Inside the new St. Martin’s Wine Bistro, back open in Dallas after closure
Inside the new St. Martin’s Wine Bistro, back open in Dallas after closure When St. Martin’s Wine Bistro in Dallas, North Texas, closed in 2023, leaving fans wondering if they would ever find another romantic restaurant in the city again. The restaurant was found a new home for it in East Dallas on Bryan Street and reopened in 2024. The new restaurant resembles the old one, with a piano, bar, and chandeliers that have been there for years. The owners, Omid Haftlang, Pasha Heidari and Sina Heidar, spent the rest of 2023 and early 2024 remaking a former antique store into an L-shaped restaurant. Despite being smaller, the new restaurant is smaller with 92 seats instead of 150, but still feels bigger. The menu remains classic and timeless, with classic dishes such as Champagne brie and French onion.
Published : a month ago by Sarah Blaskovich in Lifestyle
When one of North Texas’ most romantic restaurants, St. Martin’s Wine Bistro, closed in 2023 on Greenville Avenue, we were left to wonder if we’d ever sip Champagne brie soup by candlelight in Dallas again.
Happily, family members Omid Haftlang, Pasha Heidari and Sina Heidari found a new home for it, still in East Dallas on Bryan Street. It reopened March 11, 2024, though it feels like the piano, bar and chandeliers have been there for years.
Really, it’s surprising how much this new restaurant resembles the old one.
Scott Fickling and Phil Patterson opened St. Martin’s on Greenville Avenue in 1980, as we detailed in a 2023 Dallas Morning News story. They were teachers and Vietnam veterans who, in the 1970s, “knew nothing about the restaurant business when they bought a plot of land on Greenville Avenue,” The News reported. Fickling and Patterson also owned a neighborhood bar called the San Francisco Rose at the time. In the late 1980s, Patterson sold his share to Phil Cobb, a Dallas restaurateur who co-founded Black-Eyed Pea. St. Martin’s current owners took over in 1997.
For decades, the restaurant was a quiet spot for anniversaries and business deals. The Greenville Avenue restaurant felt frozen in time — a bit outdated, with a French menu that didn’t change much, but likeable and reliable.
In 2023, the family behind St. Martin’s said it was time to move on. They spent the rest of 2023 and early 2024 remaking a former antique store on Bryan Street into an L-shaped restaurant. (We heard from many News readers who were disappointed St. Martin’s wasn’t open at Christmastime or on Valentine’s Day, two popular times for the St. Martin’s date-night crowd. If it’s any consolation, the owners were disappointed, too.)
When you walk into the new restaurant, the door opens next to the piano, where longtime St. Martin’s musician Luis Henderson will be back in his seat five nights a week. The restaurant has a more expansive bar but the same wooden bar back, lit up and showcasing hundreds of liquor bottles and wine.
Before customers can take a stroll through the restaurant filled with paintings in ornate frames, Haftlang will probably be right there near the front, calling customers by name as they enter or exit. The restaurant is new, but so many of the customers are not.
The restaurant is so dark that diners might need help seeing menus, and servers will shamelessly turn on a slim flashlight and hold it up high. Escargot is the first item on the menu, and it’s a fine place to start. The menu is almost identical to what customers will remember at the former restaurant. Foie gras torchon with peaches and bone marrow on toast are two other popular hors d’oeuvres, our server told us.
A trip to St. Martin’s simply must include a soup course, and there are two: Champagne brie and French onion. Both are rich as ever, and served in generous crocks. My husband and I ordered both and passed our bowls every few minutes, contemplating which we liked better.
Entrees are classic. There’s steak au poivre, lobster with sherry cream, coq au vin with red wine and duck with brandy sauce. This is the kind of place where diners might order the same thing every time.
The new restaurant is smaller — 92 seats instead of 150 — but, somehow, it feels bigger. The walkways aren’t as slim, and the design allows for nooks throughout so that the seats at each table feel intimate.
St. Martin’s is a landmark restaurant that made a move from its beloved home. The best thing a more-than 40-year-old restaurant like St. Martin’s can do is stay reliable. On Bryan Street, it’s still classic and timeless.
St. Martin’s Wine Bistro is at 4223 Bryan St., Dallas. Dinner only, seven nights a week.
For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X (formerly Twitter) at @sblaskovich.
Topics: Food & Drink