Since 1994, no one in Dallas-Fort Worth has won a James Beard award for Best Chef. That didn’t change in 2025, when the awards did not sway in the favor of North Texas’ top toques.
Of the five competitive awards for a D-FW chef or restaurant, none in our region won. Again.
There’s no crying in the kitchen, however, because Dallas managed to have a memorable night. Dallas chef Chad Houser was honored as Humanitarian of the Year for his work at Cafe Momentum, a restaurant that hires teenagers who have been arrested and/or incarcerated.
That’s an honor he already won, back in April 2025. The evening of the James Beard ceremony, Houser talked about his mission to help kids who need it.
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“For me, it’s all about chances,” Houser said in a red carpet interview.
Second chances aren’t enough: It’s about “first [chances] through one hundredth.”
Perhaps that point of view could apply to the Dallas restaurateurs who left empty-handed at the Chicago ceremony.
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Oren Salomon, whose North Texas bagel shop Starship Bagel did not win for Outstanding Bakery, said in a text message as the ceremony concluded that he’s proud of where he’s from.
“With or without recognition, I love serving where I’m from and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he texted.
“I’m thankful for Dallas.”
Dallas had five chefs or restaurants up for James Beard Awards in its final round in 2025, in addition to the noncompetitive Humanitarian of the Year honor. Let’s remember them one more time:
Chad Houser of Cafe Momentum
Winner, Humanitarian of the Year
It could be tough to operate a restaurant where the servers are teenagers who have previously broken the law. Executive Director Chad Houser said working with kids is the easiest part of his job.(Stanton Stephens)
Houser started Cafe Momentum as a small operation meant to help teenagers in a big way. Fast-forward 10 years, and more than 1,200 men and women between the ages of 15 and 19 have gone through the Cafe Momentum program, where each teen learned to serve customers and cook restaurant-quality food alongside required life skills classes.
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The Dallas nonprofit will move to a bigger facility in 2026 and establish a new headquarters, thanks to the generosity of Dallas group The Meadows Foundation.
Cafe Momentum has expanded to Pittsburgh and has plans to open next in Atlanta and Denver.
“I’m often asked if Cafe Momentum has to be a restaurant,” he said as he accepted the award, “and I always say, ‘emphatically yes.’ Our industry is an integral part of every single community across the country.”
He said 60,000 children are incarcerated in the United States.
His message to them: “We see you, we’re ready for you, we’re here for you.”
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RJ Yoakum, formerly of Georgie
Nominee, Emerging Chef
Chef RJ Yoakum moved to Dallas in early 2023 to work at Georgie.(Smiley N. Pool / Staff Photographer)
RJ Yoakum’s menu at Georgie, a fine-dining restaurant at Knox and Travis streets, received a Recommended rating from Michelin in 2024.
Yoakum was removed from his executive chef role at Georgie just days before the James Beard Award’s June 16 ceremony. The owner of Georgie has been tight-lipped about why he was let go, and Yoakum has not responded to questions for comment.
Yoakum worked previously at The French Laundry, a 3-star Michelin restaurant regarded as one of the best in the United States.
Other nominees for Emerging Chef were Kaitlin Guerin of Lagniappe Bakehouse in New Orleans, Nikhil Naiker of NIMKI in Providence and Jane Sacro Chatham of Vicia in St. Louis. Winner: Phila Lorn of Mawn in Philadelphia.
Regino Rojas of Purépecha in Dallas
Nominee, Best Chef: Texas
Chef-owner Regino Rojas works on an appetizer in the Purepecha room in Dallas.(Vernon Bryant / Staff Photographer)
Seven times, D-FW chef Regino Rojas has been a semifinalist for Best Chef. That’s quite a run for the chef-owner of the casual Revolver Taco Lounge and its Michoacan tasting room, Purépecha, which share a retaurant space in Deep Ellum.
Netflix’s third season of Taco Chronicles featured chef Rojas and his pulpo (octopus) taco. D named sibling restaurant Purépecha the best restaurant in the city.
Other nominees for Best Chef: Texas were Emmanuel Chavez of Tatemó in Houston, Emil Oliva of Leche de Tigre in San Antonio and Michael Anthony Serva of Bordo in Marfa. Winner: Thomas Bille of Belly of the Beast in Spring, Texas.
