Dallas fine-dining restaurant Georgie is stepping into a new era, and so, too, is its newly appointed executive chef Bruno Davaillon.
The French chef — who has spent the past five years as the culinary director for the restaurant group behind Georgie, Knox Bistro, Le Bilboquet and others — is now fully at the restaurant’s helm and is rolling out a new menu, which will reshape Georgie into a destination for French cuisine.
Dallas diners have experienced Davaillon’s food across the menus he’s overseen for Travis Street Hospitality, but his redirection of Georgie will perhaps be the first time he and his culinary brawn are on full display since his days at the widely hailed restaurant Bullion, which opened in 2017 and closed a few years later during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chef Bruno Davaillon plates the hot honey crispy duck breast dish at Georgie, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026, in Dallas.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Eat Drink D-FW
Bullion, although undoubtedly in the rear-view mirror, is readily on Davaillon’s lips when he describes the future of Georgie.
“Every other day people ask me about that restaurant,” he said one afternoon last week while taking a break from working on a caramelized onion tart for the new menu. “I’m not trying to re-create Bullion, but this will be an evolution of it, menu-wise.”
Breadcrumb hints of Georgie’s new direction have been sprinkled across the restaurant’s menu since Davaillon took over the kitchen in November, like halibut basted in champagne sauce, artichoke veloute with truffle butter, and crispy duck breast with citrus jus.
Look closely at his new additions and you’ll see glimpses of influence from Davaillon’s upbringing in France’s Loire Valley, the time he spent cooking in Normandy and the years he ran the kitchen of Alain Ducasse’s Michelin-starred Las Vegas restaurant Mix. You’ll also see echoes of the approach he took at Bullion — honoring but contemporizing French classics.
One of chef Bruno Davaillon’s new menu additions are sakè-poached leeks served with truffles, caper cream, hazelnuts and spelt crostini.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
By next week, the entirety of Davaillon’s new culinary blueprint for Georgie will be printed on its menus, along with revamped desserts from pastry chef Dyan Ng, who oversees pastry for Travis Street Hospitality and also worked at Mix in Las Vegas. Like Davaillon, Ng has taken up full-time residency at Georgie. Also like Davaillon, she is drawing from and reinterpreting French classics.
One of Ng’s recent menu contributions, for example, is made by slow-cooking a Golden Delicious apple for several days until its water content is significantly reduced. It’s served with a yogurt ice cream, fermented green strawberries and a sauce made from apple juice and fermented shiitake brine.
“It’s reminiscent of a classic tarte tatin,” Ng said, “but without all the sugar.”
Pastry chef Dyan Ng is revamping Georgie’s dessert menu with additions like this play on an apple tarte tatin, which is served with yogurt ice cream, fermented green strawberries and a sauce made from apple juice and shiitake brine.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Davaillon said although Georgie is fully embracing French cuisine, it will do so without the pomp often associated with French fine-dining restaurants.
“It will be an elegant French restaurant, but I don’t want it to be intimidating,” Davaillon said. “I don’t want French pretension. I want it to be approachable.”
He plans to accomplish that, he said, by focusing on French technique while cooking wholly for the people in the dining room.
“When you’re a younger chef, you have a tendency to cook for yourself,” he explained. “To me, it cannot be a technical performance for every dish. You are cooking for the guests. It has to resonate with the guests.”
Two executive chefs ago, Georgie had a distinguishable French bent under the leadership of RJ Yoakum, who previously spent years working for Thomas Keller at The French Laundry. Davaillon’s rendition of Georgie, is poised to lean into the cuisine fully.
Much has changed about Dallas’ dining scene, particularly its French dining scene, since Bullion shuttered in 2020. French technique — and diners’ interest in it — is more prevalent in the region.
There are also two new players in Dallas: Michelin, a French restaurant rating system known for closely watching and, one could argue, favoring French restaurants; and Mamani, a French restaurant in Uptown that earned a Michelin star last year after fewer than 60 days in business. Georgie received Michelin’s Recommended designation in 2024 and 2025.
The hot honey crispy duck breast is served with Hakurei turnips and confit kumquats.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
None of that phases Davaillon. It’s the challenging operating environment that takes up his headspace.
“The cost of goods has been rising tremendously since COVID,” Davaillon said. “And labor has been tough. There are so many restaurants open, and everybody is fighting for the same pool of talent that is not very big.”
For a French restaurant in Dallas, the talent pool shrinks even smaller. There are only so many people who know, for example, how to make the canon of French sauces by heart, he said.
“The problem is, French food is reliant on a lot of craftsmanship and technique and you need people trained in that,” he said. “It’s an art that’s being lost, and it takes a long time to teach.”
As the team Davaillon assembled gains its footing, the menu will evolve and eventually a tasting menu will be added, he said. Two things will stay the same in Georgie’s new era; the prioritization of Texas produce and a distinctly French identity.
“There is a lot to be done with French food here,” Davaillon said.
Halibut with celeriac confit and champagne sauce is one of the new menu items taking Georgie in a French direction.
Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer
Dining and Cooking