Twisted Root Burger Co. has permanently closed its original location at 2615 Commerce St. in Dallas' Deep Ellum, ending a 20-year run for the restaurant that helped ignite the city's gourmet burger boom. The closure comes as the historic entertainment district grapples with prolonged street construction and a wave of recent business exits.
Twisted Root issued a statement announcing the permanent closure of the Deep Ellum shop, according to CultureMap Dallas. Founding chefs Jason Bôso and Quincy Hart opened the restaurant in Deep Ellum in 2006, pairing chef-driven, over-the-top toppings with half-pound burgers in a move that CultureMap describes as pioneering the better-burger trend in North Texas. The duo met in culinary school before launching the concept, according to Deep Ellum's business directory, and set out to pair high-end ingredients with an unpretentious, irreverent dining room.
The Deep Ellum flagship earned a national spotlight in 2009 when Guy Fieri featured it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, per CultureMap. The menu leaned into playful indulgence over the years, with items like the Kevin Bacon Burger topped with three slices of bacon, the Low Rider Burger dressed in taco seasoning, avocado, pico de gallo and tortilla strips, and the Steak Me Home Tonight Burger piled with shaved roast beef, American and provolone cheese, grilled onion and beer sauce. Prices at the restaurant ranged from $11 to $16, and the kitchen also served four salads and a vegan burger alongside customizable milkshakes mixed with add-ins like Oreos and M&M's.
Beloved Extras Beyond the Burger
Twisted Root's Deep Ellum location built its reputation on more than just its patties. The restaurant maintained a complimentary self-serve pickle bar featuring five house-made varieties — atomic spicy, sweet and spicy, ranch-flavored, bread and butter, and classic dill — according to The Saboscrivner. The same account notes the restaurant crafted its own fountain sodas sweetened with pure cane sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, offering flavors like watermelon iced tea, cream soda and root beer alongside craft beer, wine and cocktails at some locations.
Twisted Root also built a national following for rotating exotic game meats — including camel, kangaroo, ostrich, venison, elk, rabbit, alligator, duck, emu and wild boar — sourced from Comanche Buffalo in Lawton, Oklahoma, as reported by the Dallas Observer. Diners could also add peanut butter to their burgers, a quirky customization that fit the restaurant's irreverent identity.
Pandemic Bankruptcy Reshaped the Brand
Twisted Root struggled during the pandemic, and some company-owned locations closed and declared bankruptcy, per CultureMap. In June 2020, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection covering several North Texas locations, including Arlington, Carrollton and Coppell, in order to restructure debt and lease obligations, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Court filings cited in that reporting indicated individual locations had generated between $1.5 million and $1.8 million in annual revenue before the pandemic disrupted operations.
Local Favorite Restaurants acquired the Twisted Root concept out of that 2020 bankruptcy reorganization, per CultureMap. The Dallas-Fort Worth restaurant group's portfolio also includes El Fenix, Snuffer's Restaurant & Bar, Meso Maya, Taqueria La Ventana, Village Burger Bar, and Cotton Patch Cafe, a brand it added this summer as detailed in Hoodline's prior coverage of the Cotton Patch Cafe acquisition. CultureMap reports Local Favorite maintained Twisted Root's culinary stance even as it streamlined the company's footprint, and the brand has since expanded to locations across Texas and into neighboring states, with current outposts in Carrollton, Coppell, East Plano, Arlington, Mansfield, Bedford, Waco, Lubbock, Athens and Abilene.
Deep Ellum's Construction Toll
The Deep Ellum flagship's closure lands amid a multi-year construction project converting Commerce Street from a one-way to a two-way corridor, a city initiative that began in June 2024 and has now been pushed back to 2027. That prolonged timeline has hammered nearby merchants: Hoodline previously reported that ongoing roadwork on the corridor had slashed sales 30 percent for businesses grappling with disrupted parking and reduced foot traffic.
Twisted Root isn't the only Commerce Street tenant calling it quits this summer. Zåtar Lebanese Tapas & Bar, which has operated on Commerce Street in Deep Ellum since 2016, has announced it will close in late August, according to CultureMap. The closures also follow other recent departures from the district, including nightlife venue KANVAS, which Hoodline reported blamed street violence for its exit, alongside sports venue Goodsurf and cheese shop Amor y Queso, per the Dallas Observer's rundown of the district's closures since 2020. Combined with lingering safety concerns, the Deep Ellum Foundation has responded by rolling out its Community Safety Plan 2.0 this year, expanding its Eyes on Ellum camera network, adding patrol officers and pushing for standardized late-night venue permits, according to WFAA.
For longtime Dallas diners, the shuttering marks the symbolic end of an era for the mid-2000s culinary renaissance that Twisted Root helped spark in Deep Ellum, even as the brand itself lives on across the suburbs. Co-founder Jason Bôso has since applied that same casual, outdoor-focused approach to other North Texas concepts through Brain Storm Shelter, including Truck Yard and Fort Worth's Second Rodeo Brewing, according to EscapeHatchDallas. The Deep Ellum address that once drew a Food Network camera crew now joins a growing list of vacated storefronts on a corridor still waiting for its street construction to finish.
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