A beloved all-day restaurant concept from Dallas is expanding west: Ellen's, which was founded more than a decade ago in Dallas' downtown West End, will open its first location in Fort Worth.

The restaurant, which specializes in nicely executed Southern home-cooking, will open in the Near Southside district in a new building at 601 S. Main St.

Founder and co-owner Joe Groves, who was born and grew up in Fort Worth, says that the tentative opening is early summer 2024.

Groves and his partners Russell Mertz and Andrew Chooljian opened the first Ellen's in 2012, taking a chance on the West End at a time when the then-touristy neighborhood was a little down and out. Open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, their consistent presence, bright-and-cheery ambience, and reliably good food helped make West End feel like a safer, cooler place.

They were also way ahead of the curve when it came to recognizing the hipster potential of breakfast, which has surged as a huge category in the past few years.

They're known for dishes like meatloaf, chicken-fried steak, and breakfast/brunch, with dishes such as shrimp & grits and a "pancake pot pie" featuring pancakes layered with sausage gravy, bacon, sausage, hash browns, scrambled eggs, and cheddar cheese. (They've done some fun commercials showcasing Groves' droll wit, which air regularly on local TV stations, such as this one for their pancake pot pie.)

They've since opened locations in Dallas' Casa Linda neighborhood and in Allen. In Fort Worth they originally looked in the downtown area before gravitating to the Near Southside.

"We found a couple places near Sundance Square but couldn’t come to terms, when we were approached by a developer in the Near Southside who was working on a project and had a space," Groves says. "It's such a vibrant neighborhood that's walkable, with residential and businesses and restaurants, like a micro community with its own funky identity, which we love."

He also likes that it's near the Medical District, a market with which they've become familiar at their downtown Dallas location.

"We have a 'nurse happy hour,' for those third-shift hospital workers getting off at 7 am," he says. "If you come in wearing your scrubs, you get happy hour prices on your breakfast cocktail."

The building they're going into is a new building - "but it's being built with an awareness of the history of the neighborhood and blending in well," he says. "There’s also parking, and that's a plus."

The location will span 8,300 square feet, with a full bar plus a cool mezzanine that overlooks the main dining room. No patio - "it's pretty much on the sidewalk," he says - but it will be two-story with stairs and an elevator.

They don't do cookie-cutter construction, instead tailoring each restaurant to what the neighborhood calls for.

"We don't have 'a look,' but Fort Worth will be a modern building in a historic district, so we’re going more mid-century, Mies van der Rohe meets mid-century-modern, sleek and comfortable and vibrant," he says.

In addition to Fort Worth, they're also opening locations in North Dallas and Frisco. But Fort Worth was always on Groves' short list.

"I grew up in Fort Worth, I graduated from high school there, my mother is still in the house we grew up in," he says. "It’s always been something I wanted to do. Plus Fort Worth is just a great place to be. People who live in Fort Worth are generally from Fort Worth. Dallas has transplants from all over the world, and that's fantastic, but Fort Worth really has a sense of pride."