12 November 27 - December 3, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents A 26-Seat Ode East Dallas is getting another cocktail gem. BY AAREN PRODY B rothers Pasha and Sina Heidari, who are behind Bowen House, Las Palmas, (the amazing) Mike’s Gemini Twin Lounge, St. Martin’s and Urbano Cafe, quietly opened a new concept in East Dallas on Halloween this year. It’s a 26-seat cocktail bar called Sylvestro, and is inspired by the late ‘80s and connects with Urbano Cafe next door. For a long time, diners at Urbano were fiending for cocktails, but the restaurant didn’t have a liquor license, hence the BYOB policy. Now that Sylvestro is open, and the liquor license is in place, they can no longer do BYOB. Slyvestro will now be serving the drinks, and soon, Urbano will get a full re- fresh, including a new wine program, after the holidays. Gears are shifting, but there’s plenty to be excited about for new and regular diners in the area. As for Sylvestro, the Heidari brothers wanted to create a bar that had the ‘80s writ- ten all over it — art deco revival motifs are hinted throughout the space, there’s leather and chrome banquette seating and the menu pays homage to the nostalgia, but still keeps things modern. You’ll recognize classics by name — cosmo, gimlet or espresso martini — but they’ll be created with some interesting in- gredients. Joe Shirghio, who we’ve all loved behind the bar at Bowen House for years, is running the show at Sylvestro. His most interesting creation for the menu is his Everything Espresso Martini, which is made with Japanese iichiko sochu, orgeat and is flavored with everything sea- soning and a dash of soy sauce. Peak ‘80s energy will come alive with the Gioello, a neon green drink with a mara- schino cherry frozen inside a single ice cube. It’s made with Midori, gin, dry vermouth and Centerbe, an Italian herbal liquor that gives it the neon green color. More from the menu will be a prickly pear sage gimlet, apple brandy sour, ba- nanas foster old fashioned and a light pink cosmo with notes of rose, yuzu, lemon and cranberry. Cocktail prices fall between $16-20. From what we know now, there aren’t any non-alcoholic options on the menu, but the bar has plenty of non-alcoholic spirits stocked to make you something interesting. For now, you can order food from Urbano Cafe’s menu next door, but within a month or so, Sylvestro will offer its own menu of bar food that will feature mostly antipasto- style dishes from Urbano. Sylvestro is joining a cluster of greats in East Dallas where Bryan St.and N. Fitzhugh Ave. intersect: Jimmy’s Food Store, Saint Valentine and Dallasite Billiards. Bar seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis for walk-ins. Diners com- ing to or from neighboring Urbano Cafe re- ceive priority seating to enjoy a drink before or after dinner. Sylvestro,1412 N. Fitzhugh Ave., Tuesday - Saturday, 5 p.m. - midnight; Monday, closed. ▼ SOCIAL MEDIA THANKS MATCHA INFLUENCER KEITH LEE HELPS THE BROWN THUMB IN DENTON. BY LAUREN DREWES DANIELS K eith Lee is a food influencer who does good with his work. The former mixed martial arts fighter began doc- umenting cooking for his family in 2020 with a straightforward, no-nonsense vibe. He’s leaned into helping small businesses, often places that are struggling, by leaving honest reviews and a good tip (thousands of dollars). With philanthropy at its center, his Tik- Tok page has blossomed into a following of 17 million. “The Keith Lee Effect,” as it’s be- come known, is typically fruitful. Lee moved to the Dallas area last year and still regularly travels and posts from across the country. More locally, he recently visited a matcha and plant shop in Denton. The Brown Thumb is near Denton’s his- toric downtown square. Owner Monique Segovia began selling plants at the Denton Farmers Market several years ago and opened a shop specializing in plants and matcha in 2024. Segovia posted a video in October, asking Lee to pay her a visit, saying they had been working their butts off for the past four years and it was time to “reap what we’ve been sowing.” She said business is up and down, but some weekdays are painfully “suh-low.” When Lee arrived a couple of weeks later, he didn’t want to be recognized and get pref- erential treatment, so he offered two people walking by his car 100 bucks each to go in and order his matcha. It wasn’t hard to find some- one. (This is Denton, it’s full of students.) Lee liked that The Brown Thumb is col- lecting donations for families who had lost access to SNAP during the government shutdown. On his TikTok video, after Lee takes his first big swig of matcha, he says, “If that’s not ceremonial grade matcha, you can slap me in the head, but I don’t think I’m getting slapped today.” We confirmed with Segovia that it is, in fact, ceremonial grade. He compared an ube matcha topped with vanilla sweet cream to the quality he found in Las Vegas, where there’s a large Hawaiian population. Lee pondered why business was slow while salivating over the drinks, mad that the spot is a long drive from his house. He doesn’t think it’s the location near the downtown square, where there is a lot of foot traffic, nor did it have anything to do with the matcha. “I personally think it’s the marketing,” Lee says in his TikTok video. “I don’t think a lot of people know it’s a woman-black- owned coffee shop-flower shop in the area.” | CITY OF ATE | ▼ Dish Courtesy of Sylvestro The new cocktail lounge Sylvestro is next to Cafe Urbano. Jordan Maddox In addition to plants, the Brown Thumb serves matcha drinks. Dapper TO Divey THE DALLAS BARS THAT KEEP ON GIVING IN 2025 VIEW FULL LIST