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Mābo in Dallas
Nominee, Best New Restaurant
Chef Masayuki Otaka stands in front of the seats at his Dallas restaurant, Mabo. Pictured here are all of the seats in the main dining room.(Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer)
Tiny restaurant Mābo, which opened in Dallas’ Preston Center in 2024, is a yakitori omakase restaurant. Chef Masayuki Otaka cooks skewered meat and vegetables on a Japanese grill, serving each course to diners on the other side of the sushi-style bar.
At $200 per person, Mābo is one of the priciest fixed dinners in Dallas.
Chef Otaka is one of the quieter chefs in a bustling Dallas dining scene, but he has more experience than most: He co-opened Japanese restaurant Teppo on Dallas’ Greenville Avenue in 1995.
Other nominees for Best New Restaurant were: Alma Fonda Fina in Denver, Atoma in Seattle, Ema in Houston, Fet-Fisk in Pittsburgh, Mita in Washington, D.C., Ômo by Jônt in Winter Park, Fla., Penny in New York and The Union in Helena, Mont. Winner: Bûcheron in Minneapolis.
Bar Colette in Dallas
Nominee, Best New Bar
On Bar Director Ruben Rolon’s menu are tiny cocktails — small in size and lower in alcohol content.(Chitose Suzuki / Staff Photographer)
When Bar Colette opened in 2023, tucked inside the West Village shopping center in Uptown Dallas, we called it “one of Dallas’ most interesting bars.” The opening cocktail menu was a journey to London, Paris and Mexico City, all from the middle of Dallas.
Brothers Brandon and Henry Cohanim and their team of bartenders have kept the adventure going as the food menu and the cocktail menu shape-shifted in new and interesting ways.
Other nominees for Best New Bar were: Agency in Milwaukee, Merai in Brookline, Mass., and ViceVersa in Miami. Winner: Identidad Cocktail Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Starship Bagel in Lewisville and Dallas
Nominee, Outstanding Bakery
Owner Oren Salomon opened his newest Starship Bagel the week of the total solar eclipse in 2024.(Anja Schlein / Special Contributor)
After winning Best Bagel in 2023 and Schmear of the Year in 2024 at New York BagelFest, it wasn’t surprising to see Dallas-Fort Worth-based Starship Bagel make James Beard’s short list for Outstanding Bakery.
The shop has expanded from Lewisville to downtown Dallas and North Dallas’ Hillcrest Village.
Other nominees for Outstanding Bakery were: Atelier Ortega in Jackson Hole, Wy., Gusto Bread in Long Beach, Calif., and Super Secret Ice Cream in Bethlehem, N.H. Winner: JinJu Patisserie in Portland.
A woman and the person suspected of killing her are dead after an incident led to an officer-involved shooting near Town East Mall in Mesquite on Saturday.
The Dallas Police Department (DPD) responded to a shooting call in the 9000 block of Markville Drive at about 10:15 a.m. A woman was found shot and taken to a local hospital where she died from her injuries.
DPD determined that the suspect fled the scene.
Around 11:45 a.m., Dallas Police said Northeast Division officers were conducting surveillance and located the suspect in a vehicle near the 18500 block of LBJ Freeway in Mesquite, which is right outside Town East Mall.
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Police said when they attempted a traffic stop, the suspect got out of the car armed and shots were fired.
They said no officers were hurt, and the suspect died on scene.
The shooting gave many busy mall shoppers some pause.
“I was just afraid about everybody else here, you know, like, there’s a whole bunch of families out here Christmas shopping, something else could have happened, you know,” said Alexander Evans.
“My friend and her kids are supposed to be meeting me here, so I kind of told her, I was like, ‘It might be best if you don’t.’ Just to be safe,” said Abby Rather.
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Mesquite Police are now investigating the officer-involved shooting, since it happened within their city.
Dallas Police said they are still investigating the homicide case.
They also said the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office responded to the OIS scene and will conduct their own investigation.
Dallas Police said The Office of Community Police Oversight also responded.
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Jason Robertson had two goals and an assist, and the Dallas Stars beat the Anaheim Ducks 8-3 on Friday night for their third straight win.
Roope Hintz and Thomas Harley each had a goal and an assist, and Oskar Bäck, Sam Steel, Ilya Lybushkin and Adam Erne also scored for the Stars. who are an NHL-best 13-2-4 on the road. Mikko Rantanen and Miro Heiskanen each had two assists, and Casey DeSmith had 23 saves.
