Drive Preston Road between Northwest Highway and Royal Lane this month and you will pass two very different scenes within half a mile of each other. On one block, orange construction fencing wraps around a stretch of Preston Center where longtime tenants have cleared out ahead of demolition. A few minutes south, at Preston Royal, a steakhouse from a New York restaurateur is two months into its Dallas debut, and a second, larger outpost of a wood-fired fajita spot known for its flaming margaritas is settling into its opening weeks.
Both scenes are part of the same story. Preston Hollow has absorbed five notable restaurant openings since the start of the year, and only one of them chose an address inside Preston Center itself. That is not a coincidence of timing. It is what happens when a $200 million redevelopment breaks ground in the middle of a shopping district residents have used for decades, and the businesses that would normally fill that space start looking two blocks in either direction instead.
Five openings, six months, three different addresses
The pace this year has been unusual even by Dallas standards. In order:
Cantina La Rosa opened earlier this year in the former Fernando's space along Preston Road, bringing Tex-Mex from the team behind East Dallas's Smoky Rose, including chef Rolando Garcia and co-owner Oscar Aroche.
Craft Restaurant & Beer Market opened April 1 at Preston Center, its first location in the United States after more than a decade operating across Canada. The 5974 W. Northwest Highway building once housed a COVID-19 hospital before its rooftop-patio makeover. Craft seats 500 across two stories, pours more than 100 beers on tap, and is partly backed by Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi.
Palladino's Steak & Seafood opened June 16 at 5959 Royal Lane, in the former Spec's space at Preston Road and Royal Lane. It is restaurateur Joe Palladino's second location after his original inside New York's Grand Central Terminal, designed by the same firm, Rockwell Group, with a kitchen led by executive chef Sam Hazen, whose résumé includes Le Gavroche and Tavern on the Green.
Ella opened June 17 inside Preston Hollow Village at 7949 Walnut Hill Lane, taking over the former Chido Taco Lounge space and sharing a lounge with Customs Speakeasy. Chef Kyle Farr came over from the Michelin-recognized Sachet.
El Molino opened its second location August 10 at Preston Royal, 6025 Royal Lane, in the former Anchor Sushi Bar space. The original Snider Plaza location seats 83 and picked up a Best New Restaurant nomination at the 2026 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards. The Preston Royal build-out spans 6,000 square feet, large enough to keep the wood-fired fajitas and signature Flaming Margarita while adding real capacity, a sign of how much confidence the ownership group has in this corridor.
| Restaurant | Former space | Location | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cantina La Rosa | Fernando's | Preston Hollow | Early 2026 |
| Craft Restaurant & Beer Market | Former COVID-19 hospital building | Preston Center | April 1, 2026 |
| Palladino's Steak & Seafood | Spec's | Preston Royal | June 16, 2026 |
| Ella | Chido Taco Lounge | Preston Hollow Village | June 17, 2026 |
| El Molino (2nd location) | Anchor Sushi Bar | Preston Royal | August 10, 2026 |
Look at that table again. Four of five openings sit outside Preston Center proper, split between Preston Royal and Preston Hollow Village. The one that landed inside Preston Center did so by claiming an existing building rather than new ground.
Why Preston Center only got one of the five
Preston Center is not a single property. It is a collection of blocks under different ownership, and one of those blocks is currently the site of 8300 Douglas, a redevelopment led by Ramrock Real Estate in partnership with Lincoln Property Company, Willow Bridge Property Company, and HKS Architects. JLL announced construction financing for the project in June 2026, confirming a 12-story, roughly 300,000-square-foot Class AA office tower, a 17-story residential tower with 147 units, a 35,000-square-foot rooftop park, and about 24,000 square feet of new ground-floor retail and restaurant space. Ramrock holds 4.5 acres in the area, with 2.5 of those acres carrying the project. Construction started in March 2026, with delivery targeted for 2028.
That is the piece most residents already sense but haven't seen written down: several longtime Preston Center businesses have already closed or relocated to make way for this build. Craft, meanwhile, sits on a different parcel within Preston Center, in a building that already existed. It didn't need to wait for Ramrock's demolition and construction schedule, so it opened this spring while the block two hundred yards away sat behind fencing.
The result is a shopping district running two clocks at once. One part of Preston Center just got a 500-seat destination restaurant. Another part will not have finished retail space again until at least 2028.
Where the traffic actually goes until then
If you have wanted a table at one of this year's new openings, you have probably already worked out that Preston Royal is doing the heavy lifting right now. Palladino's and El Molino both chose that shopping center over Preston Center, and neither is a small bet. Palladino's occupies a former Spec's, a large-format space, and El Molino's second location is a 6,000-square-foot build-out compared with the original's 83-seat room in Snider Plaza. Preston Hollow Village picked up Ella, which shares its building with an existing speakeasy rather than requiring new construction.
None of this is Preston Center closing. Craft's presence proves the district can still land a first-to-market concept. But for the next two years, the destination-dining weight in this neighborhood sits at Preston Royal and Preston Hollow Village, not at the block currently fenced off on Luther Lane and Westchester Drive.
That matters for how you plan a Friday night here in 2026 and 2027. The easy assumption, that everything eventually funnels back through Preston Center because it always has, isn't holding this cycle.
The rhythm that's already running weekly
Not everything new in Preston Hollow this year required a construction crew. St. Michael's Farmers Market, at 4344 Colgate Avenue, has run every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon since its spring return and continues through September 5, with breakfast, coffee, and a rotating lineup of local farmers, ranchers, and food artisans. That gives residents two more Saturdays before the market breaks for the season.
The Boho Market has also returned to Preston Hollow Village for its 2026 run, bringing small businesses back to the same plaza that now includes Ella.
Inside Preston Hollow Village, the summer specials worth knowing: Mesero added a new brunch menu, served 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Blue Sushi Sake Grill runs an all-day Sunday happy hour with sushi and drinks under $10. Modern Market rotated in a Korean-inspired protein bowl and edamame hummus for its seasonal menu.
None of these require a reservation six weeks out. They are the parts of the neighborhood that kept running exactly as they were while the bigger story played out two blocks away.
How to use the rest of 2026
El Molino's Preston Royal location just opened, so expect a break-in period on wait times through early fall. The farmers market wraps for the season after September 5, so this is close to the last window for a Saturday morning there before next spring. Preston Center's fencing on the Ramrock block won't clear until the 8300 Douglas project delivers, targeted for 2028, so plan around Preston Royal and Preston Hollow Village for anything that needs a real reservation between now and then.
If you already live here, you likely made most of these calls instinctively this summer. The value in laying it out end to end is knowing why the pattern held: not random restaurant momentum, but a specific redevelopment timeline you can trace by address.
If you're weighing what a longer-term shift like this means for property values or timing a future move in or out of Preston Hollow, that's a different conversation, and one Latitude Key is glad to have when you're ready. Reach out to Devon Miller for a grounded read on how the Preston Center build-out is likely to shape the neighborhood over the next two years, or browse the Preston Hollow neighborhood guide for more on what makes this pocket of North Dallas work.
