A few weeks ago, James & I got to have dinner with two of our favorite couples – Allison & Taylor Vieger and Allison’s parents, Steve & Carol Baker. We met at Trinity Groves, a great new area of Dallas that is bursting with new restaurants and watering holes. Steve made reservations for us at Kitchen LTO, which has a super cool premise, best summed up via the restaurant’s website:

Kitchen LTO is a permanent pop-up restaurant that reinvents itself three times per year and gives a rotating home to up-and-coming chef and design talent and their ideas. Essentially, the entire restaurant is “Limited Time Only,” where a new [space] is born every four months. Three times a year, a new chef rotates in and introduces a new menu concept. Simultaneously, a new interior designer re-designs the [inside’s] transformable elements. Applicants will be screened by our selection committee for qualifications and then voted on through our website and social media channels, as the general public will be the ultimate deciding factor for who will chef and design the restaurant every four months.

So fun and interesting, right? Brooke Eggers is the current leading lady at Kitchen LTO, and this Santa Barbara-based chef specializes in Urban Regional cuisine. We started the meal with cocktails, and Allison, Taylor and I loved our Peach Bellaritas, which were a simple mixture of fresh peach, tequila, and lime juice – so simple and delicious. We noshed on the blue corn & short rib chili “fritos” (so good) and drank several delicious bottles of wine, per Steve & Carol’s excellent selections. I really enjoyed my caprese fredda salad as a starter (though I could have done without the burrata gelato and gone with plain ‘ole burrata cheese…that was a little sophisticated for me) and I super loved my wild harvest risotto for dinner (topped with a tasty cheese corn fritter). Several members of our group had the halibut with coconut parsnip quinoa (yum!) and porterhouse steak with blistered tomatoes. So much goodness! Oh, and the carrot cake – so good, y’all.

It was definitely a treat to eat at such a neat restaurant with people we love and admire. What a great night!