Restaurants Roots Southern Table and Roots Chicken Shak are known for paying homage to what chef Tiffany Derry ate growing up: good, comforting southern food. In 2022, Roots Southern Table earned a James Beard Award nomination, and Derry received a best chef nom.
Now she plans to jump into Italian cuisine with a new restaurant called Radici to honor Tom Foley—her business partner with hospitality group T2D Concepts—and the food he ate throughout his childhood.
“I grew up with an Italian mom, and the table was all based on her cooking,” Foley says. “Every once in a while, she would throw in dad’s Irish food, and we all complained about it and then [she] went back to her roots of Italian cooking.”
Radici means “roots” in Italian, and the restaurant is expected to open just a few doors down from Roots Southern Table in Farmers Branch. While Derry is known for her southern food concepts, she is no stranger to Italian cuisine. She spent six years working in Italian restaurants before she opened Roots Southern Table. With Radici, Derry says she wants to highlight simple ingredients and incredible produce, two things she loves about Italian cooking.
When they were brainstorming the concept, Foley says Derry asked him for recipes of foods he ate growing up and about the experiences he had around the dinner table. Foley once brought Derry a tomato sauce made using his mother’s recipe, and he says it was fascinating to watch her think of ways to recreate and enhance it.
The two took a trip to Northern Italy and ate their way through the region to figure out how they wanted to bring Radici together. They took pasta classes, visited Modena to try balsamic vinegar, and learned how to make Parmigiano.
“One of the things that we got the most excited about was that open-fire cooking,” she says. “I mean, there is no substitution for wood-fired vegetables [or] seafood.”
Derry and Foley plan to showcase an open wood-fired grill in Radici’s kitchen. It’ll be designed so the grill can be seen from any part of the restaurant, Derry says. The restaurant will also have a chef’s table near the kitchen, and guests will be able to sit close to the action.
The menu is in flux, but Derry says she wants to add a simple pomodoro sauce with fresh pasta and a special bianco lasagna with béchamel. Derry plans to use local produce when she can, but she says she “can’t imagine” not using imported ingredients like Sicilian olive oil and oregano in the food.
“And don’t let me forget about my Aperol spritz, Tom,” Derry says. “An Aperol will be on the menu, maybe in multiple ways.”
Radici is still being built—the restaurant will open late this year or early next year—but Derry says she wants the restaurant to feel like being transported to Italy. She wants to do more than just create good food; she wants to recreate the simple times when she and Foley dined al fresco in an Italian piazza and people-watched.
“There were moments I had food where I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve had a better Amatriciana somewhere else, but God dang it, this moment right here is incredible,’” she says. “You’ll come into the restaurant, and you’ll feel the vibe where you’re just loving every bit of it.”
Radici, 12990 Bee St., Farmers Branch.
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