In the first year Michelin scoped for Texas’ best restaurants, most Dallas-Fort Worth chefs were hesitant to say they wanted to attention from the famous French restaurant reviewers. A year in, and North Texas restaurateurs are opening restaurants with tasting menus like never before.
Fort Worth resident and Dallas chef Wyl Lima has two restaurant concepts planned for Dallas’ Jefferson Boulevard in fall 2025.
Lima’s first is a cafe called Ateliê, open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and expected to sell espressos, pastries and lunchtime food like a croque madame sandwich and a roasted half chicken.
The second will open in Ateliê’s private dining room. Named Origen, the tasting-menu restaurant will be open for dinner on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
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Chef Wyl Lima grew up in Africa before moving to Texas as a child.
Courtesy Wyl Lima
Lima has been testing out his tasting menu at a pop-up dinner series called The Experience, which started in 2023 in Kessler Park. A sample menu of one of those dinners shows seven courses including truffle arancini, mussels, snapper and a filet.
The menu for Origen wasn’t yet available. Lima is planning a “seasonal and fluid” menu at his restaurant-within-a-restaurant. He is the culinary director at The Charlotte, the American restaurant on Henderson Avenue in East Dallas where diners sit (and stand) among giant teddy bears. He previously worked as chef de cuisine at Temporis, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Chicago that closed in 2024.
Origen will seat 18 people.
Both restaurant names are Portuguese, the language Lima grew up speaking in the African country of Angola, where he lived until he moved to Texas at age 9. Ateliê means “studio” and Origen means “origin.”
Throughout both Oak Cliff restaurants, art from Daisha Board Gallery will be on display.
Lima, an artist himself, said, “It’s always been a dream to bring those two parts of my world together” — food and art.
Ateliê and Origen are expected to open at 365 W. Jefferson Blvd., Dallas, in fall 2025.
Dining and Cooking