Restaurant Beatrice serves contemporary Cajun/Creole cuisine in an old house (previously Johnathans Restaurant) in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas.   It was a finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s Best New Restaurant in 2022.  They serve dinner and brunch on the weekends with a frequently changing menu, to take advantage of seasonal ingredients.   Chef/Owner Michelle Carpenter opened the place 3 years ago and named the restaurant for her grandmother who was from New Orleans.  It’s a medium sized place with a large patio out front where they sometimes have events.  Inside there is a long  bar with high chairs and bench seating around the room perimeter matched with double cloth covered tables.  Music was in the background and the lighting was fairly bright with New Orleans fleur-de-lis on the wallpaper and a photo of her grandmother on the larger high top table in the center of the room.  The bar area had a television playing without sound.  We were there during Bastille Week, so I don’t know how much that changed the menu, however the happy hour specials were still offered but not verbalized.  Service was friendly and helpful and although some items didn’t sing to me the overall effect is good and I’d recommend the place.

Set-up

Food

Charbroiled Oysters were topped with compound butter, parmesan, house hot sauce and Andouille crumbles.  The oysters are part of the happy hour special – they are half price, so get there early to take advantage of this.  They had a very grilly flavor  with spicy overtones.  The sausage crumbes were like fried bacon, in that they got crispy.   The small to medium sized Gulf oyster were good.

 

Artichoke hearts and peas, a summertime special, also contained shallots and white wine bagna cauda sauce and were new to the menu.  There were 2 medium sized artichokes and fried to perfection.   The tiny peas, mostly a color garnish, were around the bottoms in the tasty sauce that they were topped with.  These were fantastic.

 

The fresh catch provencal style was made with snapper and came with a sauce vierge and a small fennel side salad.  The large piece of fish was caught by a Galveston family and very good.  The sauce contained diced tomatoes, olives, olive oil and vinegar and was good but my husband remarked that he might have preferred a more buttery sauce.

 

Mammaw’s fried chicken was 4 pieces of dark meat from RedBird Farm with a house biscuit and pickles.  Our server offered the option of legs, thighs or a combination of them and I chose thighs.  The chicken had a tasty and crispy coating but some of the meat was a bit dry.  The pieces were topped with a little 5 pepper jelly that added a slight sweetness to the meat.  On the side with the pickles were some jalapeno slices and pickled onions which were good to combine with the chicken.  The biscuit was tasty but very dense.  This was a huge plate and easy to share.

 

Red bean cassoulet contained house made Andouille, pork, root vegetables and was topped with duck breast slices.  There was a ton of meat in this side dish and not many beans.  The duck on the top was nicely cooked but dull in flavor.  It was tasty but could have been way better.

 

Creamed greens were made with collards.  It was a smaller dish than the cassoulet but packed with way more flavor.  The chopped greens were in a creamy sauce with a bit of anise flavor.  These were scrumptious.

 

We were full and passed on dessert but Frankie posed with Mammaw’s photo.