13 March 27 - april 2, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents – midnight; Saturday, 2 p.m. – midnight; Sun- day, 12 p.m. – 11 p.m.) Vidorra 2642 Main St. (Deep Ellum) While really good Tex-Mex and strong cock- tails are the main draw of this popular roof- top destination, Vidorra in Deep Ellum has a beautiful rooftop space. Try the Mexspresso and fried avocado tacos; the trompo beef is a solid selection as well. There’s a 5-pound taco, but proceed with caution. Happy hour is Monday – Friday, 3–6 p.m., and includes half off select appetizers and a $30 Vidorrar- ita for you and seven of your germ-sharing besties to enjoy. (Hours: Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m. – midnight; Friday/Saturday, 11 a.m. – 2 a.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. – midnight.) ▼ FIRST LOOK A SEA BREEZE IN WEST DALLAS PESCA IN WEST DALLAS IS A CHARMING NEW SEAFOOD SPOT GIVE NEW LIFE TO TRINITY GROVES. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS T rinity Groves in West Dallas is only a bit more than a decade old but has already mastered reinvention. Although when the large food park and restaurant “incubator” opened a decade ago that was always the aim. The idea was new concepts would launch here and then move on. Restaurants aplenty have come and gone over the years: Off-Site Kitchen, Amberjax, Lexi’s, Cake Bar and many more. All of those are gone, but oddly Sum Dang Good Chinese food endures, as does Beto and Son’s. More recent additions include La Rue Doughnuts and Pesca. The latter is coastal restaurant with a hint of Mexico. It’s the work of Jesus Carmona, who also owns Milagro Taco Cantina across the street. When this space became available, he was offered a chance to open his own con- cept as a permanent concept. “It took me seven months to create this menu,” Carmona says, “At one point, I was going high end, and then I said, ‘This is not going to work.’” He read the room and knew diners were watching their pocketbooks. He got to work in the kitchen at Milagro and developed the menu. His aim was to have an “everyday restau- rant” and keep everything on the menu un- der $30. Well done, sir. The highest-priced items on the menu are a lobster roll ($25) and a blackened catfish ($28) loaded with crab and served with two sides. Carmona, a classically trained chef and veteran restaurateur (and always gracious host), is offering up breezy plates of seafood, coastal classics and even burgers that are upscale and casual all at once. The space is bright and cheery, with a mix of ‘80s music at conversation volume. The aqua blue-and- white checkered floors lead past a soda- fountain-esque cocktail bar with one TV at the end. This leads to a long dining room with a neon marlin, crustaceans and other sea life bedazzling the walls. A wall of win- dows and doors let in natural light. Start with a cup of tortilla soup with a gu- ajillo broth (or buy a gallon if he’ll sell it to you). This is smooth as velvet, with depth and a piquant bite from the guajillo. The base of the soup is pureed and strained, then diced chicken and avocado are added along with strips of tortillas. Tables around us got the mezcal shoot- ers, a fun play on shrimp cocktail; a large shrimp is dunked in a shot glass with mezcal and a spicy bloody mary mix (of course, the bloody mary mix is made in-house). There’s also an oyster shooter ($7) with vodka. Calamari comes with a serrano jelly and homemade tartar sauce. The thing about calamari is it either channels rubberbands or it’s glorious. Here, naturally, the tentacles are soft with a crispy exterior and the two sides add bursts of citrusy flavor An early version of the menu on the web- site had seafood enchiladas, but when we ar- rived for our first date early this year, there were no enchiladas to be found. Instead, Carmona went with shrimp crepes; people were requesting flour tortillas, so he decided make crepes stuffed with shrimp, poblano peppers, red peppers, onions and finished off with a poblano cream sauce. “So, I’m basically making a flour crepe and turning it into an enchilada, which goes more with the concept,” Carmona said. On our first visit, for mains, we squared up with the blackened catfish topped with a glut- tonous amount of crab over a delicate mound of mashed potatoes and light butter sauce, with several grilled asparagus spears. This isn’t a good dish for $28 — this is a fantastic dish in itself. The seafood is cooked and handled with careful attention. A linguine frutti di mare with clams, calamari and shrimp in a light garlic sauce ($26) was also perfect. On another visit, we had The Louie, a clas- sic popular on the East Coast from the early 20th century. This would appeal to any pro- tein-loading fitness Instagrammer’s reel. Rows of crab, hard-boiled eggs, tomato, and aspara- gus line up perfectly over a bed of Louie- dressed iceberg lettuce for $16. Sixteen dollars! We got a Pesca burger ($16) to go. It bucked the thin patty trend with an extra thick Angus beef patty on a brioche bun with aged cheddar and caramelized onions. House-cut shoestring fries are super thin, crispy and addictive. Recently, Pesca opened for lunch, offer- ing salads, seafood gumbo and smoked chicken on Fridays. And, of course, Car- mona will offer daily lunch specials, because he can read a room. Pesca, 3011 Gulden Ave. Tuesday - Saturday 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Mon- day Closed. Lauren Drewes Daniels The blackened catfish topped with crab at Pesca. GOT WEEKEND PLANS? NOW YOU DO! Scan here to view our events calendar (updated daily!) D
