible fillings, including a whole lobster, bone-in short rib, and grilled skirt steak with 24-karat gold.
Prior to deciding on Dallas, Labbe says he looked at locations in Arizona, California, and Austin. After deciding on Dallas, Labbe considered Uptown, Highland Park, Victory Park, and others before officially settling on Deep Ellum.
Labbe says that he will begin to look for other restaurant locations within Dallas once La Neta Cocina y Lounge is officially up and running. The company behind La Neta, 81/82 Group, is owned by Labbe, and it has other restaurants in Las Vegas that could be looking to move into Dallas as well.
