Tiny Denton County town Bartonville gets upscale restaurant, The Barrel

The Barrel, an American restaurant promoting truffle fries, steaks and wine, has opened in Bartonville, a Denton County town with a inhabitants of simply 1,750 folks.

“There’s just something special about Bartonville,” says Brandon Bohannan, the creator and co-owner. “It’s the edge of the metroplex and horse country, and I think there’s something really charming about this particular area.” He grew up within the close by cities of Highland Village and Lantana.

If you haven’t been, Bartonville is 10 miles south of the Denton Square and due north of Flower Mound and Grapevine Lake.

Bohannan and his enterprise companions imagine The Barrel fills “a void in the suburban market” and can supply a spot for Dallasites to drive to and for Denton County residents to take pleasure in in their very own backyards. It opened June 3, 2022.

Restaurants close by aren’t making dishes like this: bone marrow queso, beef tartare, burrata with watermelon gazpacho foam, and rabbit fried rice. That final dish is government chef Johnathon Pauley’s favourite.

His kitchen operates from scratch. As in: “If something needs Tabasco, we’re fermenting fresno chiles to make it. And we’re making our own ketchup.” Salad dressings, too.

Notably, every steak comes topped with seasonal butter, a rotating recipe that, right now, is made with ancho chiles. Customers can in any other case jazz up steaks with horseradish mousse, foie gras, bone marrow or truffles. But Evan Myers, associate and co-owner, says the ancho butter is his favourite.

“People were asking: Can we get some of that to take home?” he says.

Chef Pauley has labored within the kitchens at Water Grill, Clark Food & Wine and Ceviche, all in Dallas. He has additionally consulted on the menus at La La Land and Ka Thai. Some of the menu at The Barrel has Thai affect, he says.

Customers are gravitating towards Actual Truffle Fries, the on-the-menu title of an appetizer. They’re hand minimize French fries, duck fat-fried and topped with truffle salt and hand-shaved truffles. “You go to most places and get a plate of truffle fries with not-very-palatable truffle oil with no truffle in it,” Pauley says. “These are actual truffle fries.”

Entrees embrace a double-double cheeseburger with “sloppy sauce,” salmon with inexperienced pea puree and Meyer lemon butter, and scallops with creamed corn.

The cocktails have cheeky names like Resting Peach Face and Big Barb Marg. They additionally serve a Sans-Gria for many who need a non-alcoholic cocktail.

The restaurant underwent greater than a $1 million transform, taking the place of Grapes to Wine.

The Barrel is at 2648 FM 407 East, Bartonville.

For extra meals news, observe Sarah Blaskovich on Twitter at @sblaskovich.