Social House

Social restaurant brings boffo brunch and patio to Arlington

Social House is opening in Arlington.

Photo courtesy of Social House

Dallas-Fort Worth lands an opportunity to get social with Social House Arlington, the fourth branch of a small restaurant-bar chain that serves from-scratch food, many beers on tap, and a friendly, welcoming atmosphere.

Social House is the linchpin concept from the Syn Group, the hospitality company founded in 2006 by Jonathan Serrano and Shawn Rao. The other three Social House locations are in Uptown Dallas, Addison, and Fort Worth.

The Arlington location will go into Champions Park, a new development on the northeast corner of I-30 and Collins Street, within eyeshot of AT&T Stadium. Social House will not be alone: The complex will also have a Torchy's Tacos, Cowboys Nail Lounge, Firehouse Subs, gourmet burger chain BurgerFi, Tokyo Joe’s, Urban Bricks Pizza, Salata, Yumilicious, and Tiff’s Treats, and that's just the first phase.

The complex steps up the game for Arlington, whose collection of restaurants vacillates mostly between mid-level chains and indie/ethnic finds.

"I feel like the Arlington market is under-served, there's not that many cool things," Rao says.

Social House Arlington will have some of your key 2017-era features including 50 taps of beer on draft, a spacious patio, and brunch, for which Social House has won best-of awards.

Everyone does brunch these days, but brunch in a way embodies the enduring charm of Social House as a place to get waffles, drink cocktails, and hang out. It has a fun bar atmosphere, but with better versions of the usual bar food, from mussels to calamari to nachos to burgers.

The first incarnation of Social House opened in the West Village in 2009, followed by a branch in Addison in 2011. West Village closed, but a new Social House opened in Uptown in 2013, in the former Arcodoro Pomodoro space, where they came to appreciate the value of an outdoor space. Fort Worth opened in early 2016.

"They each have slightly different vibes, each are designed differently to fit the neighborhood," Rao says. "Arlington will have a center bar that's similar to the Fort Worth location, and it'll have an indoor-outdoor patio with accordion doors."

One thing that's changed in the past few years has been the attitude towards beer, Rao says.

"When we opened Uptown, we had 100 taps because the craft beer trend was on the rise, and we did that in Fort Worth, but we'll never do 100 again," he says. "The trend is going to having cocktails on tap. We have 15 cocktails on tap, like a Moscow mule. We did 10 at American Gardens, our other concept in Fort Worth, and in Arlington, we're going to do 15. Things are so competitive, we always try to think three steps ahead."

brunch openings

Spongebob News

10 restaurants near Fort Worth join Spongebob burger promotion

Starship Bagel

Krabby Patty entry from Starship Bagel

A national promotion to hype the anniversary of cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants kicks off on October 8, with the participation of 10 restaurants near Fort Worth.

In this case, "near Fort Worth" means Dallas.

Called the Krabby Patty Kollab, it's a program in which restaurants were invited to do their version of the Krabby Patty, the signature dish of Spongebob Squarepants, a cartoon that debuted on the Nickelodeon channel in 1999.

Orchestrated by a secretive company called Off the Menu, the promotion is in play in 12 cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami, Las Vegas, Toronto, London, and Mexico City.

If you notice, they targeted Dallas only, not Fort Worth. But since the promotion is in only 12 cities, Fort Worth can at least enjoy it by its proximity to Dallas.

There are some options in Tarrant County: Wendy's is doing their Krabby Patty at all locations, although it's a nothing-special quarter pounder with American cheese, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and secret sauce, but it comes with an intriguing pineapple-mango Frosty shake. Fort Worth diners can also visit the Tarrant County locations of Hat Creek Burger Co. — Keller and Roanoke — as the Austin chain is serving their Krabby Patty offering at all 11 locations in DFW.

More than 250 participating restaurants are doing dumplings, falafel, burgers, doughnuts, ice cream renditions. The promotion will end on October 27.

Participating restaurants in Dallas and their Krabby Patty offerings include:

Black Tap Craft Burgers & Beer - Dallas location of this New York-based burger & beer chain is doing a fried cheeseburger on a stick: a burger with American cheese, sauce, pickles, wrapped in dough and fried, served on a stick, with a side of potato salad. (Other participating Black Tap restaurants include New York, Miami, and Las Vegas at The Venetian.)
Brooklyn Dumpling Shop - Dallas location of this New York-based dumpling chain is doing bacon cheeseburger dumplings — dumplings filled with ground beef and cheese — and "choice of side."
Cris and John - Vietnamese street food shop in Richardson is doing an Asian-inspired take, featuring two smash patties with American cheese, seaweed aioli, and pickled Asian cucumbers, served with fries drizzled with spicy mayo and seaweed flakes.
Hat Creek Burgers - This Austin burger chain with 11 Dallas-area locations is serving a dialed-in offering similar to an item already on their menu, with two patties, white cheese, onions, and a "happy" sauce on a pretzel bun.
Le Reve Gelato & Patisserie - North Dallas shop is the most TikTokky by using sweet ingredients to mimic burger components: vanilla sponge cake bun, pineapple patty, crêpe lettuce, tomato made of strawberry mousse, puff pastry sticks for fries, and strawberry ketchup. It's reminiscent of shokuhin sampuru, the Japanese tradition of creating plastic replicas of dishes.
Lubbies Bagels - East Dallas bagel shop is doing a vegetarian burger featuring housemade seitan on a sesame kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato, onion, B&B pickles, miso mayo sauce, and a side of twice-fried fingerlings with kimchi mayo.
Oomi Kitchen - Digital kitchen is doing a smashed beef patty, with cheddar cheese, grilled onions, tropical slaw, and pineapple aioli on a Hawaiian King roll, served with crinkle-cut bacon cheese fries. (They also have transformed themselves into a Spongebob pop-up with festive decorations.)
Pacheco Taco N Burger - Burger pop-up inside Four Corners Brewery is doing a standard burger with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, cheese on a sesame seed bun with a secret sauce featuring horseradish and srirarcha.
Serious Eats - Grand Prairie food hall is doing a slider with beef patty, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, and Boom Boom sauce, served with sea salt fries. Also offering a pineapple milkshake.
Starship Bagel - Award-winning bagel shop with three locations in Dallas is doing vegetarian version featuring an Impossible patty on a sesame bagel with lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickle, schmear, ketchup, hot sauce, sweet pickle relish, and vinegar. (Remove the schmear and it magically becomes vegan.) Their side is pretzel bites with cheese sauce, and they're doing a "Jellyfish" Strawberry Milk Matcha drink — both available only with the Krabby Patty combo.

(While there are 10 names, some restaurants have more than one location.)

Spongebob Squarepants Krabby patty at Oomi Kitchen. Oomi Kitchen in downtown Dallas has transformed itself into a Spongebob pop-up. Oomi Kitchen