Will the French Room ever reopen for dinner in Dallas? - Dining and Cooking

The French Room inside Dallas’ 113-year-old Adolphus hotel has been closed for regular dinner service since 2020, making it one of the most iconic North Texas restaurants that hasn’t fully reopened since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Customers continue coming for afternoon tea, but for more than six years, this chic dining room has mostly been empty after dark.

Will we ever eat dinner here again?

Actually, yes.

That’s according to Sam Tucker, area director of sales and marketing for Texas for Makeready, the company that manages the Adolphus. The French Room and the Adolphus will get a refresh in 2028.

The French Room will be transformed into a brasserie, not the fanciest restaurant in town, Tucker said. He has worked at the Adolphus for nine years.

Related: A historical look at the Adolphus hotel, in photos

Tucker was in the building when Taylor Sheridan’s show Lioness filmed inside the French Room’s white-walled dining room. For decades, the formal French restaurant was a place for anniversaries and birthdays — and a classic setting for Nicole Kidman’s character to meet with a Russian diplomat on the Paramount+ show.

The Adolphus team hesitated to reopen the French Room fully, opting instead to use it for afternoon tea, guest chef dinners and buyout events like wedding receptions.

The stakes were too high to bring back the historic restaurant and get it wrong, Tucker said.

More directly: “No one wants to see it fail.”

For decades, the French Room has been considered one of the most romantic dinner spots in Dallas. The Dallas Morning News caught an engagement between Michlind Wilson, left, and Troy Wierman at the restaurant in 2019. (Carly Geraci/Special Contributor)

Tucker thought back to the last major renovation at the French Room and the Adolphus, when it closed for construction between 2015 and 2017. The dining room’s beloved cherubs were removed from the ceilings, a pearl-clutching surprise when regulars revisited. What many didn’t know is the aging building needed major infrastructure work. (Before the reno, Tucker said, “There were so many leaks in the ceiling in the French Room that they had a plaster guy repair them every week.”)

When the restaurant reopened, the team was surprised to find it didn’t offer the experience diners desired, Tucker said.

“Fine dining had already changed again,” he said. It wasn’t all bad: A 2017 Dallas Morning News restaurant review said chef Michael Ehlert’s food was “light, imaginative and new.”

For the French Room’s latest act, the Adolphus team is focused on serving a different Dallas diner. Its neighbor, AT&T, plans to move its global headquarters to Plano in 2028, one of several changes that could affect the culture of downtown. Meanwhile, the number of downtown residents has more than doubled since 2010, according to Census data.

“The legacy diner at the French Room is dying off,” Tucker said. The plan is to honor the restaurant’s name for “a new generation,” not just those driving across town to celebrate a milestone, he said.

“And that’s a real challenge.”

In this 2019 photo, then-General Manager Victor Rojas serves customers at the French Room in Dallas. When the French Room returns for regular dinner service, service will be quicker than it was pre-COVID. (Carly Geraci/Special Contributor)

Neither the French Room nor the hotel is expected to close during 2028 renovations. The restaurant will have snappier service but retain its elegant look, Tucker said.

It’s too early to know what will be on the menu. The timeline could change.

“Whatever we do just has to be really thoughtful,” he said. “And it has to work.”

The French Room is inside the Adolphus hotel at 1321 Commerce St., Dallas.

This article originally published at Will the French Room ever reopen for dinner in Dallas?.