Ryan Poehling, Beckett Sennecke and Mikael Granlund scored for the Ducks, who have lost four of five. Lukas Dostal gave up four goals on seven shots before he was pulled with 5:41 left in the first period. Petr Mrazek came on and stopped 14 of the 18 shots he faced the rest of the way.
The Stars’ eight-goal output tied a season high, matching their 8-3 win at Edmonton on Nov. 25, and was the most the Ducks have given up.
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Bäck gave the Stars a 1-0 lead with a short-handed goal 2:37 into the game after the Ducks turned the puck over behind their net.
Poehling tied it 55 seconds later, scoring in close on the rebound of a point shot by Radko Gudas.
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Hintz put Dallas back ahead at 4:42, getting a pass from Robertson in the slot, sliding backwards and firing a shot past Dostal for his 11th.
Steel pushed the Stars’ lead to 3-1 with 7:19 left in the first, scoring past Dostal while crashing into the net and dislodging it. The goal was confirmed after a review.
Harley made it a three-goal lead 1:38 later as he got a pass from Rantanen and scored from the right circle.
Robertson scored in front on a power play with 8:50 remaining in the second, and then put a backhander past Mrazek from the right circle 4 minutes later to make it 6-1. It gave Robertson a team-leading 22 goals.
Erne made it a six-goal lead with 1:30 left in the middle period.
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After Sennecke pulled the Ducks back within five 1:01 into the third, Lybushkin got his first of the season 41 seconds later to extend the Stars’ lead to 8-2. Granlund capped the scoring with 5:38 remaining.
Up next
Stars: Host Toronto on Sunday.
Ducks: Host Columbus on Saturday.
Find more Stars coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.
Don Stone, a Dallas civic leader and strong supporter of the arts, died on Sunday. He was 96.
Angela Stone, Don’s youngest child, said her father was one of a kind, a rare mix of sweet and tough.
“He was just the most wonderful man I ever knew, just generous to a fault, smart, charming. He influenced so many people,” she said.
Stone gave widely across North Texas, including $500,000 to endow college scholarships for musically gifted Dallas ISD students. Stone also held leadership positions at several North Texas arts organizations, including the Dallas Public Library, Voices of Change, Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Orchestra of New Spain, the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, Shakespeare Dallas and Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
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“He just believed that all of our lives would be so much poorer without music, art and theater. He said in our country we have the freedom to support whatever we want and that we needed to support the arts so that they would continue to exist,” Stone said.
Stone, a businessman who lived in Turtle Creek, worked for Sanger Harris, which later became Macy’s. He was a 2018 TACA Silver Cup Award honoree for his arts and culture advocacy in North Texas.
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Maura Sheffler, president and executive director of The Arts Community Alliance (TACA), said in a statement that Stone’s legacy will continue to inspire the local arts community.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Don Stone, a devoted champion of the arts whose leadership and generosity,” she wrote.
Stone’s wife of over 72 years, Norma, died in June. She was the one who first got her husband involved in the arts, according to their daughter Angela.
Michelle Miller Burns, the DSO’s president and CEO, said the Stones had a profound impact on the DSO.
“It is with such a heavy heart that I received news of Don Stone’s passing earlier this week. Don was a devoted patron, a donor and a board member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and his leadership and generosity really have helped shape the Dallas symphony across five decades,” she said.
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In 1980, Stone served as DSO’s chairman of the Board of Governors and helped launch efforts to raise $80 million for Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center and secure architect I.M. Pei.
In 1997, the Stones launched the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund and committed $1 million to continuously support new works. Some of the works supported through the fund include this year’s world premiere of Angélica Negrón’s requiem For Everything You Keep Losing. The fund also supported a Grammy award-winning violin concerto by Aaron Jay Kernis co-commissioned with the Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.
“I think it is rare for a couple who so firmly believes in the future of classical music and creating opportunities for new musical voices to be heard to really put support behind that in a meaningful way to fuel that process, to ensure that it can come to fruition,” Burns said.
She said the DSO will continue the Stones’ legacy by commissioning new works through the Norma and Don Stone New Music Fund.
Stone is survived by his children Michael, Lisa and Angela, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. The family will have a private funeral.
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Arts Access is an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA.
This community-funded journalism initiative is funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, Communities Foundation of Texas, The University of Texas at Dallas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef and The Meadows Foundation. The News and KERA retain full editorial control of Arts Access’ journalism.
