Mister Charles opened on Tuesday. It’s the fifth restaurant from Duro Hospitality, impresarios of luxury “scenes” The Charles, Sister, and El Carlos Elegante, plus panini and wine shop Cafe Duro. Their latest might be the most luxurious—read: most expensive—of all of them.
We’ll have a fuller description when I can snag a reservation. But for now, let’s break down the menu at Mister Charles and see what it tells us about both the restaurant and the direction Dallas dining is heading. (The food menu is embedded at the bottom of this post as a PDF.)
Mister Charles is a throwback. Its menu conjures up the lost world of 1960s and 1970s “continental” fine dining, when French sauces and tableside seafood were supreme. What’s old is new again. Seared scallops, sole meunière filleted tableside, lobster thermidor, lamb loin Wellington, caviar sauce, sauce vierge, sauce Diane, sauce bordelaise. The drinks menu makes features of martinis. And for dessert—did you just ask if they have baked Alaska? Good guess! They do!
Let’s also check the pure luxury tally: two foie gras dishes, two truffle dishes, two caviar dishes, two ways to order A5 Wagyu, and an uni carbonara. The wine list is very good and very expensive. (Anyone want to loan me $463 for the Clusel-Roch 2009 Côte-Rôtie?) Finally, the restaurant is implementing a menu section that has been a huge success at El Carlos Elegante: tiny canapé-like snacks, which here include mini egg salad sandwiches topped with caviar ($9), salmon tarts topped with salmon roe ($8), and foie gras croquettes with orange jam ($8).
This is an interesting concept for the space—the former Highland Park Soda Fountain—because it nods to the room’s long history in Dallas while firmly rejecting a soda fountain’s working-class appeal. With a century-old building at its disposal, Duro obviously felt inspired to look through the history books for ideas, and they found one that is unabashedly glamorous and luxurious. That fits in with their other restaurants’ overall strategies: opulent dining rooms in classic or faux-classic spaces, indulgent foods, meet-all-needs service, and proud luxury. If you’re not yet a one-percenter, you can roleplay as one.
Of course, in the old days, tableside sole meunière and caviar sauce were luxuries restricted to certain kinds of people. This is a style of French cuisine that had its golden age during segregation and the Civil Rights sit-ins. Even if you leave politics out of the picture, French restaurants of the era were notorious for snobby service, discriminatory treatment of perceived bumpkins, and “Siberias” of deliberately slow service. Now, Duro’s always-eager service and eccentric dinner party atmosphere extends to everybody who walks in the door.
As for the food, I am too young to feel any nostalgia. For me, “sauce vierge” and “baked Alaska” are names out of a food history textbook. Until well into adulthood, the only restaurant I knew that served lobster thermidor was the Spam restaurant in Monty Python. I am also getting a little tired of restaurants that look like steakhouses, but only serve a filet, New York strip, and ribeye. What happened to the hanger, bavette, short rib, flat iron, coulotte, tri-tip, and Denver cuts?
But two informants who’ve already made it to Mister Charles tell me that everything around the food is in place: spectacular surroundings, great drinks, and Duro Hospitality’s longtime great strength, its impeccable service. Anybody can indulge the throwback fantasy—provided they have $18 for corn and truffle beignets, $86 for lobster thermidor, $94 for a New York strip, and $91 for that lamb loin Wellington. Realistically, though, not many people have that kind of money, and also, not many people have those fantasies. Maybe we will after we visit.
I’m certainly curious. The throwback theme can be done very well. Michael Ehlert executed a bold, exciting menu of updated 1800s recipes when he led the French Room. Elsewhere, Heston Blumenthal revives dishes from the 1500s at two-Michelin-starred Dinner in London, and one of my all-time favorite meals was at Asitane, an Istanbul kitchen that researched and faithfully reproduced Ottoman palace cooking.
Luxury can also be a crutch. Let’s be honest: it’s hard to mess up a menu of wagyu beef, caviar, foie gras, cured salmon, oysters, and bluefin tuna. As long as you don’t overcook or oversalt, everything will be delicious. The better your ingredients, the fewer actual ideas you need. A lot of new Dallas restaurant openings are realizing that right now, leading to a great degree of sameness across town. We’ll see how much Mister Charles’ incredible location, vaunted service, and execution can set it apart from the pack.
Mister Charles, 3219 Knox St., Ste. 170
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