Dallas restaurateurs Greg and Nik Katz are opening a Tex-Mex restaurant called El Camino Royale at Knox and Travis streets, in a corner of the Knox Street development that planners are calling the Paseo. The casual concept is expected to open in 2027, with a patio positioned so customers can walk straight off the Katy Trail and into the restaurant.
The Dallas Morning News reported the Katz brothers' plans for the space at 3333 Knox St. The Katz brothers already run a notable slice of Dallas hospitality, including Beverley's on Fitzhugh Avenue, Claremont on Northwest Highway, and Green Point Seafood and Oyster Bar, which opened on Knox Street in 2023, per the same report. Despite that growing portfolio, the brothers have never opened a dedicated Tex-Mex restaurant until now.
El Camino Royale's menu is expected to include fajitas, tacos, enchiladas, nachos, quesadillas, ceviche and margaritas, according to the Dallas Morning News report. Greg Katz said the restaurant will serve familiar dishes prepared well, and said he feels a connection to Tex-Mex that traces back to his earliest professional kitchen work.
A Return to Southwestern Roots
Katz worked in the kitchen at The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek in the late 1990s and early 2000s, making Southwestern dishes for chef Dean Fearing, per the same account. Fearing, known as the Father of Southwestern Cuisine, spent more than two decades as the Mansion's executive chef starting in the early 1980s, developing Southwestern cuisine from regional dishes, barbecue and Mexican street food before opening his namesake restaurant at The Ritz-Carlton Dallas in 2007, according to the Culinary Institute of America.
To help execute the new concept, the Katz brothers have hired Charles Olalia as culinary director for their North Texas restaurant portfolio, the Dallas Morning News reports. Olalia previously served as executive chef of The Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek, giving the new Tex-Mex venture another direct line back to the kitchen where Katz got his start.
Landing Inside a Fast-Growing Corridor
El Camino Royale is arriving in the middle of a transformation along Knox Street, where the broader development has secured over $600 million in financing, per the Dallas Morning News. The project spans one million square feet across a four-acre site along the Katy Trail, led by a joint venture that includes BDT & MSD Partners, Trammell Crow Company, The Retail Connection, and Highland Park Village Associates, according to Trammell Crow Company. The multi-tower project sits adjacent to Highland Park.
The Knox is scheduled to debut in late 2026 with a 140-room hotel and 48 ultra-luxury condominiums managed by Auberge Resorts Collection; the development also includes a separate 27-story multifamily building, per Trammell Crow. Nearby, The Lora, a separate 27-story residential tower clad in terracotta concrete arches and designed by Woods Bagot and Chad Dorsey Design, began leasing its 186 apartment units in summer 2026, the firm notes — adding substantial residential density to the same block El Camino Royale will call home.
A Crowded Field of New Patio Concepts
El Camino Royale won't be the only new dining draw in the district. Sant Ambroeus, an Italian cafe with a 90-year history in Milan, is also expected to open within the Knox Street development, according to the Dallas Morning News report. The Main House, an all-day dining concept from the Dallas-based owners of il Bracco, is set to take over the former Mashburn boutique space on Knox Street, a project Hoodline previously covered in its own reporting on the development.
Also on the way is Théa, a rooftop Mediterranean restaurant from the Phoenix restaurateur behind Flower Child and North Italia, per the Dallas Morning News. Separately, PaperCity Magazine reports that Sam Fox's Théa Mediterranean Rooftop at 3333 Knox St. will span 11,600 square feet across two floors, with 8,600 square feet of interior dining and a 3,000-square-foot outdoor terrace overlooking the Katy Trail, according to PaperCity Magazine. Rounding out the food lineup, Sunlife Organics, a health bar from Malibu, California, is expected to open with a cafe upstairs inside a space called The Conservatory, per the Dallas Morning News.
Hendrika Diehl, senior director of marketing and property management for Knox Street, confirmed to the Dallas Morning News that the development still has room for two or three additional patio-centric restaurants that have not yet been announced. The retail side of the project is just as active: Knox Street plans include DÔEN, STAUD, TOTEME, and TWP.
What Was There Before
The block's redevelopment also closes out a long chapter of Tex-Mex history on Knox Street. The adjacent Knox & McKinney office site at 4544 McKinney Avenue occupies the former site of a Chuy's Tex-Mex restaurant. The site was redeveloped into a tower with 280,000 square feet of office space and 20,000 square feet of retail, for 300,000 square feet total, according to The Real Deal. El Camino Royale now picks up that regional-cuisine thread in a very different kind of building, one surrounded by luxury condos, new apartment towers and national fashion flagships rather than the old strip of neighborhood storefronts.
