The prolific Texas company that started Clark’s Oyster Bar and Perla’s in Austin and the Hotel Saint Vincent in New Orleans plans to open three restaurants in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2026 and 2027.
First, MML Hospitality will open Neighborhood Sushi on Oak Lawn Avenue, replacing the former Tulum restaurant in Highland Park. Next, it’s Clark’s Oyster Bar, a bay house-inspired seafood restaurant on stilts moving into a 1960s-era office building on Dallas’ Katy Trail. Then, Swedish Hill, a cafe, bakery and deli, is expected to open near Dallas’ Knox Street.
Leases are signed for the first two restaurants. Managing partner Larry McGuire said he is in negotiations on Swedish Hill. If a deal is signed, Swedish Hill is expected to be neighbors with Sant Ambroeus, the first restaurant announced in the Knox Street development near the coming-soon Auberge Resorts hotel.
McGuire and partner Tom Moorman opened their first restaurant in Austin, Lamberts, in 2006. Since then, the company has opened restaurants in Houston, Aspen, Menlo Park, Calif. and Montecito, Calif.
The restaurateurs looked at Dallas real estate for 15 years. McGuire said they’ve found three addresses that seem right for their expansion into Dallas.
“Maybe it’s just a feeling,” McGuire said, “but Dallas seems to want and need more restaurants.”
Of the 34 restaurants his company operates today, McGuire believes Clark’s, Neighborhood Sushi and Swedish Hill offer a “balance between individually-owned, quirky restaurants and an almost chain-like operational consistency.”
Here’s more about each of the three coming-soon restaurants in Dallas and Highland Park.
Neighborhood Sushi in Highland Park
McGuire explains Neighborhood Sushi as an “everyday” restaurant — “no frills but still super high quality.”
He opened the first and only Neighborhood Sushi in Austin in 2020. The Dallas-area restaurant will be the second, after construction is finished at the Shops of Highland Park on Oak Lawn Avenue.
“We love the location across from Al Biernat’s,” McGuire said.
McGuire and chef Jorge Garcia took inspiration from Sugarfish, which has restaurants in California and New York, for this “elevated strip mall sushi” restaurant.
“For us, eating sushi should not be a special occasion,” McGuire said. “We think of it as pretty simple Japanese dining. And we build these warm, zen-y spaces.”
Garcia’s menu includes tempura vegetables, yakitori, nigiri, sashimi, sushi rolls and a daily grilled fish collar special. Bento boxes are available at lunchtime.
“It’s light, it’s healthy, it’s pretty straightforward,” McGuire said.
Neighborhood Sushi is expected to open at 4216 Oak Lawn Ave., Dallas, in spring 2026.
Clark’s Oyster Bar on Dallas’ Katy Trail
Plugged-in Dallas foodies who caught rumblings that MML was moving into the area likely heard that Clark’s Oyster Bar that would open first. It’s expected to be MML’s second Dallas restaurant, McGuire confirmed to The Dallas Morning News, following a lengthy construction project to turn an aging office building near Dallas’ Fitzhugh Avenue into a restaurant with a patio.
Clark’s is the Austin-based company’s most replicated restaurant — and the first in the fleet to expand outside of Texas.
In Dallas, McGuire said, “we’ve been looking for years and years.” They’re excited by the movement on Fitzhugh: Dallas-owned restaurant Beverley’s was a catalyst, and newer additions like Maison Chinoise and Le PasSage suggest there’s room for more restaurants on the block.
McGuire loved the “quirky” building they picked, tucked off of Fitzhugh and recently used for COVID tests. McGuire’s team hired Michael Hsu Office of Architecture to make it look like an “elevated beach house” — one that was already on stilts to accommodate for parking underneath and views of the Katy Trail nearby.
The menu will resemble the other Clark’s restaurants, which focus on oysters and seafood entrees from the East and West coasts. Dishes include a crudo plate, lobster roll, linguine with clams, cioppino and a section dedicated to caviar.
The hamburger with gruyere and gribiche sauce is also popular, McGuire said.
Clark’s Oyster Bar is expected to open at 4155 Buena Vista St., Dallas, in fall 2026.
Swedish Hill in Dallas
All-day cafe Swedish Hill might be the biggest restaurant expansion on this list.
“We can’t open just one,” McGuire said. He’s looking now for a commissary kitchen in the Dallas Design District where the company’s chefs can bake bread, croissants, custom cakes and more — not only for MML’s other Dallas restaurants, but for his forecasted expansion of Swedish Hill into four or five locations in North Texas.
First up: He is working on a lease near Knox and Travis streets in Dallas — and again, adjacent to the Katy Trail. If that cafe opens as planned in 2027, McGuire said he’ll look to other locations in Dallas-Fort Worth where the coffee shop, bakery and deli can expand.
They opened Swedish Hill in Austin in 2019. “It became very busy and very popular,” McGuire said of the counter-service shop.
Swedish Hill expanded to Aspen, where it serves coffees and pastries inside the art museum. Dallas is expected to be Swedish Hill’s third city.
“I’m really proud of the level of food we’re producing, from breakfast to dinner and takeout,” he said.
Swedish Hill is expected to open in Dallas in early 2027. Lease is pending.