True Food Kitchen, opening November 19, joins trend in healthy restaurants

A restaurant focused on healthy meals suitable for vegans, vegetarians and gluten-free eaters opens in Dallas’ Plaza at Preston Center November 19. True Food Kitchen started five years ago in Phoenix and exists in six locations in Colorado, California and Arizona.

It joins a notable list of health-inspired restaurants that have sprung up in Dallas in the past few years: HG Sply Co., the Paleo place on Greenville Avenue; Seasons 52, the 475 calories or less restaurants in Dallas and Plano; Sundown at Granada, the no-GMO place with vegan and vegetarian dishes; and Start, the drive-thru that sells “real food fast” in Dallas.

There’s a trend here.

True Food Kitchen will be located on the first floor of the new University Park library. Fox said they picked the location in part because of the high traffic and also because of the affluent clientele that frequents the shops at Preston Road and Northwest Highway.Indeed, says Fox Restaurant Concepts CEO and founder Sam Fox, whose company owns the True Food Kitchen brand and about a dozen others. “[Health-inspired restaurants] have been on the West Coast for a long time and I can see it going through the country,” Fox said. “People want to feel better and take care of themselves. There’s a really easy way to do it just by putting better food into your body.”

The True Food menu specifically designates items that are vegan, vegetarian and gluten free, and the ones that aren’t still fit a healthy profile, such as the grilled salmon with lemon vinaigrette ($24) or the grass-fed bison burger on a flax seed bun ($16). The menu includes salads, pizzas, sandwiches and entrees, plus “natural refreshments” like “kale-aid” or cucumber lemonade. The bar menu offers wines by the glass, plus cocktails, beer and sake.

Menu items were curated by True Food Kitchen brand chef Michael Stebner, though the executive chef in Dallas is Michael “Sully” Sullivan. Sullivan worked previously at Hard Rock International, McCormick & Schmick’s and the restaurant group that includes Ocean Prime, according to his bio.

Inspiration for the healthy concept goes to Dr. Andrew Weil, who has been on the cover of TIME and is the author of several healthy living books, including a cookbook uncoincidentally called “True Food,” which he co-authored with Fox and Stebner.