Dallas, TX
How did Dallas restaurant Mamani win a Michelin star after less than 2 months open?
The Michelin story stealing the spotlight in Dallas-Fort Worth is how brand-new French restaurant Mamani won 1 Michelin star.
The conversation is largely not around whether Mamani deserves the big win. No, it’s around why this monumental win happened in the first place.
Mamani opened Sept. 2, 2025, and was one of the most interesting new restaurants of the year in Dallas-Fort Worth. Its executive chef-partner, 37-year-old Christophe De Lellis, is toiling in the restaurant daily, fine-tuning his newborn alongside a fleet of servers, chefs, managers, a sommelier and even a full-time baking director. De Lellis has told The Dallas Morning News he’s proud of his French restaurant — and it’s the first that’s really his — but that Mamani is a work in progress. It’s a great painting and he’s still holding the brush.
Yet, sometime in the restaurant’s first 48 dinners, anonymous Michelin critics ate at Mamani several times and were impressed enough with its food to hand it Dallas’ only new Michelin star of 2025.
Mamani executive chef Christophe De Lellis pumps his fist as the Dallas restaurant name was called as a new 1-star Michelin recipient at the Michelin Guide Texas ceremony. He said after the event he was both surprised and grateful for the honor.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
It was a move so shocking, The News asked tight-lipped company Michelin to explain.
In a statement, Michelin’s anonymous chief inspector — a person rarely heard from in the media — said De Lellis’ impressive resume helped his chances. Much of De Lellis’ professional career was working for revered French chef Joël Robuchon. Even after his death, Robuchon is one of the most decorated Michelin-starred chefs in the world.
De Lellis’ roots are in France, the home of Michelin.
Here’s Michelin: “Chef Christophe De Lellis has had a consistent background before opening Mamani,” the anonymous, unnamed chief inspector wrote to The News, “and multiple meals there proved the level of the cuisine at this new Dallas restaurant to be indicative of cuisine at the 1 star level.”
Dallas diners, this is huge.
Unpack this statement, and it says that De Lellis’ work elsewhere, likely referring to his executive chef job at Joël Robuchon Restaurant in Las Vegas some 1,200 miles away, spoke volumes about the work he has done at Mamani for fewer than two months. (De Lellis also helped at sibling restaurant Bar Colette in Dallas while Mamani was under construction.)
In one of the most heartwarming moments on stage at the Michelin Guide Texas ceremony in October 2025, Mamani owners Brandon Cohanim (left), and Henry Cohanim (right) hug executive chef and partner Christophe De Lellis, who helped their new Dallas restaurant win 1 Michelin star.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
We should compare Michelin’s statement against its criteria when awarding stars. Though the company keeps much of its methodology a mystery, it has long said its critics use a five-point test while looking for the world’s best restaurants:
- Quality of ingredients
- Harmony of flavors
- Mastery of techniques
- Personality of the chef as expressed through their cuisine
- Consistency, both across the entire menu and over time
It’s possible four of these five items are achievable in under two months. But No. 5, consistency “over time”: How short is too short? Dallas Morning News readers and rule-followers have flooded us with comments, wondering why Michelin took such liberties with the time element.
Michelin confirmed it does not have a cutoff date for when restaurants are too new to be eligible for inclusion in the Guide. Mamani is just that great, we could assume.
One example of a beautiful dish at Mamani is the scallop and caviar appetizer. Others (not pictured) that were enjoyed by Michelin critics were the veal cordon bleu entree and the Paris-Brest, a dessert.
Shafkat Anowar / Staff Photographer
We return, however, to criteria No. 4, the personality of the chef. De Lellis’ pedigree spoke volumes in just a few weeks. But, we should remind ourselves a Michelin star goes to the restaurant, not to the chef. Is that the case with Mamani? The Michelin inspector’s explanation makes it sound like De Lellis was a big part of the win.
“Of course the star belongs to our entire amazing team,” De Lellis said in a company statement two days after the award.
Some News readers have expressed empathy for a small number of other excellent Dallas restaurants that had nearly 365 days since last year’s ceremony to adjust and correct their menus, vying for Michelin attention, while Mamani got it so quickly.
But while Mamani amazed judges, other Dallas-Fort Worth restaurants could have, too. Mamani winning a star does not diminish another restaurant’s chances.
Tatsu Dallas, a Japanese restaurant in Deep Ellum, was the only other Michelin star recipient in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2025.
The News asked Michelin how many other restaurants across the globe were awarded Michelin stars within 2 months or less of being open. A spokeswoman said Michelin doesn’t keep that kind of data on the countless restaurants it has visited since the Guide started in 1900.
We are left with two takeaways. First, Mamani has an army of culinary talent at its new Uptown Dallas restaurant led by superstar chef De Lellis. Second, Michelin makes its own rules, and we are left to understand what we can. You decide whether you can accept what we can’t understand.
This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ coverage of the Michelin Guide Texas. Read more about the restaurant picks in Dallas-Fort Worth and across Texas.
Dallas, TX
Mark Cuban takes legal action against Dallas Mavericks ownership over potential new arena deal
Mark Cuban has gone to court over frustrations that he’s being kept in the dark about the Dallas Mavericks moving forward in their quest to build a new arena.
Cuban’s lawyers have filed a petition in Dallas County district court seeking sworn testimony from a corporate representative of the Arena Development Institute, a company formed by Mavericks ownership in Delaware.
