The Central Finally Has Restaurant Names. Ross Avenue Shows Why They Look Like This.

"A development of this scale doesn't happen overnight," Artemio De La Vega said in April 2025. That was the month his firm announced that the park and four pavilions at The Central were scheduled for completion that summer. Summer 2025 has come and gone. Eighteen months after that statement, two of the pavilions on North Haskell Avenue have named tenants and posted construction windows, and both of those windows close before the end of 2026.

The tenants are a café and a sushi-robata restaurant, sitting on a park at the northeast corner of Haskell and U.S. 75. Over the same summer, about a mile east of downtown on Ross Avenue, a high-energy Mexican bar opened, posted liquor sales in the city's top tier, and closed within four months. Put side by side, the two stories show how new dining is getting into East Village right now. It comes in slowly, faces the park, and is shaped around the homes nearby.

Eleven Acres, a Leaning Tower, and a Long Runway

Most people in East Village know the site as the place where the "Leaning Tower of Dallas" stood. The former Affiliated Computer Services building tilted at a 15-degree angle during a botched demolition in early 2020 and went viral before a wrecking ball finished it about a month later. The project itself goes back further, and its dates explain why the restaurants are only now taking shape.

The first line of that table did the most to shape the rest. After the Sam's Club fight, De La Vega built the project around neighborhood buy-in. He has said he had the support of homeowners and neighbors, and that "we basically developed the park with the neighborhoods and in partnership with them." His stated goal is to "develop east of 75 and East Village and showcase its personality and its own character." He also points out that the project's leasing center office is the first high-rise built east of 75 in 40 years.

What Is Actually Going Into the Pavilions

Two addresses are confirmed on North Haskell. Each has a construction schedule, but neither has an announced opening date.

• Maman, Building D, 2752 N. Haskell Ave. A 2,382-square-foot space serving coffee and pastries, with soups, salads, sandwiches and sweets on the wider menu. WhatNow reported construction running from May 1 to Nov. 17, 2026, and noted that finishing construction does not set a customer opening date.
• EBESU Robata & Sushi, Building C, 2766 N. Haskell Ave. A Japanese menu built on sushi, sashimi and robata-grilled dishes. The brand's first U.S. location opened in Plano in 2019. A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation accessibility filing lists tenant Tomoaki Fujii and estimates construction from Aug. 3 to Dec. 1, 2026.

A March 2026 report in The Real Deal said three restaurants were planned around the park, two of them new to Dallas-Fort Worth. That report did not name them, so the third pavilion tenant is still unannounced.

The buildings were designed for this kind of tenant. GFF and Bud Creative drew the pavilions as jewel-box structures with sculpted, organic forms set into the landscape. They maximize natural light, use passive cooling so they work year-round, and have patios and seating meant to act as gathering spaces. The developer's site describes the four-acre park with open-air greenspace, decks, water features, and live music and entertainment. No published source yet confirms a public opening date for the park or a calendar of events, so the programming is still a description on the developer's site.

A café that opens for morning coffee and a sushi-robata room in a park-facing glass pavilion fit that design. Both are built around tables and conversation, set in the middle of four acres of landscaping, with apartments around them.

Four Months on Ross Avenue

On Ross Avenue, about a mile east of downtown, El Chingón tried something different. GBOD Hospitality, founded by brothers Raymond and Patrick Davoudi, opened the original El Chingón in San Diego in 2017 and expanded to Fort Worth in 2020. In Dallas, the company refurbished a 5,000-square-foot building at 3404 Ross Ave. State records put the renovation at $900,000. A press release billed the spot as having a "high energy, day-to-night atmosphere." Public previews ran April 10 to 12, and the Dallas Observer reports it opened in May.

Business was strong. The Observer, using state liquor-sales data, reported that El Chingón averaged $287,583 a month in liquor sales from April through July 2026. That put it in the top 6% of spaces in the city, alongside Stan's Blue Note, Inwood Tavern and Bowen House. Even so, it closed on Sept. 6.

In its closing post on Instagram, the company described its relationship with the city this way:

"We dealt with repeated Code Compliance visits, citations, and ongoing challenges to our Certificate of Occupancy and restaurant use."

The post said the company made changes, hired consultants and attorneys, and met with elected officials. It also thanked its patrons and staff and said it plans to give Dallas another try. The Lakewood Advocate asked the city to respond, and no response had been published when the story ran.

Comments under the post explain the location problem. The Observer noted that the bar backs up to a residential area with single-family homes and apartments. It quoted one commenter who lived across the alley on San Jacinto and described loud music and patrons parking along the street, and another who said music could be heard throughout their apartment. Many other commenters liked the space. The Advocate pointed to one comment as possible common ground between the two sides: "Good idea, bad location."

Why the Haskell Model Holds Up Better

Put the two projects next to each other and the pattern is about fit with the block, not about demand. El Chingón proved there were customers. The figures above show it drew a crowd few Dallas bars match. What it lacked was a setup that worked for the homes behind it. The Central's pavilions started from the other end. A 2014 neighborhood fight shaped the site plan, the park was developed with neighbors, and the tenants arriving first are a café and a Japanese restaurant whose buildings were designed as gathering spaces in a park.

The rest of the pipeline follows the same slower approach. The Real Deal's March 2026 report described the next residential phase as a proposed 400-unit high-rise in permitting, paired with a proposed wellness club. It also reported a third-party contract for a roughly 200-room Marriott Autograph Collection hotel, with construction possibly starting in the first quarter of 2027, and said De La Vega was exploring an office building next to the hotel. All of those were forecasts in March. At full build-out, the developer expects about 2,000 apartments, 2.5 million square feet of office space and about 110,000 square feet of retail. That is a lot of future residents for the park-facing restaurants to serve, and a lot of neighbors for any later tenant to account for.

Ross Avenue is still drawing everyday operators. Dave's Hot Chicken announced a soft opening on April 9 and an official opening on April 10, 2026, at 4909 Ross Ave., Suite 100. No new tenant has been announced for the 3404 Ross building and its $900,000 renovation.

For anyone living near Haskell, the dates to watch are on the construction permits. Maman's estimated build-out ends Nov. 17, 2026. EBESU's TDLR filing estimates completion on Dec. 1, 2026. Neither restaurant has announced an opening date.

Watching a project like The Central go from a viral demolition site to restaurant tenants is the kind of long-cycle infill work we do every day at Lardner Group, from land and product strategy through launch and long-term management. If you own property near Haskell or Ross, or you're weighing a small project east of 75, schedule a consultation and we'll walk through what this next phase could mean for your block.