For a stretch of the last decade, if you asked a Preston Hollow resident where the next reservation-worthy opening would land, the answer was almost always Preston Center. That is no longer the answer. The 2026 openings have quietly shifted the neighborhood's center of gravity a mile north to Preston and Royal, while Preston Center itself enters a holding pattern that will not resolve until 2028.
The shift is easier to see when you stop reading the openings as a list and start reading them as a map. Three corridors, three different moods, and a fairly clear signal about which one operators are betting on right now.
Preston Royal is where the reservations went
The most-discussed opening of the year is at Preston and Royal. Palladino's Steak & Seafood, the steakhouse that became the toast of New York before it arrived in Texas, officially opened in Preston Hollow on Tuesday, June 16 at 5959 Royal Ln., in the former Spec's space at Preston Road and Royal Lane. It is a nearly 10,000-square-foot buildout with a jazz lounge, a private dining room, and a bar program running dinner into the late hours.
The résumés matter here because they tell you what kind of room the owner intended to build:
- Joseph Palladino is an ex-NYPD officer-turned-restaurateur known for Nick & Sam's Steakhouse and the Coal Vines pizza chain, and Palladino's Steak & Seafood is his newest creation, combining steakhouse, Italian, and seafood, particularly sushi.
- Executive chef Sam Hazen's résumé includes stints at Michelin three-star Le Gavroche, Tavern on the Green, and Tao, along with chef de cuisine Henry Johnson.
- The Dallas location was designed by Rockwell Group, the internationally known design firm that also created the New York restaurant.
That is not a neighborhood-tenant profile. That is a destination profile, and it is worth pausing on why the landlord landed it. Palladino was approached by Preston Royal's landlords to open a restaurant at the center, and given his local following and celebrity draw, as well as the large local appetite for steakhouses, Dallas made sense as a second location, particularly at the highly desirable intersection of Preston and Royal.
Palladino's did not arrive at Preston Royal alone. A few blocks west, in what used to be Fernando's, Cantina La Rosa just opened in Preston Hollow in the former Fernando's space, a new Tex-Mex spot from the owners of Dallas' Smoky Rose, with a menu that features tacos, enchiladas, bowls, a cheeseburger, carne asada, and more. The team pairs David Tripplehorn Cash, who also co-owns Goodwins, with first-time restaurateur Cameron Levine, as well as Smoky Rose executive chef Rolando Garcia and Smoky Rose co-owner Oscar Aroche.
Two very different price points, opening within months of each other, on the same intersection. That is what a corridor looks like when it is being built up on purpose rather than filled in by accident.
Preston Center is in a holding pattern
Preston Center is not standing still, but almost everything happening there is scaffolding for something that will not open for another two years.
The near-term news is genuine. The Plaza at Preston Center, located at the southeast corner of Preston Road and Northwest Highway, has initiated a refresh to the tune of $5 million, with upgrades including modernizing exterior aesthetics, completed in phases. The Plaza at Preston Center is a 182,000-square-foot complex with boutiques and restaurants that opened in 1950. The complex is currently at 90 percent occupancy with new tenants that include the only Dallas location of contemporary fashion boutique Trina Turk, which just moved into the center after 18 months in West Village; Frenchie, the highly anticipated casual French bistro concept from Travis Street Hospitality; Y-OHR, a trendy women's fashion boutique; and Viva Day Spa, a med spa expanding from Austin.
A block over, a different kind of tenant arrived this spring. A Canadian restaurant company made its U.S. debut at Dallas' Preston Center on April 1, founded in 2011, coming to Dallas because of a partnership between founder PJ L'Heureux and Tom Gaglardi, owner of the Dallas Stars, who also brought Moxies to Uptown Dallas in 2016 and Tavern on Meridian to Las Colinas. The flagship CRAFT will feature 10,500 square feet of space designed in collaboration with local firm ID Studio 4, with a 360-degree bar in the center, a rooftop patio, 100 beers on tap including local picks, cocktails, wine, and a globally-inspired food menu.
And the workspace side of the district picked up a new name. Kiln plans to launch Kiln Preston Hollow, opening Spring 2026 at The Hill, as part of its first network in North Texas.
All of that is real. But the reason Preston Center feels like it is waiting is because of what comes next.
A Preston Center development that has been in the works for years is moving forward. Dallas-based Ramrock Real Estate, led by former longtime Lincoln exec Robert Dozier, and Lincoln Property Co., are bringing the Class-AA office, multifamily, and retail development with frontage on Luther Lane and Westchester Drive to the high-profile submarket by 2028. Construction is slated to begin in March of 2026. Called 8300 Douglas, key players include Ramrock, Lincoln Property Co., HKS, and Willow Bridge Property Management. Plans include a 12-story, 300,000-square-foot office tower; a 17-story, 147-unit luxury residential tower; a 35,000-square-foot rooftop park; and 24,000 square feet of ground-floor retail and restaurant space.
Read Robert Dozier's own framing of the strategy: the heart of activity will be focused on Luther Lane, with a plan to activate that stretch of street with small-door restaurants and coffee shops. That is a very specific bet. It says the future of Preston Center is not another anchor tenant. It is walkable, small-format retail on a street most residents currently drive past to get somewhere else.
Which means the tenants opening at Preston Center right now, from CRAFT to Frenchie to Kiln, are essentially setting the table for a build-out that residents will not experience in finished form until 2028. In the meantime, the reservation traffic is going north.
Preston Hollow Village kept its neighborhood scale
The third corridor, Preston Hollow Village at Walnut Hill and Central, is the one nobody talks about as a destination and probably never should. That is the point of it.
The space that Chido Taco Lounge used to occupy in Preston Hollow Village has a new tenant. Ella at 7949 Walnut Hill Lane is an intimate, American bistro with modern comfort food in a refined setting, opening on Tuesday, June 17, and the space shares a lounge with Customs Speakeasy. The credentials behind the counter are not casual. Executive chef Kyle Farr was previously the executive sous chef at Michelin-recognized Sachet as well as executive chef at the beloved and now-closed Bishop Arts spot, Boulevardier, and Julian Shaffer serves as both general manager and beverage director, recognized last fall by the Michelin Guide for his work behind the bar.
Ella slotting into a former taco lounge with a shared speakeasy lounge is the exact opposite of what Palladino's did at Preston Royal. Same neighborhood, same year, same tier of talent, entirely different room. The Village continues to be where residents go on a Tuesday. Preston Royal is where they go on a Saturday.
What this actually means if you live here
Three practical shifts, if you have been in Preston Hollow long enough to remember when Preston Center still felt like the default destination:
- The reservation calculus for out-of-town guests has moved. Palladino's, sitting next to La La Land Kind Cafe in Preston Royal Village, is now the closest destination-tier steakhouse to most Preston Hollow addresses. That was not true a year ago.
- Preston Royal is more or less finished as a redevelopment story for the moment. Preston Center is at the beginning of one. If your daily walk or coffee stop is inside the Plaza, expect two more years of phased scaffolding and, eventually, groundbreaking one block over at Luther Lane.
- The Village stays what it has always been. A place where a Michelin-recognized bartender ends up running the front of house for a comfort-food bistro that shares a door with a speakeasy, and the neighborhood absorbs that fact without changing character.
For homeowners paying attention to what these commercial shifts do to daily life at the block level, this is the kind of texture that tends to matter more than any single listing on the market. If you are weighing a move within Preston Hollow or thinking about how the Preston Center build-out will reshape the west edge of the neighborhood by 2028, Donna Hartley is available to walk through it in person. Schedule a Free Consultation to talk through what these corridors mean for your specific street.