In June, the Mavericks announced that they had entered into an option agreement for the potential purchase of 104 acres of land at the former Valley View Mall site in North Dallas.
The Mavericks’ lease at American Airlines Center expires in 2031, and the team hopes to move into a new building ahead of the 2031-32 season.
Cuban claims that this potential new arena deal could violate contracts he already has in place with the Mavericks’ owners in Texas.
In the document Cuban filed, he outlines his version of how he sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to Miriam Adelson and her son-in-law Patrick Dumont, the Sands Corporation CEO who also serves as the Mavericks governor. Cuban said he began working with them in 2019 to pass gambling in Texas. Their goal at the time was to build a “Venetian style destination resort” somewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.
In 2023, Cuban officially sold his majority stake in the Mavericks to Adelson. Cuban said that they had a handshake agreement in place where he would remain in control of the Mavericks’ basketball decisions while Dumont would be in charge of the team’s business side.
“This handshake agreement was reiterated in multiple emails and orally in the presence of Dumont, Miriam Adelson, another NBA owner, and Mavericks employees,” Cuban’s legal action read.
The Athletic asked Cuban if he could produce these emails. Cuban replied, “Can’t say anything at all.”
Dumont, of course, leaned on former general manager Nico Harrison to make basketball decisions, which went well — at first. The Mavericks made separate moves for P.J. Washington and Daniel Gafford ahead of the 2024 trade deadline, which resulted in them catching fire to close that season and making a surprise run to the NBA Finals.
But all of that goodwill was erased when Harrison decided to trade Luka Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers in February 2025 — a failed move that eventually cost Harrison his job.
In May, Dumont hired Masai Ujiri — a championship-winning executive who spent 12 seasons running the Toronto Raptors — to take over in Dallas as president and alternate governor. Ujiri will clearly wield significant power in Dallas. In one of his first major moves, Ujiri chose to fire coach Jason Kidd, despite Kidd having more than $40 million remaining on his contract.
Cuban maintains a 27 percent stake in the Mavericks but has minimal say in the day-to-day operations of the team. In the petition Cuban filed in court, he claims that Dumont once told him, “Why would I give you control of a $4 billion asset?”
— Melody Gutierrez and Nathan Fenno contributed to this report
Dallas police officers and firefighters are being praised after rescuing a homeless woman who was trapped in a ravine for days. First responders said the rescue pushed them to their limits, but they never gave up.
Paramedics and police officers responded to a call late last month in searing afternoon heat after a man working out near Conrad High School reported hearing faint cries for help.
“When we got the initial call with DPD, we were seeing notes that said that there was someone deep back beside the ravine,” Dallas Fire-Rescue paramedic Robert Kober recalled.
A recent storm had turned the terrain in the area into a thick, sticky mud. “You stepped in it, you sank past your ankles, sometimes halfway or more up to your knees. Nasty, nasty conditions,” Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Mark Gnewuch said.
They hiked nearly a quarter mile through the muck, thick brush and even sewage to find the woman. A one point they even needed to fashion a makeshift bridge, Kober said.
“By the time I got out there, I’d already slipped and fell once and my thought process was ‘wow, she has been out here for a while,’” Gnewuch said.
“I was expecting to see someone who was barely coherent, possibly deceased, but when we arrived on location and I saw her, she was actually carrying on a conversation,” Kober said.
The woman was taken to a hospital suffering from severe dehydration, prolonged sun exposure and other injuries, but was in stable condition.
“I have been on similar situations where individuals who are in that type of environment for that long, they don’t survive, so it was definitely a miracle to make it through,” Kober said.
The rescue was proof of what can be accomplished when first responders work together.
FC Dallas announced today that forward Logan Farrington signed a contract extension through the 2027-28 season, with club options for the 2028-29 and 2029-30 seasons.
Farrington was previously under contract through the 2027 season. This new deal updates his contract options through the 2029-30 season.
Farrington has appeared in 14 matches this season, scoring a career-high six goals and recording a team-leading four assists. He was named to the MLS Team of the Matchweek Starting XI for Week 5 after scoring a brace and one assist in the Texas Derby against Houston on March 21.
For the first time in his professional career, Farrington scored in back-to-back matches from March 21 to April 4, finding the net in the Texas Derby victory and the road win at D.C. United.
The Racine, Wisconsin, native was drafted No. 3 overall in the 2024 MLS SuperDraft and signed a new contract on Jan. 22, 2025. Farrington has recorded 15 goals and 16 assists in 75 appearances since joining Dallas, the most by any 2024 MLS SuperDraftee across the league. He won the MLS NEXT Pro Cup with North Texas SC on Nov. 9, 2024, scoring a goal in the final. He also became one of six players in MLS history to record multiple games with both a goal and an assist off the bench in a single season in 2024.
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Quick BDS Take
There is no doubt in my mind that we’re going to see more of these types of announcements over the next few weeks as the club begins to reposition itself for the upcoming calendar change in MLS. There are still a lot of players on deals that run through 2027, so addressing what part of 2027 has to be done here.
Either way, I am all for adding more years to Farrington’s contract. He’s been one of the more underrated strikers in MLS and his partnership with Petar Musa has really been fun to watch over the last three seasons.
His numbers alone this year show that he’s been improving year over year with the club, too.
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