An innovative new restaurant from an established New York player is coming to Hurst. Called James Provisions, the concept was created by Deborah Williamson, who founded its antecedent, a popular Brooklyn restaurant named James, in 2008.

The new restaurant is opening in March at 290 Grapevine Hwy., featuring a menu made with whole food and natural ingredients primarily sourced from local farmers in what Williamson describes as a “fine-casual” environment. The company’s motto is simple: “Eat well to live well.”

“The whole point is really to give people beautiful food that also nourishes them,” Williamson says.

Hurst might seem like an unpredictable market for the Brooklyn entrepreneur, who closed James in November 2022 to start the new venture. However, it’s both a business move and a homecoming for Williamson.

She grew up in North Richland Hills where she went to Richland High School. She started James with her chef husband Bryan Calvert after working in events production for several years in New York.

After nearly 15 years of the high-energy bustle of managing the Brooklyn restaurant, Williamson returned to her hometown of North Richland Hills to be closer to relatives. Her father, who always encouraged her to return home and start a restaurant in North Texas, died in 2021, convincing her that she wanted to be near family.

“When my dad passed, everything was really calling me home,” Williamson says. “I wanted to be closer to my family — there’s a moment in time when it’s time for something new. It felt like the universe was calling me back.”

Now, the Hurst restaurant is close to both home and family, and Williamson is poised to launch the new concept. It closely resembles the original James in Brooklyn but with a few tweaks.

The restaurant emphasizes health-focused dishes, with a menu of elevated, vegetable-rich soups, salads, burgers, and other entrees. Standouts include

• Butcher’s steak with crushed potatoes, charred onions, and chimichurri
• Roasted chicken breast with fennel, radicchio and celery salad, herbs, and natural jus, a thin gravy
• “All Day Eggs:” two crispy eggs with whipped ricotta, baby potatoes, bitter greens, and olive gremolata

There’s several roasted veggie sides and salads, but the selection will be dependent on what’s in season. Williamson is sourcing vegetables from local distributor Chef’s Produce, Sprouts, and some smaller farms like River Valley Farms in Aledo, plus local farmers markets.

Her steak and ground beef are grass fed and hormone-free, from 44 Farms in Cameron.

The entire menu will be devoid of seed oils like canola, grapeseed, and safflower, which some research indicates can contribute to inflammatory diseases. Instead, James Provisions will cook with olive oil, coconut oil, bacon fat, ghee, and beef tallow.

That means goodbye to the hand cut fries served at the Brooklyn James, and hello to a new potato side, served with many of their entrees: baby potatoes that get crushed, roasted, and pan-sauteed with a miso compound butter.

“You’ll still get that caramelized, fatty potato hit,” Williamson says. “You’re getting all the same flavor profiles and that satisfaction that comes from potatoes, but without it being fried in seed oil.”

The drink menu is expansive, with juices and smoothies, local beers, a limited selection of wines, and an uncommonly large mocktail offering.

The restaurant space itself seats about 55 indoor diners, plus room for 30 more on a covered, outdoor patio. The building is newly renovated, with James Provisions as the first occupant. They designed the space to feel light and airy, with high ceilings, plenty of natural lighting, and white tones throughout the restaurant.

“We want everybody to feel like this is a place for them,” Williamson says. “It’s not too fancy, it’s not too casual. It just feels approachable.”

Diners will order their meals at the front counter before getting directed to a table, where they’ll receive full service from that point on, with dinner and drinks delivered to their seats. No reservations are allowed.

For now, James Provisions will open for a dinner service during the week with extended hours on the weekends. Hours are Monday-Thursday 4-9 pm, Friday and Saturday 11 am-9 pm, and Sunday 11 am-8 pm. The restaurant will open its doors March 2.