ROARING FORK PIERCES ITS PIECE OF THE PIE
ADDISON, Tex. — When Janet and Phil Cobb open a restaurant, Dallas takes notice.
The husband-and-wife team have earned a reputation for quality in their other two Metroplex eateries: Mi Piaci and Natura.
The unveiling festivities for their latest venture, the Roaring Fork, drew no fewer than 975 diners eager to sample the duck cigars and pheasant on wild rice cake appetizers while swishing down wine and cocktails. The biggest disappointment of the party was the “For Display Only” sign on the raw bar brimming with shellfish.
That sign has been banished since the Roaring Fork opened for business in November, and guests have been streaming in to savor the giant gulf prawns, oysters, mussels, clams and hefty lobster tails chilling on a bed of ice at the end of the bar.
“We have a very loyal clientele at Mi Piaci that enjoys high-end food,” Janet Cobb said. “We decided it would be a nice complement to Mi Piaci to do an American restaurant with 21-day aged prime Colorado beef and fish flown in from all over the country.”
Mi Piaci, a superb Italian restaurant, and the Roaring Fork are in the same shopping center on Montfort Drive just south of Prestonwood Town Center on Belt Line Road here.
And while steak houses and chain restaurants appear to be multiplying exponentially on Belt Line Rd., Cobb fears no competition from them. The Roaring Fork, she says, caters to seafood, beef and poultry lovers.
For fish fans, there are swordfish, grouper, snapper, salmon, trout, shrimp and tuna, all flown in daily. Then they are exotically dressed — the snapper encrusted with macadamia nuts, the swordfish swathed in horseradish. Or they can be simply grilled.
Meat eaters will appreciate the aged beef ribeye, New York strip or filets. Fowl fans can relish in shitake-and-pistachio-stuffed pheasant, roasted duck with apricot, cherry and citrus cognac sauce, or quail with herb and veal stuffing and barley risotto.
The menu was created by a trio of chefs: Lance Youngs, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, who is chef de cuisine and who formerly ran a catering company in Houston; executive sous chef Walt Hathaway, previously of Kuleto’s in San Francisco, and Cobb Restaurant Group’s executive chef Mark Morrow.
Not hungry? The Roaring Fork hosts the most mellow lounge area in north Dallas. Hunter Sullivan, formerly at Sipango, and his quartet entertain Thursday through Saturday with Forties big band sounds and Frank Sinatra hits. Other artists, like jazz singer Pat Peterson, perform Tuesday and Wednesday.
Though the California wine list isn’t extensive, the array of single-malt scotch is impressive, with 16 varieties.
Named for a river that runs through Aspen, Colo., with pun intended, the Roaring Fork takes its name literally. One thousand steel forks cling to the walls in the foyer, and the front door will soon be crowned by an enormous fork that is being custom made. Inside, a giant fork plunges from the ceiling next to the open kitchen and pierces a table-size lettuce leaf that bears vegetable displays.
The rest of the decor is a bit incoherent, pieced as it is from the former tenant with a few new twists. “We tried to liven it up a little bit with some pop elements,” Cobb said.
The original dark wood paneling and columns create a men’s club feel that’s brightened by a golden stained-glass atrium in one dining room and Art Deco-style light fixtures. Mixed with that traditional style are mirrors painted with cartoon vegetables that owe homage to Roy Lichtenstein. The Roaring Fork serves lunch Monday to Friday and dinner every night starting at 5 p.m. Lunch salads and sandwiches are $7.95 to $13.95 and main dishes peak at $11.95. At dinner, main courses stretch from $14.95 to $27.95.