Hillcrest Village, the Far North Dallas shopping center that sat mostly vacant five years ago, continues to reinvent itself. Starship Bagel and Ka Thai are expected to move in, their owners confirm.

The two restaurants will bring more Dallas-Fort Worth-owned eateries to the resurrected shopping center at Hillcrest and Arapaho roads. The complex already has North Texas-born shops like Cane Rosso pizza, Haystack Burgers and Haute Sweets Patisserie. Don Pepe’s Rancho Mexican Grill & Tequila Bar moved into the development a few years ago after serving Mexican food in the neighborhood since 1985.

Hillcrest Village is also home to a $4.3 million park and lawn that some have called a “mini Klyde Warren Park.” Developer David Sacher said in 2020 that he intends to bring back the “small town” feel of the neighborhood from when he was a kid, living close by.

Starship Bagel owner Oren Salomon grew up near there, too. His coming-soon Starship Bagel will replace the Blockbuster Video he used to walk to as a middle-schooler at Parkhill Junior High.

“I have a nostalgic and childhood connection with this space,” Salomon said.

He sees the potential of the shopping center he remembers fondly. “It’s a template and model for the future of suburban design,” Salomon said. Adding the park and re-using existing buildings from the 1970s and ‘80s creates “gathering spaces and city squares” in a commercial area that needed a facelift, Salomon said. The home he grew up in, where his dad still lives, is nearby.

Ka Thai will open in place of the shuttered Chinese restaurant Mandarin by Howard Wang’s. Previously, it was enchilada shop Lada — a first-of-its-kind restaurant that didn’t thrive.

Here’s a little bit more about each of the new Hillcrest Village restaurants.

Ka Thai

Owner Jackie Kaewlamduan started Ka Thai in a cramped, 1,800-square-foot restaurant on McKinney Avenue in Dallas, north of Knox Street. It was too small to sustain its growing take-out business, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, so Kaewlamduan moved Ka Thai south of Lemmon Avenue on McKinney, where it remains today.

The Hillcrest Village restaurant will be Ka Thai’s second location.

Popular items include Heaven Beef with tamarind dipping sauce and sticky rice, fried rice and papaya salad. Kaewlamduan’s favorite is the Massaman Curry, made in honor of her grandmother, whose curry was so beloved, she made it in large quantities for her village in Thailand on holidays.

Kaewlamduan moved to the Dallas area to get a master’s degree in management, but she found that she enjoyed working in restaurants more than she liked the 9-to-5. Eventually, she became a full-time restaurateur. She calls Ka Thai “my dream.”

Starship Bagel

Dallas-Fort Worth was once a bit of a bagel desert, but it’s now brimming with great shops in nearly every corner. Starship Bagel brought national attention back to D-FW in October 2023, when it won Best Bagel in a blind taste test at BagelFest in New York.

Starship’s plain bagel is its most popular. Owner Salomon likes it smeared with fermented jalapeño cream cheese, but cream cheese options abound: green olive, honey almond, strawberry, vegan avocado and more. The shop also sells bagel sandwiches, including the signature lox with tomato, cucumber, red onion and capers.

Starship started in Lewisville and has expanded to downtown Dallas. The Hillcrest Village restaurant will be “an evolution” of the downtown Dallas walk-up window, in that it’ll have the same menu but more indoor seating and more than one ordering line.

“We’re hoping to serve a lot of people,” Salomon said.

Ka Thai and Starship Bagel are both expected to open at 6859 Arapaho Road (in Hillcrest Village), Dallas. Tentative opening dates are spring 2024.

For more food news, follow Sarah Blaskovich on X (formerly Twitter) at @sblaskovich.